Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Tue 11th Dec Todays News

Happy birthday and many happy returns Noellina Kov. Born on the day named for human rights and peace in Kiribati .. thank you. Birthdays are good for you, the more you have, the longer you live.

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Insignia for Apollo 17

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Events

[edit]Births

[edit]Deaths

[edit]Holidays and observances


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PRANK GONE WRONG... but there is more to it .. from Larry Pickering

What seemed like a harmless prank has gone terribly wrong and resulted in the death of a nurse, Jacintha Saldanha. Two creative kids will now be scarred for life and two others are now without a mother. So why must there be more to this?

Normally, if two Aussies can get away with impersonating members of the Royal family in a harmless prank they would 
be feted as masters of comedy. Prince Charles himself seemed impressed.

But the anonymous internet terrorists are flexing their muscles demanding sackings and threatening media in general.

They are heartened by the results of their financial savaging of Alan Jones and they want financial hurt wrought on Austereo. Why? Prior to Mrs Saldanha apparently taking her own life the Republican/Green GetUp trolls would be pissing themselves laughing at a Royal "gotcha".

Mrs Saldanha simply put the call through to the ward where the Duchess was recovering. She simply did her job as did the nurses who politely responded to reasonable questions about the Duchess's state of health.

So why would Mrs Saldanha apparently take her own life? She was barely involved and the Royal couple didn't complain. It was hardly a bomb hoax and it was to all, including Charlie, a clever prank!

It is not illegal to tape people without their knowledge but it is illegal under the Privacy Act to broadcast it without the subject's permission and it can't be used in evidence.

There is no doubt 2Day FM should have asked permission but that law has been ignored for years. Witness current affairs shows.

Naturally the UK tabloids are having a field day at Aussies' expense in the wake of their own damning Leveson Inquiry.

What doesn't make sense is that nurses are used to trauma, they deal daily with incredibly stressful life and death situations. A suicide appears a complete non sequitur.

So the pre-existing psychological state of Mrs Saldanha may well have been a factor.

We will know that shortly, when the blame game is finished.

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Gillard seeks support from Twits

Piers Akerman – Tuesday, December 11, 2012 (7:21am)

AUSTRALIAN voters have delivered an early Christmas present to Prime Minister Julia Gillard - not!
I use the phrasing that the idiots who tweet might understand as it is increasingly obvious that Gillard and her team of spin merchants struggle with conventional forms of the English language.
Their message, they are convinced, is for so-called “mummy” bloggers and the luvvies who inhabit the anti-social media networks.
That’s why Gillard captured a coven of female bloggers at Kirribilli House Monday night, hoping to woo them and their supporters with her misandrist message.
According to the rapidly-disappearing Sydney Morning Herald, Gillard has topped a poll of influential women.
As runner-up is the aging feminist Anne Summers, and Germaine Greer came sixth, and the rest of the nominees included people who could not be relied on to behave civilly in public, Gillard’s supremacy in this company is hardly surprising.
But while these women were comparing the size of the chips on their shoulders at taxpayers’ expense and waiting to be given one-on-one exchanges with the leaderene, Newspoll was delivering its last survey results for the year.
This was the Christmas present Gillard will not have welcomed.
It showed that the tentative lift in support for Labor and Gillard has stalled and started to slip backward.
The Mighty Mo - as in momentum - has run out of steam.
Labor’s primary vote has slipped back to its level at the start of the year, and Gillard’s lead over Opposition leader Tony Abbott is now the narrowest since September.
According to Newspoll, conducted exclusively for The Australian at the weekend, Labor’s primary vote fell four percentage points to a six-month low of 32 per cent. The Coalition’s primary vote rose three points to 46 per cent - its highest level since the end of August.
On these results, the Gillard government would get thrashed.
Labor is going to dig even deeper into the mire as the election approaches.
It has already moved to change the manner in which voters are enrolled by automatically registering young voters under a scheme which will make it easier to conduct voter fraud.
This racket poses greater danger to the nation than the fraudulent AWU slush fund which Gillard helped to incorporate for her former union boss boyfriend, Bruce Wilson.
The full details of the Newspoll can be found in The Australian but essentially Greens’ primary support was unchanged on 11 per cent and based on preference flows at the last election, the Coalition opened a clear election-winning lead of 54 per cent to Labor’s 46 per cent.
At the August 2010 election, Labor lost its parliamentary majority with a two-party-preferred result of 50.1 per cent to the Coalition’s 49.9 per cent. If an election were held that reflected a national swing away from Labor of 4 per cent, the Gillard government would lose at least 14 seats.
On the question of who would make the better prime minister, support for Ms Gillard fell three points at the weekend to 43 per cent, her first fall since the beginning of October and her lowest rating since the first week of that month.
Abbott’s support - up one point to 34 per cent - was not a statistically significant move but it was his highest since the end of October. The nine-point margin is the closest he has been to Ms Gillard as preferred prime minister since early September.
Gillard’s reliance on spin is wearing thin - at least with those people who are not fascinated by man-hating feminists.
Abbott - despite the media squad fighting his message - has put out a raft of policies which are based on a sound and sustainable economy.
He has not called a men-only meeting to advance them.
There is a real difference between the phoney one-trick pony in the Lodge and the fire-fighting lifesaver.
Only a twit could struggle with such a clear choice of leader. 

