Open Forum: February 11, 2012 at Catallaxy Files

Open Forum: February 11, 2012

1,460 comments

Written by Sinclair Davidson

February 11th, 2012 at 12:01 am

Posted in Uncategorized

1,460 Responses to 'Open Forum: February 11, 2012'

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I aint got nothing to be scared of…

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 12:02 am
How to beat revenue-raising fines

If the government believes that the maximum safe speed on a certain piece of road is 60kph, and if experience shows that, due to human error, a driver attempting to travel at a certain speed may inadvertently exceed that speed by up to 10kph, then it is incumbent on the government to allow an enforcement tolerance of 10kph and to set the signed speed limit at 50kph, so that drivers who exceed the signed limit by the full tolerance will still be driving at a safe speed.

Read the rest.

Gavin R. Putland

11 Feb 12 at 12:06 am
“Obama, asked about the HHS rule by reporters in the Oval Office, says, “Come on, guys. Come on.””

Obamma sounds like Steve.

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 12:08 am
Ah glad you did this Sinc since the previous OF thread was becoming impossible to load. So will just repeat my last comment…

Earlier in the week we had a EU Commisioner saying it would be no big deal if Greece left the Euro.

Now this:
Europe is now deliberately trying to push Greece out

So it begins…

Lazlo

11 Feb 12 at 12:09 am
“Obama, asked about the HHS rule by reporters in the Oval Office, says, “Come on, guys. Come on.””

“Just let me finish my waffle.”

spot

11 Feb 12 at 12:09 am
I’d like to thank the British Empire for a brisk and efficient conquest of this great continent, as without them we’d all be ~~cheese-eating surrender monkeys~~ South Sea Frogs.

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 12:09 am
Meh

Antipodean

11 Feb 12 at 12:10 am
What conquest M50? The English just had to turn up.

Antipodean

11 Feb 12 at 12:12 am
“That’s not leadership, that’s ownership. How dare one of the scriveners ask an off-limits question.”

spot

11 Feb 12 at 12:12 am
Like it, Puts!

Pity I won’t allow the grubment the opportunity to get me in the first place – they wouldn’t know what’s hit ‘em*…

*Hint – it’s travelling at well above 10% over the allowable limit!

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 12:13 am
Interesting, in an “Extraordinary Delusions”/”Madness of Crowds” way:

LeRoy Mystery Illness Symptoms May Be Spreading Through Social Media

spot

11 Feb 12 at 12:16 am
Lazlo

I went to bed last night after Draghi publicly stated Greece had agreed to the terms. This morning their time I hear the negotiations are up in the air again.

Look, the fucking place is no bigger than Delaware in terms of the size of its economy. Kick’em out and forget about them.

Fuck’em.

JC

11 Feb 12 at 12:18 am
Meh

Nay.

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 12:18 am
“Looks like we’d better buy Peter Fray lunch. The SMH’s business section takes a hole-istic view and spots the odd one out yesterday:

CIRCULATION of The Age’s Monday to Friday editions fell 5.99 per cent in the three months to December 31 . . . while the Saturday Age fell 6.56 per cent. . . and The Sunday Age dropped 3.77 per cent. At the Herald, circulation fell 11.94 per cent . . . while The Sun-Herald dropped 8.17 per cent. Circulation at The Australian rose 3.51 per cent Monday to Friday, while The Weekend Australian rose 1.63 per cent.

On the same page:

NEWS Corp profit jumps 65 per cent despite hacking costs.”

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 12:19 am
Yer link’s knackered, Antipodean!

Well, yes, they did just have to turn up. But right of conquest is how the species sorts out land ownership issues. So even if the aborigines had been here 40,000 years and invented nothing more than sticks, and were brushed aside without anyone even really noticing they were there, they still got conquered.

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 12:21 am
Look, the fucking place is no bigger than Delaware in terms of the size of its economy. Kick’em out and forget about them.

Fuck’em.

Good to see you on board JC.

sdfc

11 Feb 12 at 12:22 am
Yeah, I’m a pedant. So sue me…

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 12:22 am
Fuck’em

Why dost thou hateth those fine work, soap and tax dodging mediterranean chancers, squire?

Could it be that you have a problem with scumbags?

Don’t be afraid to open up about your fears to Mrs Steve. She’ll be able to pronounce a suitable conservative catholic penance for you.

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 12:22 am
Sorry bout the link, supposed to go to Painters and Dockers “die Yuppie Die”. Fkn iPad piece of shit…

Antipodean

11 Feb 12 at 12:24 am
All time record, Sinclair. You’ve drummed up the business to produce 707 comments.

New world record.

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 12:26 am
Seems the Argies are havin issues over that whole conquest thingie M50.

Antipodean

11 Feb 12 at 12:26 am
Heh.

Davidson…Doomlord Davidson, 707

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 12:28 am
… supposed to go to Painters and Dockers “die Yuppie Die”

Humpy B Flaubert is now on the warpath even as we speak…

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 12:28 am
You got an IPad mate? What on earth for?

Stick with pencil, paper and an abacus, like I do… yes, I’ve upgraded from vellum&quill.

hey, was in Gladstone a little while back.

Holy snapping ducksh*t. Place is insane. Now I know what the Burrup and Dampier looked like a generation ago.

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 12:29 am
Still haven’t wandered up to Gladstone yet MK 50. Shale is keepin me busy lately in the West.

Antipodean

11 Feb 12 at 12:31 am
The Doomlord Harley Davidson, Gab!

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 12:32 am
Wow. Now that’s a bike fit for an an evil bald fascist gnome, Rabz.

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 12:35 am
Vid: Andrew Klavan Multiculturalism Explained

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 12:36 am
“I’d like to thank the British Empire for a brisk and efficient conquest of this great continent, as without them we’d all be ~~cheese-eating surrender monkeys~~ South Sea Frogs.”

You never know, it might have been a Dutch colony instead. They were the first Europeans to land here.

Jarrah

11 Feb 12 at 12:42 am
Can’t link to it, but Bill Leak’s latest cartoon is a bloody cracker!

Infidel Tiger

11 Feb 12 at 12:42 am
You never know, it might have been a Dutch colony instead. They were the first Europeans to land here.

No, the Dutchies took one look and thought better of it. In hindsight they were right.

Infidel Tiger

11 Feb 12 at 12:44 am
Rabz, check out this specimen of Soviet efficiency http://virtualfunzone.com/the-biggest-motorcycle-in-the-world-which-weights-5-tons.html

Antipodean

11 Feb 12 at 12:44 am
Ant,

Truly monstrous.

Those sozzled ~~soviet~~ ossie sh*theads…

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 12:52 am
The Dutch did manage to murder each other in large numbers off the coast of WA though.

sdfc

11 Feb 12 at 12:54 am
You never know, it might have been a Dutch colony instead. They were the first Europeans to land here.

Nope. The VOC was never interested. No civilisation present to trade with. And having arquebuses and muskets they had no need for more sticks, even nice pointy ones.

I mean, really. Just north they have factories set among strong civilisations with palaces, bureacracies, armies, navies etc and trade for spices, silks, perfumes, exotic oils, ceramics, artworks, some industrial chemicals, mercury, antimony, and tin.

Pointy sticks and witchetty grubs were not really sought after…

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 1:01 am
On that ‘study’ of ‘conservatives’ and intelligence that Jarrah was dimly touting recently:

William M Briggs, Professor of Statistical Science at Cornell University in New York, described the study as “a contender for the worst use of statistics in an original paper ever.”

LOL.

C.L.

11 Feb 12 at 2:14 am
More brain farts bubbling to the surface at Bob Ellis’s blog…

It’s fair to say that poster “Smitty” accurately reflects my own views.

Abu Chowdah

11 Feb 12 at 2:14 am
CL, the worst thing about that episode was that Jarrah pretended to be the schoolmaster in reply having introduced the study with a series of HAHAHAHAs.

dover_beach

11 Feb 12 at 2:30 am
O’Neill is always good value.

Another fantasist along the lines that “study” is our own Jonathan Holmes:

Let’s acknowledge that, on the strength of its first few days online, The Global Mail is not likely to appeal to Andrew Bolt’s readers. It is more likely to appeal to tertiary-educated, professional people, with an appetite for long, considered and not especially up-to-the-minute stories from around the world.

Let’s further acknowledge that more tertiary-educated, professional people (as opposed to self-employed small business people and big business executives) vote Labor or Green than Liberal or National – these are the ‘liberal elites’ and ‘chattering classes’ so often scorned by the likes of Andrew Bolt. Arguably, the same people form the target audience of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, and (News Ltd columnists would certainly argue) of the ABC as well. And they’re already being targeted by newer publications like Crikey, New Matilda and The Monthly.

Abu Chowdah

11 Feb 12 at 2:32 am
Wow. Just wow.

Obama loses Chris “Tingles” Matthews.

Smacks down his own reporter for regurgitating White House talking points defending Obama’s war on Christianity.

Video.

(Note that those talking points are the same ones wheeled out by our very own phony ‘Catholic,’ Steve).

C.L.

11 Feb 12 at 2:32 am
Insty:

THE BACKPEDALING BEGINS: White House to Announce ‘Accommodation’ for Religious Organizations on Contraception Rule. My advice to the bishops: He’s on the run — don’t settle for his opening bid.

FTR, this is the issue that Steve dismissed as “a storm in a teacup.” Apparently even Obama is more perspicacious than him.

spot

11 Feb 12 at 2:33 am
Yes, DB. He’s very childlike at times which explains the ha ha ha, which I incorrectly believed at the time was Jazza laughing at the stupidity of such junk research. But no, I was wrong. Jazza really is an dolt.

I mean seriously, the Lying Slapper, Shane Wand, Lurch, Plibersek and the rest of the union clerks. Then add is Tubby Milne, Handsome&Young, Adam Runt.

These are the intelligentsia of left. I’m frightened, aren’t you?

JC

11 Feb 12 at 2:36 am
Let’s further acknowledge that more tertiary-educated, professional people (as opposed to self-employed small business people and big business executives) vote Labor or Green than Liberal or National…

Hey, remember back when Labor billed itself as the party of the working classes?

Maybe, like Fairfax, they are now concentrating on “homing in” on their new core constituency, the inner-city born-to-rules and self-appointed “elite.”

Let’s see how that works out for them.

spot

11 Feb 12 at 2:44 am
The bishops ought to be very careful what they accept as a “compromise.” My guess is that it will be a con.

C.L.

11 Feb 12 at 2:48 am
If I recall correctly, CL, he’s already given Anabaptists and Muslims free passes on ObamaCare – they’ll get waivers – because neither sect holds with the concept of “insurance” in that sense of the word. It would violate the conscience clause to force them to go against their religious beliefs.

It’s kinda looking like it’s just Catholics he has it in for.

spot

11 Feb 12 at 2:55 am
The idea that contraception is medical care is ridiculous. The idea that employees need their employers/ insurance providers to refer them to a place that provides contraception is similarly ridiculous.

dover_beach

11 Feb 12 at 3:09 am
How the media will spin Obama’s latest announcement:

A “breaking” email I received from USA Today this morning is a definite sign of establishment press scrambling to give deceptive cover to an Obama administration mandate whose unpopularity continues to grow as more people become aware of it.

The email pretends that the president is about to announce a “decision” (as opposed to changing one), and refers to a “rule” without saying where the rule came from, or why…

Expect the scrambling to continue as the administration appears to be in backtrack mode. By the time it’s all over, it could turn into a “Gosh, he listened. Isn’t our Dear Leader wonderful?” exercise.

spot

11 Feb 12 at 3:17 am
Hey spot, regarding the ALP abandoning their constituency, O’Neill observes that the crowing over that study has shown the left adopting the same position as the 19th century authoritarian right. Same deal with happy Hamilton, who feels we are too stupid to vote for the right choices, so democracy may need to be suspended for our own good…

Abu Chowdah

11 Feb 12 at 3:32 am
I just now got a chance to read that piece in the Oz, AC.

If liberals are so clever, why did they fall for such flimsy “science”? In the irony to end all ironies, their feverish embrace of this study rather confirms that its conclusions are inaccurate and that liberals can be as dim-witted as anyone else.