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Bonds of trust eroded by a prank gone awry

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, December 11, 2012 (7:23pm)

THE 2DayFM DJs were like a couple of deer caught in the headlights as they were wheeled on to television to express remorse for their part in the royal prank call that ended in the apparent suicide of a nurse in London.

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JULIA WINS

Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 11, 2012 (1:04pm)

Essential Research poll: Coalition 54, Labor 46. And Newspoll: 
The Coalition’s vote increased three points to 46, bringing the two-party preferred vote to 54-46and pointing to a crushing defeat for Labor if an election had been held at the weekend. 
Far more importantly, Prime Minister Gillard has won Fairfax’s coveted most influential female voice prize for 2012, easily defeating Anne Summers, Marieke Hardy and Chrissie Swan. Obviously, this magnificent victory – Gillard scored more than 500 votes in an internet poll! – deserves a fawning Prime Ministerial interview, complete with this stunning personal revelation: 
Speaking to Daily Life at the end of the bruising parliamentary year, Ms Gillard revealed that while she can ‘’compartmentalise’’ the criticism directed at her, her partner, Tim Mathieson, feels it deeply.
‘’Sometimes we have a discussion about whether he’s watching it too closely, in the sense thathe’s more at risk that it emotionally affects him than it emotionally affects me,’’ Ms Gillard said. 
Not to undercut Fairfax’s celebration of female empowerment, but Tim Mathieson is a big girl’s blouse. If Question Time places him at such “emotional risk”, he should stop watching it, get up off the couch and go find a job. You know, just like a woman.
UPDATE. A Tupperware party for the digital era: 
Last night Ms Gillard hosted about 25 female bloggers and web writers - whose sites reach about 2.5 million people - at Kirribilli House, as she gears up to use gender issues to maximum advantage in the coming election year. 

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WE WILL FIGHT THEM IN THE POETRY SLAMS

Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 11, 2012 (1:01pm)

The real reason for World War II was to protect government arts funding
Chris Matthews, a fellow Churchill Centre board member and host of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” has misquoted Churchill. Last year Mr. Matthews made a promotional ad for MSNBC in which he recounted Churchill being told during World War II that he should cut government funding for the arts.
“Then what are we fighting for?” Churchill replied, according to Mr. Matthews.
[Churchill scholar Richard] Langworth says Churchill never said it, though many over the years have used what Mr. Langworth calls “this famous ‘red herring’ nonquote.”
Mr. Matthews, a self-described “Churchill nut,” insists he hasn’t misquoted his hero, but adds,“How can you prove someone never said something?” 
(Via Iowahawk)

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CREDIT TO THE INCREDIBLE

Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 11, 2012 (12:36pm)

Immigration minister Chris Bowen on last night’s Nine news: 
The Greens have no economic credibility. 
Agreed. So why allow them to run Labor’s tax system?

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CROSSED LINES

Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 11, 2012 (12:10pm)

Austereo CEO Rhys Holleran said his team had tried to liaise with London’s King Edward VII Hospital before airing the controversial call.
“We rang them up to discuss what we had recorded. Absolutely (before it went to air). We attempted to contact them on five occasions … because we wanted to speak to them about it,” he said. 
Today
King Edward VII Hospital has denied claims by Southern Cross Austereo that any attempt was made to contact senior managers at the hospital to seek permission to run the hoax call on radio.
“Following the hoax call the radio station did not speak to anyone in the hospital’s senior management or anyone at the company that handles our media inquiries,” the hospital said.

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THE JOY OF DESPAIR

Tim Blair – Tuesday, December 11, 2012 (1:33am)

Brilliant news: 
At the end of another lavishly-funded U.N. conference that yielded no progress on curbing greenhouse emissions, many of those most concerned about climate change are close to despair. 
If these tax-inhaling, progress-blocking, civilisation-hating hysterical religious mutants are unhappy, then we’re on the right track. Every single one of their tears is a balm to the soul. And now Earth Hour is under attack here in Sydney, the very city where holy darkness first gained Fairfax-sponsored fringe-level “popularity”. An enthusiast defends the unenlightenment: 
Lord Mayor Clover Moore said Earth Hour was about “the people” showing conservative politicians that they were not happy with action against climate change.
“It enables ordinary people to express their concern and send a message to their national leaders. Ordinary people would not be happy with the action that has been taken ... because national leaders are not taking action doesn’t mean it’s not going to occur,” she said. 
Nobody’s stopping these “ordinary people” from turning off their electricity all year long, Clover. One hour isn’t enough. Personally, I’m not happy with the action that has been taken.

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Click the link and be glad

Andrew BoltDECEMBER112012(4:31pm)

Reader Bh:
Andrew, my son is 17 and has cancer. Every Christmas since, we have had a photo taken of him with Santa, to celebrate the Christmas we never thought we would have http://wheresbrennan.wordpress.com/photos-christmas/
Have a wonderful Christmas, Bh. And to all blog readers may I wish you the very best of Christmases, too, hopefully spent with those you love. 
Thank you for your support this year. I greatly appreciate it.

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18 conferences to give us nothing but hot air

Andrew BoltDECEMBER112012(3:02pm)

Copenfloppen was ‘COP 15 (Conference of Parties) to UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change)’.

A year later COP 16 was held in Cancun, Mexico. The caravan of thousands of main-chancers and true-believers trooped to Can-most-definitely-Can. They dribbled away from Can-most-certainly-Can’t.
COP 17 was in Durban, South Africa, at the end of 2011. The same old caravan headed for Dur-will-ban CO2. It left after any binding treaty had been well and truly Dur-binned.
And so this month we arrived at COP 18, to Go-Doha-Go. Only to end inevitably with Doha-HA-HA.
Is there anyone out there that now doesn’t see what an utterly sick and pointless joke this whole process is? If they don’t the clue is in those numbers.
COP 18 means that this was the 18th such utterly pointless exercise. Pointless, apart from generating lots and lots of CO2, and committing to the next, utterly useless, conference.
So 18 years and 18 conferences have achieved exactly what?
Annual CO2 emissions are perhaps 25 per cent higher than at the time of the first COP and rising inexorably…
Kyoto now covers just 15 per cent of global emissions. Our commitment to it is a living demonstration of four-fifths of five-eighths of, as they say, very little.

What (Climate Change Minister Greg) Combet and his Prime Minister Julia Gillard, with a lot of help from Christine Milne and the Greens, have managed to craft with the carbon tax-morphing-into-an-Emissions Trading Scheme, is policy that is at the same time so utterly pointless, yet highly costly and destructive.

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David, don’t be so eager to call Abbott a liar

Andrew BoltDECEMBER112012(2:55pm)

Sky News host David Lipson is doing a good enough job pushing the Labor line without also jumping the shark at the end of it:
image
(Thanks to reader Peter.)
UPDATE
Lipson responds:
Hi Andrew, Looks like we’re both guilty! I tweeted an apology within a minute or so of the original tweet. See you soon. David Lipson

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Gillard’s desperate ploy: at least I’m a woman

Andrew BoltDECEMBER112012(11:46am)

Julia Gillard is playing the sexism card for all she’s worth:
Now if Tony Abbott tried similarly to turn Australians against each other on the basis of gender by inviting to dinner 25 male bloggers writing for men, would you hear the end of it from Labor?
This divisiveness must end. But Gillard won’t be the one to do it.
(Thanks to reader drw.)
UPDATE
OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott has defended his position on the controversial abortion drug RU486 while he was a health minister in the Howard government.