Jarrah? Steve? Buehler?

spot

11 Feb 12 at 3:53 am
Went to Dallas firing range yesterday, shot 9mm Glock, uzi and shotgun! Great family fun! Thanks for protecting us JWH.

Woolfe

11 Feb 12 at 4:08 am
Jarrah is of course a Leftist posing as a libertarian and he laps this stuff up.

Fisky

11 Feb 12 at 4:21 am
I agree with the thrust of O’Neil’s argument but some of his details are sketchy. Firstly, scepticism about democracy was not anything particularly unique to the ‘authoritarian Right’ in the 19th C unless you mean to include de Tocqueville among their number, for instance. Secondly, scepticism about democracy is not analogous to supporting rule by experts; I can be sceptical about democracy while being a democrat nonetheless, as well as opposed to rule by experts. And thirdly, I think current-day leftists are not morphing into 19th authoritarian rightists, but that the former are for the most part disposed to supporting rule by experts. Think of St Simon, Fourier, Owen to Sidney and Beatrice Webb (Fabians), and so on; all supported a type of rule that was essentially ‘technocratic’, or what I’d call a Polizeistaat.

dover_beach

11 Feb 12 at 4:32 am
Off to the bi-elections in SA for Port Adelaide/Ramsey.

LDP to get over 10% of the primary vote in both seats, fingers crossed!

sean

11 Feb 12 at 7:36 am
Help needed. I am doing innovation training at my workplace. The training is being delivered by a guy who teaches innovation as part of an MBA and the audience includes very senior people in my organization. I am looking to use the opportunity to impress on our senior leadership the need to look down to the bottom rung of the organization to find peope who understand their problems and who also have good ideas on how to innovatively fix their own problems. I am now drawing on my old MBA knowledge.

I used Rafe’s review of Kealey’s book on the economics of R&D to great effect – we will be looking at US and Japanese thinking to help.

Can anyone provide some good links or short references that might help? By the way our innovation training was death by PowerPoint, given as a lecture and totally divorced from the context of my organization. Not very innovative I thought. But more sessions to come.

John Comnenus

11 Feb 12 at 8:02 am
I found Nicholas Carr’s book Does IT matter? very good. William Baumol’s The free market innovation machine and Richard Nelson’s The sources of economic growth are good too.

Sinclair Davidson

11 Feb 12 at 8:11 am
You never know, it might have been a Dutch colony instead. They were the first Europeans to land here.

Were the Dutch were a major power by then? They had colonies, but then again, so did Belgium later on.

.

11 Feb 12 at 8:28 am
sean

11 Feb 12 at 7:36 am

No, Weatherill dropped his pants for the Green’s Preferences. Labor will win because the ‘swampies’ at Port Adelaide especially haven’t much capacity to think beyond their fortnightly cheques!

Mike of Marion

11 Feb 12 at 8:44 am
Spot, you’re mistaking me for someone who actually commented on the IQ and conservatives study. I said nothing about it at all, although I thought Monbiott’s column encouraging the Left not to be too polite and just tell the Right how stupid they are was over-the-top funny.

The problem is, the Right is showing stupidity on the climate change issue. The explanation lies not in low IQ, though, just as I would say that religious affiliation has very little to do with general intelligence. It is more complicated, and the future studies will all be about how climate change deniers were able and willing to be conned by fake skepticism for so long.

Steve from Brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 8:59 am
Spot, you’re mistaking me for someone who actually commented on the IQ and conservatives study.

Steve, he was just editorialising NYT style.

You know, fake but true.

CraigS

11 Feb 12 at 9:21 am
Thanks Sinc,

I will check them out. Hopefully the delivery will become more innovative in it’s approach.

John Comnenus

11 Feb 12 at 9:22 am
FMD SFB your such a fkn tool. Would these future studies you talk about be authored by Mann et al?

Antipodean

11 Feb 12 at 9:29 am
It is more complicated, and the future studies will all be about how climate change deniers were able and willing to be conned by fake skepticism for so long.

You are getting close to the reason the left support the theory of GW so faithfully.

It is the same reason why, as some have been discussing here, the higher up in the leftist order people go the more totalitarian they become.

It’s because deep down all lefties need and want to be told what to do, they don’t have the balls to make decisions for themselves.

They need to be in environments where group think prevails, that way they can’t be held accountable for their actions, Universities, Public Service, the ABC, need I go on?

So when the gods of leftism say climate change is real, the sheep follow because that is what sheep do, and voila you all become bed wetters of the apocalypse.

And once a so called progressive finds he or she is revered by all the acolytes they start to give directives to the minions because that’s what all the good little lefty minions need, that’s how socialism works, remember.

Just be sure you keep doing as you’re told, whether it’s Mann, Gore or your wife, that way you won’t get into trouble.

CraigS

11 Feb 12 at 9:40 am
Dot:

Were the Dutch were a major power by then?

Yep, at their height.

Grab a copy of Ralph Boxer’s The Dutch Seaborne Empire, 1600-1800 Very solid book, if a tad dry.

That was the era of the Anglo-Dutch Wars, and they were tough little mofos. During the second war (1665–1667) there was a battle in the southern North Sea called ‘The Four Day’s Battle’. BTW, the Dutch won that battle (and that war). They won the third war too, but the fourth was a draw.

However, during all these wars, the Brits were nicking their trade, which reduced their economy to ruins.

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 9:42 am
It’s because deep down all lefties need and want to be told what to do, they don’t have the balls to make decisions for themselves.

They seem very keen not to be told what to do regarding sexual mores or practices, or related social structures, such as marriage.

And please, don’t pretend there isn’t an element of tribalism around climate change “skepticism” too.

Steve from brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 9:46 am
I’m talking by 1788, not when the Duke of Abermarle found out he was a better General than an Admiral.

.

11 Feb 12 at 9:46 am
They seem very keen not to be told what to do regarding sexual mores or practices, or related social structures, such as marriage.

Really, then why do *all the gay dudes* now want to be Don and Betty Draper?

.

11 Feb 12 at 9:49 am
Hi all. On Gillards 7.30 appearance she claimed that Labor have created 700,000 jobs. That figure seemed ridiculous to me and I have been trying to find a basis for it. It probably is sitting right in front of me but I cannot see it. Can anyone give me a source to back up her claim?

Mark

11 Feb 12 at 9:54 am
I know this is an economics blog, but ultimately whether we have an economy worth bragging about and a society which is cohesive all comes down to things like the following.
First, the article in today’s Australian by Caroline Overington on forced marriages.
Second, in the UK Mail Online there are the Right Minds blogs, one of which harks back to the martyrdom of teacher Ray Honeyford, who dared in the 1980s to call multiculturalism for the destructive force it has turned out to be, and suffered greatly for it.
Third, the Royal Society is pinged for abandoning science in favour of political urging in favour of climate catastrophism by James Delingpole, but with forensic assistance in the form of a report by Andrew Montford on the society and its leadership in recent times.
All these things are cautiionary and relate to our immune system being undermined by PC.

blogstrop

11 Feb 12 at 10:01 am
Mark, here’s a source for Juliars 700,000 jobs statement on the 7:30 report. http://startupista.com/corporate-bullshit-generator/

Antipodean

11 Feb 12 at 10:03 am
SFB:

The problem is, the Right is showing stupidity on the climate change issue.

Note the instant, automatic and unthinking association of ideology to an ideologically neutral scientific matter in this sentence. Also note the most recent (and vapidly meaningless) change from AGW to ‘climate change’.
SFB (and his ideological bedwetter of the ecopalypse [BOA] ilk) do not even understand that the term ‘climate’ carries with it the term ‘change by definition.
The climate always changes. Why? Because it’s a complex system in dynamic equilibrium.

Yet to SFB and the BOE, climate should be fixed, it does not change, CO2 is the only ‘thermostat’, and the matter is ideological.

You cannot make up such a risible mix of ignorance, arrogance and ideology.

The explanation lies not in low IQ, though, just as I would say that religious affiliation has very little to do with general intelligence.

This sentence is delicious for its hubris and vapidity. Having stated an ideological position on a scientific matter (the mark of the religious cultist), SFB then attempts to imply a really crude linkage of ‘the right’ to low IQ and religion – all the while himself acting like a classic cultist, and not even realising it.

It is more complicated, and the future studies will all be about how climate change deniers were able and willing to be conned by fake skepticism for so long.

And then we have the last wailing appeal of the Jim Jones follower. it’s the usual cultist response. Boiled down, it’s exactly the same thing Jim Jones said:
1. it is too complex for you peasants to understand.
2. My cult roolz
3. The future will vindicate meeeeeeee….

And then the guzzling of the poisoned kool-aid.

What is clearly recognisable here is a classic ideological-cult response from the end of the cult’s lifecycle.

essentially, new papers showing the CO2-temperature correlation of 25-15 years ago to have no causal connection, the endless failure of the BOE computer models, the new studies showing no ice melting in the Hindu Kush, the 15 years of steady and then declining global temperatures, the proven lying, data manipulation and scientific malfeasance of the lead AGW ‘scientists’ like Mann, Trenbeth etc etc, the laughably hysterical prognostications of money-grubbing spivs like Flannery, Gore (remember his hilarious lies in his cult film, remember his ‘international global warming ambassadors?, remember the $500,000,000 he made from the scam?)…

All of these things are causing SFB’s rock-solid view of his cult to waver.

So we should do the right thing, and pass him the kool-aid while laughing loudly at his truly pathetic gullibility.

Dude, you fell for it!.

We did not – and that makes you angry. Dry your eyes, Princess. You can still salvage your self-respect and display enough intellectual honesty to learn from your mistake by looking at the evidence dispassionately. And changing your mind.

Not that I think you have the honesty to do that, BTW. I think you are a Jonestown analogue, a cultic true-believer, and prefer to drink poisoned kool-aid rather than change your world-view.

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 10:07 am
Mark … the figure is correct. Take seasonally adjusted number of employed persons. December 2011, the number was 11.4213 million. Four years previously, the number was 10.7262. (ABS, The Labour Force)

Of course, the WE HAVE CREATED bit is not correct.

Judith Sloan

11 Feb 12 at 10:10 am
In a more straightforward economics vein, Richard Fernandez at Belmont Club puts together two of the hugely misrepresented “rights” of the past three or four decades, and tells some very inconvenient truths about the causes of the sub-prime bubble and the unemployable graduates who had a “right” to get a degree.
I have mentioned the sub-prime crisis and its direct linkage back to the Community Reinvestment Act before, in sheer dismay at the shallowness of reporting by our media.

blogstrop

11 Feb 12 at 10:15 am
Oh, and Judith’s article today was excellent too!

blogstrop

11 Feb 12 at 10:22 am
Watching Sinc on th TV re budget surplus. Gets around like the plague does Mr Davidson.

Antipodean

11 Feb 12 at 10:22 am
Antipodean

Where can I get a decent description of the plan for Cape Torment? if your mob have one, could I get it sent to me at my mob?

I note that the MSM is talking about it, but the facts they mention vary so they are obviously doing their usual thing and grabbing press releases without bothering even to check the dates on the things.

I note that the Greentards are pulling their usual stunts.

Seriously, like with James Price Point, I’d think it appropriate if the local indigenous land owners speared the bloody activists. Greens – patronising inner-city luvvies wanting aborigines to stay poor and jobless.

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 10:25 am
Oh, and as proof the Greens hate the idea of aborigines raising themselves from poverty, see here.

Mr Roe’s lawyer Michael Orlov said the judgment meant a $1.3bn social benefits package struck for indigenous people across the Kimberley was now invalid.