Mr Abbott was responding to comments from blogger Mia Freedman that his attempts to keep a ban on the drug as minister remained an issue for some female voters.
“Because he’s never addressed that on the record ... it sort of lingered and festered like this bit of a suspicious issue among women,” Ms Freedman told ABC radio today.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard invited Ms Freedman and other popular female bloggers to Kirribilli House in Sydney last night.
Mr Abbott was full of praise for the popular blogger when quizzed by reporters in Sydney about her comments today.
“I have a lot of time for Mia - I am an avid reader of her column,” he said.
“But with respect, I did not do what you have put to me.”
As health minister, he did not receive any applications regarding RU486, Mr Abbott said.

“Had any such application come before me, I would have dealt with it on the basis of the science and the expert advice.”

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Greens attacking “old whites” is fine, witch-hunters declare

Andrew BoltDECEMBER112012(11:27am)

image
Reader P. submitted the above well-founded complaint of race-based vilification, only to find the Australian Human Rights Commission isn’t interested in defending “whites”:

Dear (Name redacted)

I refer to your recent form.

Age discrimination
The Commission can consider complaints of age discrimination, as defined by the Age Discrimination Act 2004 (Cth) (the ADA).... The areas of public life covered by the ADA including employment, contract work, partnerships, qualifying bodies, registered organisations, education, goods, services and facilities, access to premises, accommodation, land, and the administration of Commonwealth laws and programs. Age vilification is only covered by the ADA when it falls within one of these areas. Based on the information provided, it is unclear that these comments would fall within an area of public life covered by the ADA.

Racial hatred
The Commission can consider claims of racial discrimination and racial hatred, as defined under the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) (the RDA)…

Racial hatred is defined in section 18C of the RDA. Section 18C of the RDA covers acts which have occurred in public that are: 
• done, in whole or in part, because of the race, colour, or national or ethnic origin of a person or group AND
• are reasonably likely in all the circumstances to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate that person or group.
The words “reasonably likely” mean that the test for offence, humiliation and intimidation must be an objective one. It is a question of fact in every case, depending on the context in which the allegedly offensive comments were made. The Commission has held that the act in question must have “profound and serious effects, not be likened to mere slights”.

The RDA also aims to strike a balance between the right to communicate freely (‘freedom of speech’) and the right to live free from racial hatred. The RDA provides that actions may not be against the law if they are ‘done reasonably and good faith’ in an artistic work or performance; a statement, publication, discussion or debate made for genuine academic or scientific purposes; making a fair and accurate report on a matter of public interest; or making a fair comment if the comment is an expression of the person’s genuine belief.

Please be aware, the issue of whether the term ‘white’ was a race was canvassed in McLeod v Power (2003) 173 FLR 31. In this matter, Federal Magistrate Brown found that the term ‘white’ did not encompass a specific race or national or ethnic group.

I appreciate you may find these comments offensive. However, for the above reasons, it is unclear the Commission can assist with this matter…

Kind regards

(Name redacted)
Complaint Information Officer
Australian Human Rights Commission
Fine and healthy, to dismiss such a complaint. But I have a well-founded suspicion that complaints about insults to “blacks” rather than “whites” would not be so quickly turned away. Indeed: 
Andrew Fraser will defy the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission by not apologising to the Sudanese community for his study linking African refugees to high crime rates.

In a landmark ruling that raises fresh questions about the limits to which academics can engage in public debate, HREOC chairman John von Doussa has found Professor Fraser’s comments were unlawful because they amounted to a “sweeping generalisation” that was not backed by research. ...
Sudanese Darfurian Union secretary Safi Hareer complained to the human rights commission that Professor Fraser breached the Racial Discrimination Act in a letter published in the Parramatta Sun newspaper. The letter said experience showed an expanding black population was a “sure-fire recipe” for increased crime and violence.

In a letter received by Professor Fraser yesterday, Mr von Doussa rejected his submission that his comments were made for “genuine academic purposes in the public interest”. Mr von Doussa said while the legislation allowed for fair comment on matters of public interest and for genuine academic discussion, the comments were not made with “sufficient constraints and proportionality”.
I support neither Milne’s comments nor Fraser’s. The question is whether we should really have laws against such comments, and, if so, whether they should at least be used to quash those insulting any “race” and not a preferred few.