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 10:27 am
Has anyone noticed that Albo has done it again?This week he said of Abbott “in your guts you know he’s
nuts”.Slogan used against Barry Goldwater in the 1964 Presidential election.No attribution to LBJ.

Tom Valentine

11 Feb 12 at 10:30 am
Hey cat folks, Rabz and I were having a discussion about the reasons for Rudd’s annihilation. Was it due to his polling or the fact he was an utter cunt? Thoughts people? The implications are obvious. If the first scenario is correct, his imminent challenge will succeed. If not, it certainly won’t.

Skuter

11 Feb 12 at 10:32 am
The government had lost it’s way, Skuter, that’s why.

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 10:34 am
MK 50. I’ll see if I can sort it out on the back channels, will let you know. Greentards make such nice slumlords don’t they? I also note that quite a number of death threats have been flying about from our green slumlord friends to operators in the Kimberley. Onshore and offshore.

Antipodean

11 Feb 12 at 10:35 am
Mr Roe’s lawyer Michael Orlov said the judgment meant a $1.3bn social benefits package struck for indigenous people across the Kimberley was now invalid.

However Mr Roe has his songline, heritage and kulcha to look after. Surely that’s more important than a mere $1.3bn to assist Aborigines? Priorities.

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 10:43 am
discussion about the reasons for Rudd’s annihilation. Was it due to his polling or the fact he was an utter cunt?

The underlying reason was that Rudd was “an utter cunt”.

Ther immediate precipitating cause was his poll numbers.

They couldn’t ditch him whilst he was still popular in the electorate.

They had to wait until he became unpopular in the community.

Rudd’s demise was predicted well before on that basis by quite a few observers.

The final caucus meeting of the parliamentary sitting a few days before was expected by some to precipitate a challenge.

It didn’t.

Gillard was talked into it a few days later on the basis of: if not her then somebody else would be found to replace him.

JamesK

11 Feb 12 at 10:47 am
“Jarrah pretended to be the schoolmaster”

It was Gab who gave out marks, not me.

Jarrah

11 Feb 12 at 10:59 am
To be accurate, Jarrah, I just provided the grades based on your initial statement of who passed and who failed in your opinion, headmaster.

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 11:01 am
There was nothing of the headmaster in my reply, just a commentary on the severe lack of intellectual rigour on the part of those who lay claim to it on a regular basis. And your grades were way off.

Jarrah

11 Feb 12 at 11:08 am
There was nothing of the headmaster in my reply,

Au contraire [BIZ], mon chef d’établissement scolaire:

I must say I’m disappointed. Rather than comment on the theoretical and empirical pitfalls inherent in such studies – like whether IQ is able to be precisely measured in the first place, or whether the questionnaire design was robust – most of you did very poorly.

Fisky tried a “look over there”, then tried an ad hom with a false attribution. JamesK did his standard “I don’t like the result, must be a conspiracy”, JC missed the point then used faux-concern to hide the fact he has no argument.

The only one with a decent reply was CL, with whom I actually agree on this issue:

And I just supplied the grades

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 11:16 am
Mexican troops have made a historic seizure of 15 tons of pure methamphetamine in the western state of Jalisco, an amount equivalent to half of all meth seizures worldwide in 2009.

Damn! There goes my pocket money for the year.

JamesK

11 Feb 12 at 11:40 am
Obama has a Steve moment.

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/02/10/todays-obama-wtf-moment/

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 11:41 am
They seem very keen not to be told what to do regarding sexual mores or practices, or related social structures, such as marriage.

LOL. Before being beclowned by Obama’s utterly humiliating beat-down at the hands of the Catholic Church, Steve was advocating state-provided condoms.

And, more amusing, Steve the ‘conservative’ accidentally calls conservatives “they.”

C.L.

11 Feb 12 at 11:52 am
George Megalogenis: time for a government of national unity and the suspension of all criticism of Julia Gillard.

C.L.

11 Feb 12 at 11:57 am
Why are all these commentators rushing to Julia’s defense? Is she above criticism for her disastrous policies and profligate spending?

Or is it because Gillard is a female?

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 12:01 pm
Interesting:

Breitbart tells CPAC: I have videos of Obama in college and they’ll come out during the election.

C.L.

11 Feb 12 at 12:02 pm
Tut tut. Dot doesn’t approve of muckraking.

They ought to listen to the wise words of Lionel Ritchie.

.

11 Feb 12 at 12:04 pm
Interesting:

Breitbart tells CPAC: I have videos of Obama in college and they’ll come out during the election.

Oh goodie. An October surprise, but this time on the other side. How much fun is that, hey?

JC

11 Feb 12 at 12:06 pm
I have videos of Obama in college and they’ll come out during the election.

Long odds they show him cavorting with women folk.

Infidel Tiger

11 Feb 12 at 12:09 pm
Oh dear.

I would have that this sentence’s meaning:

The explanation lies not in low IQ, though, just as I would say that religious affiliation has very little to do with general intelligence.

was pretty clear. Obviously not to Mk50, though.

If I am saying religious affiliation has little to do with general intelligence, doesn’t that give a hint that the first part of the sentence means the same with respect to climate scepticism?

I see that CL has inexplicably read “they” in a comment of mine as referring to conservatives despite the fact that it follows a quote about “lefties”.

Talk about putting my restraint in not drawing co-relations between climate denialism and lower smarts to the test…

Steve from brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 12:15 pm
Bernardine Dohrn, specifically – the communist wife of terrorist and close Obama associate, Bill Ayers; the woman who hero-worshipped Charles Manson.

C.L.

11 Feb 12 at 12:18 pm
One world government? Nah, that’s just a conspiracy...

A copy of the confidential minutes of the meeting was obtained by Fox News. According to that document, the 29-member group, known as the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB), discussed bold ambitions that stretch for years beyond the Rio conclave to consolidate a radical new global green economy, promote a spectrum of sweeping new social policies and build an even more important role for U.N. institutions “ to manage the process of globalization better.”…

Among other things, the CEB heard Ban’s top organizer, a U.N. Under Secretary General from China named Sha Zukang, declare that the wish list for the Rio + 20 meeting, already being touted as a landmark environmental conclave on the issue of “global environmental governance,” included making it:

“the catalyst” for solidifying a global economic, social and political agenda, built around “green economy” goals
a means to “reorient public and private decision-making” to make the world’s poorest people the new economy’s “main beneficiaries,”
a method of also reorienting national decision-making in countries around the world to put the new agenda “at the heart of national ministries,”
the occasion to create new bodies, like a U.N. Sustainable Development Council, similar to the U.N. Human Rights Council, to help guide the global process further in the years ahead, or give additional responsibilities to the U.N. Environmental Program (UNEP), the world body’s chief environmental agency..

Other participants chimed in with additional ideas, including the notion from one key organizer that “the U.N. in Rio should be the voice of the planet and its people.”

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 12:20 pm
Tell us more about your “smarts” re Obama’s anti-Catholic jihad, Steve.

LOL.

C.L.

11 Feb 12 at 12:20 pm
Breitbart is creepy, if you ask me.

Steve from brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 12:27 pm
He fits right in with the conspiracy mongering, “hey if Leftists can be named-calling, over-the-top, immature, immoderate in language creeps, then let’s be the same in response” attitude on continual display here.

Steve from brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 12:29 pm
Yet you give the same leftists a pass. Classy.

.

11 Feb 12 at 12:33 pm
My quixotic job here is to make the Right better.

How am I doing?

Steve from brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 12:37 pm
F–

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 12:39 pm
See, Gab, it demonstrates the dangers of assessing teachers on performance. The problem is some classrooms is the kids, not the teacher..

Steve from brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 12:41 pm
Let’s further acknowledge that more tertiary-educated, professional people (as opposed to self-employed small business people and big business executives) vote Labor or Green than Liberal or National…

I guess that would highly depend on the actual tertiary courses studied.

Percentages would be interesting comparing political leanings broken down by field of study.
eg. those that studied an engineering discipline as opposed to the humanities…

There was a lot less of us than them… and those I knew would be considered predominately centre-right…

mdh

11 Feb 12 at 12:46 pm
You asked the question, Steve, and I answered. D’oh! You’re a wily one to trap me like that. I’ll have to get up earlier…

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 12:46 pm
…in some classrooms

I hate it when I make mistakes when trying to be arrogant and superior.

Oh, by the way, over at the Ronmey thread, Les notes a Slate piece by Amanda M that argues Republicans have been punked by the Obama contraception compromise.

I must admit, I find the details of how work related insurance in the US works hard to follow, but if this is true, it would be as I said – a compromise is reached and it is not an issue of significance at the next election.

Steve from brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 12:47 pm
Interesting:

Breitbart tells CPAC: I have videos of Obama in college and they’ll come out during the election.

Wow, this just made my day. ha ha.

Alex Pundit

11 Feb 12 at 12:56 pm
Hey, CL. Even if it turned out that Breitbart had video of, say, Obama smoking crack and then sodomising a white dude, how do you think publicising this will go over with the public? Hasn’t Obama admitted taking drugs already? Has he made any statement about his sex life that past participation in gay sex would show had been untrue?

How exactly would this hurt him, instead of inviting massive blowback on Breitbart?

Steve from brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 1:09 pm
See, Gab, it demonstrates the dangers of assessing teachers on performance. The problem is some classrooms is the kids, not the teacher..

Oh yes penis obsessed stepford dude, tell us what you have to teach us, other than ALP talking points.

.

11 Feb 12 at 1:11 pm
Ray Ibrahim:

Report: Muslim Persecution of Christians: January, 2012

The January report is out and contains the usual dozens of incidences of Christian suffering under Islam — including things like a woman being whipped in front of hundreds of jeering Muslim spectators for converting to Christianity, and Muslims breaking into a church with an axe, destroying the furniture, and beating children for singing carols “too loudly” and thus disturbing the Muslims’ prayers in a nearby mosque. Accordingly, the Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recently found that “the flight of Christians out of the region is unprecedented and it’s increasing year by year”; in our life time alone, he predicts “Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt.”

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 1:13 pm
Steve,
What it will most likely show is that O his an anti whitey racist, hence is attendance at the first Jermiah Wright Chicago Church of Whitey Hatred. It is also highly likely to show him as a radical extreme Leftist with a strong anti American bent who hates the middle and upper classes predominanly because they are white. That’s my guess and I look forward to the release of videos, not doctored non existent records from Bush’s military career, but real videos. We know next to nothing about Obama, I hope Breitbart addresses that through the vids. Breitbart could be the guy who destroys Obama – I certainly hope so given that the Left won’t release any damaging information. Now if only someone could find some footage of Gillard in the Socialist movement.

John Comnenus

11 Feb 12 at 1:20 pm
Now if only someone could find some footage of Gillard in the Socialist movement.

ASIO? If they do have a file, we’ll never see it.

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 1:21 pm
Why are all these commentators rushing to Julia’s defense? Is she above criticism for her disastrous policies and profligate spending?

Or is it because Gillard is a female?

Labor is their ‘team’. Its not about objectivity, it’s simply about which Government they would prefer to have in power, no matter how much in their hearts they know how bad they actually are. Remember its the Libs who are inhumane and evil. The left can cope with incompetent.

nic

11 Feb 12 at 1:23 pm
Now if only someone could find some footage of Gillard ~~in the Socialist movement.~~ making a complete goose of herself after having mischief she set up, backfire. Oh wait…….

nic

11 Feb 12 at 1:25 pm
Hey, CL. Even if it turned out that Breitbart had video of, say, Obama smoking crack and then sodomising a white dude, how do you think publicising this will go over with the public?

What a troubled mind you have, Steve.

Creepy, even.

Breitbart’s vids apparently evidence Obama’s association with communists and other far-left wackos and scum. Nobody is talking about sodomy. It’s perfectly legitimate to bring this to the public’s attention, just as it would be if a young Mitt Romney hung out with Nazis.