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No, that’s no plan for $250 cuts in power bills

Andrew BoltDECEMBER112012(11:14am)

 Politics - deceits and stuff ups
Keith Orchison detects another false promise from Julia Gillard: 

Gillard’s promise rests on four pillars.
The first is reform of the rules under which the Australian Energy Regulator considers power network bids for capex and opex. This is a highly complex area and what is being proposed by the review process is still short of being finalised…
Gillard’s pledge also depends on deregulation of retail energy prices – something ... which governments in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart are reluctant to embrace…
The third leg of Gillard’s plan requires the roll-out of so-called smart meters and the introduction of time-of-use charges designed to make consumption of electricity very expensive between 2pm and 8pm and much cheaper at other times in an effort to lop the top off peak demand.
As pointed out last week by academic Lynne Chester, with whom I sat in 2011-12 on Martin Ferguson’s energy white paper reference group, how many households can or will shift 20 per cent of their power demand out of the 2pm to 8pm period?
If they don’t, under ToU pricing, their bills will shoot up…
Finally, there is prime minister’s much-hyped consumer challenge panel… The rub is that it is an advisory panel and the regulator is not required to accept its views…

Lynne Chester argues that what Gillard is proposing is not a plan to cut power bills but a Band-Aid: “a temporary cover to stem the political blood loss” – a view with which I agree.
And the “savings” don’t even include the massive cost of the smart meter roll out.

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Councillor speaks truth to Hour

Andrew BoltDECEMBER112012(9:51am)

Record this councillor as someone who stood up against the madness:

Liberal councillor Edward Mandla told Town Hall he was honoured to stand in council because he should be dead “wiped out from CFC’s, famine, acid rain, SARS, ozone holes and Y2K”.
“Like all that has come here before us, saving the planet by ‘being in the dark’ is greatly exaggerated and doesn’t credit technology and human ingenuity to solve the big problems,” he said.

“I believe support for Earth Hour is waning. There is talk of a twitter handle #fail and I think it’s getting daggy.”
“Daggy” is the killer criticism. Believers can handle criticism that the evidence is against them and what they propose makes virtually no difference. But to be called daggy?
UPDATE
It’s the Greens’ version of Paradise. North Korea this month celebrated Earth Hour - every hour, every day, every week....  That’s the well-lit South Korea under North Greens Korea, circled, with the world’s biggest emitter to the left of the picture
image

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ABC chairman warns: this government will restrict your free speech like no other country

Andrew BoltDECEMBER112012(7:49am)

The Gillard Government’s assault on our free speech is a disgrace. For me, this issue alone makes this vengeful Government’s defeat critical, and it is a relief to finally hear prominent figures speak out: 

The Gillard government’s planned consolidation of all federal discrimination laws would significantly redraw the line between permissible and unlawful speech and open the way for the banning of publications, said Mr Spigelman, the immediate past chief justice of NSW.
If the government’s draft bill were enacted, discrimination in all areas would be affected by provisions of the Racial Discrimination Act that were used last year against newspaper columnist Andrew Bolt so that merely offending people would amount to unlawful discrimination.
“I am not aware of any international human rights instrument or national anti-discrimination statute in another liberal democracy that extends to conduct which is merely offensive,” Mr Spigelman said.

“We would be pretty much on our own in declaring conduct which does no more than offend to be unlawful. The freedom to offend is an integral component of freedom of speech. There is no right not to be offended.” 
So it turns out Usain isn’t the only Bolt to have set a world record. Wish I were happier about it.
From Spigelman’s speech:
However, so far as I have been able to determine, we would be pretty much on our own in declaring conduct which does no more than offend, to be unlawful. In a context where human rights protection draws on a global jurisprudence, this should give us pause when we re-enact s 18C and before we extend such protection to other contexts.

Section 19(2)(b) of the proposed Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012, introduces “offending” into the definition of discrimination for all purposes, not just for racial vilification… The new s19 defines, for the first time, discrimination by unfavourable treatment to include “conduct that offends, insults or intimidates” another person. As has always been the case with s 18C, the relevant conduct must occur “because the other person has a particular protected attribute”....
There are 18 separate “protected attributes” set out in section 17 of the draft Bill, seven of which apply only in the employment context. These are wide ranging and, in a number of respects, novel. One such attribute is “race"…
The inclusion of “religion” as a “protected attribute” in the workplace, appears to me, in effect, to make blasphemy unlawful at work, but not elsewhere. The controversial Danish cartoons could be published, but not taken to work. Similar anomalies could arise with other workplace protected attributes, eg. “political opinion”, “social origin”, “nationality"…
The new Bill proposes a significant redrawing of the line between permissible and unlawful speech. This is so, notwithstanding the ability to establish that relevant conduct falls within a statutory exception. A freedom that is contingent on proving, after the event, that it was exercised reasonably or on some other exculpatory basis, is a much reduced freedom. Further, as is well known, the chilling effect of the mere possibility of legal processes will prevent speech that could have satisfied an exception.
When rights conflict, drawing the line too far in favour of one, degrades the other right. Words such as “offend” and “insult”, impinge on freedom of speech in a way that words such as “humiliate”, “denigrate,” “intimidate”, “incite hostility” or “hatred” or “contempt”, do not. To go beyond language of the latter character, in my opinion, goes too far.

None of Australia’s international treaty obligations require us to protect any person or group from being offended. We are, however, obliged to protect freedom of speech.
All this is plainly true. It is truly astonishing that such arguments now need to be made to protect one of our most critical freedoms from this government.
The question for me is why I heard so few prominent figures mount them in response to my own ordeal. Spigelman gives a clue:
There may now have elapsed sufficient time for us to debate the issue dispassionately, and not on the basis of whether or not you like Andrew Bolt.
Spigelman seems to suggest that the principle of free speech was surrendered by those only too glad to have a conservative silenced.
Contemptible. Many of our “human rights” warriors have exposed themselves to me for what they are. As Bertrand Russell famously put it:
Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.
UPDATE
Chris Merritt: 
JIM Spigelman’s human rights day oration marks the beginning of the end for Nicola Roxon’s botched plan to consolidate federal discrimination laws.

That scheme was already in trouble because of the growing concern about the Attorney-General’s decision to reverse the onus of proof in discrimination law - thereby destroying one of the bulwarks of liberty.
Spigelman has delivered the coup de grace by exposing the nanny-state policy that lies at the heart of this plan..

[Roxon] put forward a scheme that treats the community like naughty children… Publications could be banned. Liability for religious slights at work would be assumed - unless the accused could prove otherwise.
This Government first insults Australians as either too-tender petals and too-nasty ferals, and then insults them double by stripping them of their freedom.
I know good Labor Ministers - not least Martin Ferguson, of course - are resisting those in the Government such as Stephen Conroy who are trashing our free speech and free media.
But we cannot be sure they will win out in the end, and especially not if Gillard wins the next election. So those who value free speech have no option: throw this Labor baggage out before they do serious harm.
UPDATE
Add Kelvin Thomson to the list of Labor MPs trying to save Australia - and Labor - from the worst excesses of Labor’s authoritarians:
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Buswell’s angry ex-lover has breached a trust

Andrew BoltDECEMBER112012(7:28am)

Dishing private dirt on your former lover and attacking him what he allegedly did at a private party is stuff that make me suspect someone shouldn’t be in the WA Parliament - no, not Treasurer Troy Buswell but his accuser: 

HE’S in charge of Western Australia’s $238 billion economy, but Troy Buswell in the space of a few days has been accused by his former lover of “dry humping” a businessman and being an alcoholic with psychological issues - allegations he denies. ...

Once, of course, the lion lay with the lamb - and the then Greens MP and the Liberal loved each other:
Troy Buswell is suing his former partner, Fremantle MP Adele Carles, for defamation over the latest claims made about the WA Treasurer’s behaviour.

In a writ served on the politician last night, it is alleged that comments published and broadcast across WA media outlets were seriously damaging to Mr Buswell’s reputation.

The court document, drawn up by lawyer Martin Bennett, also warns Ms Carles that any further defamatory comments would lead to the Treasurer seeking a Supreme Court injunction against her.
A bond of trust has been broken by Carles by dishing the private dirt. Mind you, both were married to others and bonds were snapped there, too…
But before we damn, heed Shakespeare:
Use every man after his desert, and who should ‘scape whipping?

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Forecasts aren’t proof, Lenore. They are … forecasts

Andrew BoltDECEMBER112012(7:05am)

 Global warming - propaganda
Warming worrier Lenore Taylor names the shameless Coalition MPs who doubt the forecasts which have awed her:
THE most prominent political climate sceptics see no reason to change their minds, despite the welter of studies over the past fortnight showing forecasts of global warming were correct or underestimates.