C.L.

11 Feb 12 at 1:37 pm
…over at the Ronmey thread, Les notes a Slate piece by Amanda M that argues Republicans have been punked by the Obama contraception compromise.

Ahahahahaha.

C.L.

11 Feb 12 at 1:38 pm
Creepy, even.

Very funny, from the man in charge of the “hey, Obama’s probably secretly gay” brigade at Catallaxy for the last 12 months.

Steve from brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 1:45 pm
I’ve never said he’s gay.

I’ve expressed interest in the complete absence of girlfriends in his past and his Hoover/Tolson-like relationship with a single, athletic, handsome young “body man.”

Nice try, though, Mr Open Slather.

C.L.

11 Feb 12 at 1:49 pm
Personally, I like to think that future studies of AGW policy will ask “Why didn’t they go for nuclear power?”

The irrationality of a movement that holds that AGW will kill us all, but nuclear power is even worse, is baffling to me.

Basically, the idea of AGW is not obvious, ridiculous, fairies-in-my-hair, blathering, drooling, batshit, lunatic drivel; but all of the policies currently in place are.

wreckage

11 Feb 12 at 1:51 pm
Nobody is talking about sodomy

No, you’re lying. Steve is talking about it..

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 1:53 pm
Don’t know if he’s gay or not. But this pic alone should be his undoing.

How fucking embarrassing.

JC

11 Feb 12 at 2:06 pm
I had to take anti-nausea medication over that pic. I felt physically sick.

JC

11 Feb 12 at 2:08 pm
Mrs. Steve.

Stop goofing off. You wife worked 5 hard days as the only breadwinner. Go do chores and stop hanging around blogs pestering people. Have you cleaned the toilets this week? Ummm

JC

11 Feb 12 at 2:10 pm
Da vironments rooted, except;

Scientists say the fur seal population has nearly doubled in the past five years.

While he is not proposing a cull, Mr Treloar says the South Australian Government needs a coordinated action plan to deal with seal numbers.

Yeh,OK, right.

jumpnmcar

11 Feb 12 at 2:11 pm
The Spectator Newsletter informs us that

“The Bank of England has authorised the printing of another £50 billion, continuing perhaps the biggest financial gamble in British economic history. Bill Jamieson says that Quantitative Easing has pulled Britain into a Zero Era: low interest rates, low growth and low employment. The price is paid by savers, pensioners and consumers. This is not scrutinised because Sir Mervyn King is seen as being above politics, and his great gamble comes with a long and boring name.”

Viva

11 Feb 12 at 2:13 pm
dot

The Clog Wogs burst out of the colonising blocks roughly the same time as the Poms. The starter’s gun was the British defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Britain and the Clog Wogs had become fair-weather anti-papist pals against the Spanish king/Holy Roman emperor. However, neither the English nor the Dutch could get out into the America or East Indies, coz Phillip II was able to retool sufficiently to keep nipping at the Poms and Dutch in Europe, frustrating both protties from their ambition to both establish new trading ports and colonies and to take the colonial goldmines the Spanish/Portugese already had.

It was only when Elizabeth I and Phillip II both died that the Treaty of London between England and Spain could be signed in 1604. At this early stage, the Clog Wogs were ahead of the British in manufacturing, finance, and trade – especially European – but the Clog Wogs already had a class of private merchant trading companies sniffing around the Spice Islands, while British pirates made their presence known, especially in the West Indies.

But the Brits now had the one card, the Dutch most covetted and needed; Sovereignty recognised by every power on Earth. OTOH, the Dutch were still at war with Spain (and then the whole of Europe in the 30 Years War), who would not give the Dutch independence. And in 16/17th Europe, no member of the Holy Roman Empire was going to acknowledge the Sovereignty of northern Clog Wog Protty wannabes. So as far the world was concerned, if any Dutchman wanted to make commercial, trade, or any diplomatic representations to this or that court, it would have to come from the Spanish king! Ironically, the Dutch break away Protty provinces offered Elizabeth I sovereignty in 1565, which she hastily rejected. This 80 Year war with Spain did not end until 1648.

However, the Dutch were dealt back in, when they ambitiously offered Phillip III a truce. Battle-weary, poor, and facing meltdown in Spain, Phillip agreed to the truce, but even better agreed to sign over Sovereignty to the United Provinces, but only while the truce held. Both sides had to give and take on trade [and other stuff like religion]. Initially, Phillip had demanded that no Dutch ship ever venture into the southern hemisphere. There was no way the Dutch were going to give up their growing successful presence in the Spice Islands, but they agree not to go ahead with their Dutch West Asia. Basically, Spain and the Dutch agreed to split the new world, with Spain getting the Asia to the West Indies. The truce was signed in 1609, and only lasted till 1619. It was not until 30 years later that the 80 Year War ended, and internationally-recognised sovereignty of the Dutch Republic.

And just as the Dutch emerge as a Sovereign nation free to colonise away from Iceland to Australia to China, Japan, and the America, the English monarchy was abolished, the King executed, Catholics disenfranchised, with the Protestant gentry and proto-bourgeoisie sealed via a parliamentary ordinance declaring:

the abolishing of Archbishops and Bishops in England and Wales and for settling their lands and possessions upon Trustees for the use of the Commonwealth

Britain’s Industrial Revolution began.

Nevertheless, both the British and Dutch knew they could not simply emulate the Portugese/Spanish ‘Age of Discovery’ to access new world markets. They needed a game-changing strategy to leap-frog the first mover advantages largely already locked in by the Spanish/Portugese. The game-changer was Elizabeth’s embrace of mercantilism on steroids, or at least canon, when Elizabeth 1 agrees to make the – later called – East India Company, granting it monopoly trading rights in the Indian Ocean, and the right to think of itself as a full-standing military force.

Thus, the 17th century opened with a loud hint that colonial powers who would calling the shots would be those who now dressed to the side of Luther, not Rome. The real game-changer was the creation of British East India Company in 1602, and the Dutch East India Company in 1604.