Actually, Lenore, the studies didn’t show the warming forecasts were correct or underestimates at all. What the key one showed was that emissions alone went up more than expected.
The fact remains that the temperature nevertheless has not risen in 16 years, which means the warmist models may be based on false assumptions of how responsive temperature is to emissions. These studies give more reason to doubt, not less.
See for yourself how in the past 16 years, at least, the temperature (red) has not tracked with co2 concentrations (blue):
image
I’d report Lenore to the Press Council, but I know it is very busy trying to find fault with me for not including deceptive warmist spin in a factually correct article on this matter. They don’t have time to correct warmist propaganda, heaven forfend.
More on this topic when I am free to do so, because you need to know how the Press Council is abusing its power to push the warmist line.
UPDATE
The kind of ignorance which warmists such as Taylor and the Prime Minister have fed with their deceptive talk of “carbon” - rather than harmless carbon dioxide - is best demonstrated by this comment underneath Taylor’s piece: 
why shouldnt we have cleaner air to breath instead of buying a get ouf jail card overseas. direct action cleans the air our children breath in Australia instead the carbon tax that allows us to buy permits to pollute here! think for yourself instead of following the party line

Commenter rick of shey Location Date and time December 11, 2012, 8:10AM
That false notion that reducing carbon dioxide emissions would clean the sky of “carbon” - as in soot - was a deceit deliberately sown in ads such as this: 
Where is the Press Council? 

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When 2Day FM found a Christian…

Andrew BoltDECEMBER112012(7:01am)

See, here’s the problem. The 2Day FM prank was pulled on one of those old-fashioned Christians still clinging to notions of integrity. How could a couple of DJs and their wide-boy bosses have known there was still one of them around? 
Ms Saldanha’s brother, Naveen, told MailOnline that his devoutly Catholic sister was a “proper and righteous person” and would have been “devastated” by her unwitting role in the breach of medical confidentiality: “She would have felt much shame about the incident.” 

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Newspoll agrees: Labor’s miserable 46 to the Coalition’s 54

Andrew BoltDECEMBER112012(6:27am)

 Politics - polls
Newspoll now agrees with yesterday’s Essential Research poll - that Labor has slipped back to where it was at the start of the year:

Labor’s primary vote fell four percentage points to a six-month low of 32 per cent. The Coalition’s primary vote rose three points to 46 per cent - its highest level since the end of August…

With Greens’ primary support unchanged on 11 per cent and based on preference flows at the last election, the Coalition opened a clear election-winning lead of 54 per cent to Labor’s 46 per cent.
The AWU slush fund story that several media gatekeepers tried to ignore or wish away turns out to be important to the public. And all that abuse of Tony Abbott does not hide the Government’s own failures.
That said, Abbott should be mindful how Gillard managed to almost deal herself back in the game with the most ferocious abuse of him, eagerly taken up by the ABC and Fairfax. His response for a while seemed uncertain. Perhaps he should take psychological comfort the same way Gillard clearly did in the second half of the year - by realising that what does not destroy you in politics can make you stronger. They’ve thrown everything at him, and not only is he still standing, but his party is well ahead. Now to get some respect for it. 

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Enough harm done already. Leave off

Andrew BoltDECEMBER112012(12:49am)

UPDATE
Mind you, someone at the station may not be telling the truth: 

Sydney station 2Day FM said it had tried to contact King Edward VII’s Hospital five times to discuss the prank call conducted with two nurses, one of whom, Jacintha Saldanha, was found dead on Friday in a suspected suicide.
But a hospital spokesman said: “Following the hoax call, the station did not talk to anyone in hospital senior management or anyone at the company that handles our media inquiries.”

Australian radio guidelines say that the subject of a prank should give their permission for material recorded during a hoax call to be aired.

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Monckton returns

Andrew BoltDECEMBER112012(12:26am)

Lord Monckton returns. Since I’m off soon, I thought I’d better announce the details before I leave:


After 16 years of NO WARMING, Lord Christopher Monckton returns to Australia and NZ for a speaking tour late January – April 2013
General Itinerary (To Be Confirmed) PLEASE NOTE THESE DATES IN YOUR DIARY
Tour Launch Sydney:  January 31st 2013
South Australia:  1st February – 15th February
Victoria:  16th February – 2nd March (includes Tasmania on the 21st February)
Western Australia:  5th March – 9th March
Queensland:  12th March – 16th March
NSW:  19th March – 23rd March
NZ:  2nd April – 20th April
Tickets will be available through Ticketek after Christmas.

This Tour is organised by the Lord Monckton Foundation. As Tour information is confirmed, specific venue details will be available through Ticketek and on the Lord Monckton Foundation website.
(Link fixed.) 

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