While the British East India’s intended playing fields were the known riches of the Spice Islands, this leap-frog landed in the still feudal land of the Mughal princelings, which covered the subcontinent. Even though the Brits couldn’t make inroads with the Clog Wog dominated Spice Islands, the Poms decamped to the lands of the Mughals. And just to show that they really did have this military right, the East India Company sailed up to Gujarat fought the Portugese imperial forces, and won The Battle of Swally in 1612, thus ending the monopoly in subcontinental trade, enjoyed [and very quietly] by the Portugese for more than a century.

While the poms made hay and gazillions of moolah, the Clog Wogs sniffed around their pied-à-mer, dismissing Australia as not suited to their profit-skimming cum stand over trade strategies throughout Indonesia. Irobically, it was these Dutch-Portugese contretemps, which would reverberate in Australia nearly 300 years later in the Mabo decision.

You see in 1603, a captain of the Dutch East India Company captured a Portugese merchant ship, loaded up with goodies from various Portugese colonies around the traps; possessions the Spanish and Portugese – and indeed the Vatican – had worked so hard to deny the Dutch. Now, remember earlier we saw the woes of Dutch not having sovereignty, that they were under the sovereignty of the Spanish. It is times like this that sovereignty matters.

Even if the Dutch captain had had permission from the Dutch East Indies Company [and the jury is still out on that], neither the captain nor the Company could point to any State authorisation, not even refract the drama through diplomatic channels. There was a huge global to-do. The captain’s actions were of dubious legality under some Dutch statute, but the majority of the Dutch shareholders insisted the loot was not illegally obtained. And then of course the Portugese were screaming blue murder. Ultimately, the seizure was tried by the Admiralty Court in Amsterdam.

Now, remember who it was denying the Dutch sovereignty? Well, the most modern talking head on ‘international law’ was a compadre of Phillip II. But it gets better.

Peter Patton

11 Feb 12 at 2:19 pm
“Global Warming” impacts on Black Sea!!!!!!!

http://englishrussia.com/2012/02/09/frozen-black-sea/#more-91568

Hate to see it if it ever cools down!!!!

Mike of Marion

11 Feb 12 at 2:20 pm
Those damn ‘vironmentalists. Possums are at plague levels in the inner and outer burb’s and we can’t cull any of them. Protected bloody species. Yet another blackout this week caused by a damn possum. And you can’t kill the vermin.

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 2:20 pm
What do you mean, Gab, can’t kill the vermin?
Don’t you mean “Shouldn’t get caught killing the vermin?”

Winston Smith

11 Feb 12 at 2:27 pm
Antipodean

I also note that quite a number of death threats have been flying about from our green slumlord friends to operators in the Kimberley. Onshore and offshore.

Really?

Interesting. Talk to you via backchannels on Monday. That’s serious, serious grist to certain of my mills

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 2:36 pm
While he is not proposing a cull, Mr Treloar says the South Australian Government needs a coordinated action plan to deal with seal numbers.

Oh no!

First killer unsustainable reefs and now The Attack of The Limitless Seals!

C.L.

11 Feb 12 at 2:44 pm
Occupisants at CPAC protesting…but they have no idea what they’re protesting about. The $60 to turn up might be a clue.

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 2:54 pm
That’s disgusting.

Those poor, mostly black battlers being used by white leftist scum.

There is no depth they won’t sink to.

C.L.

11 Feb 12 at 2:58 pm
And illiterate Latinos too.

God, that is despicable.

C.L.

11 Feb 12 at 3:00 pm
Heh. Wyatt Roy was kicked out of QT this week by Slipper. His sin? Asking Gillard when Labor last delivered a budget surplus. lol.

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 3:02 pm
Obama and Kathleen Sibelius have had a farcical press conference where they have announced a “compromise” which is nothing other than an absurd bit of posturing which may indeed represent a significant broadening of the moral affront on catholic institutions and now even on those institutions covered by the original “narrow” exemption.

It’s like they are playing a children’s game of hide and seek where just by shouting ‘pax’, the eyes and ears of those they are playing with are magically suspended from seeing and hearing.

And this turkeyl is President of the United States?!!!

Obummer: “Under the rule, women will still have access to free preventive care that includes contraceptive services — no matter where they work. So that core principle remains. But if a woman’s employer is a charity or a hospital that has a religious objection to providing contraceptive services as part of their health plan, the insurance company — not the hospital, not the charity — will be required to reach out and offer the woman contraceptive care free of charge, without co-pays and without hassles.”

JamesK

11 Feb 12 at 3:05 pm
I dunno, I think I would find it hard to slay a possum. They would be staring straight at the sights with those big, bottomless eyes….

Entropy

11 Feb 12 at 3:06 pm
They would be staring straight at the sights with those big, bottomless eyes….

Entropy, that could be a problem! I think you’d solve it with a 4-8×40 scope on your .22 magnum, though.

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 3:12 pm
Is Gab advocating the assassination of POSSUMS?

Shame on you, Gab.

C.L.

11 Feb 12 at 3:13 pm
with those big, bottomless eyes….

That’s why a bazooka comes in handy.

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 3:14 pm
Well, the kiwis tell me they taste OK. The things are a really serious feral pest over there.

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 3:33 pm
The evil bunyip is right of course. There’s no point trying to reason with the likes of Flannery and other nut balls. Bunyip suggests going upping the stakes and gong all Mayan calandar on them.

If they want crazy, give fucking crazy by the truck load.

Bunyip has the evil mind of the most cynical traders I’ve ever met. He would have made a great add to a trading desk.

THE wonderful Judith Sloan notes that Tim Flannery will be climate commissioning in Tasmania very soon and wonders if Catallaxy readers might care to pop along to one or both of his revival meetings in Hobart and Launceston. The natural instinct will be to give Flannery a bit of stick, but it might be a good idea to think twice about that approach and perhaps take another tack.

Rather than calling Bone Man to account for his dud predictions, why not play his game and punch the climate alarm for all it’s worth? Stand up and sob for Gaia, make a real exhibition of yourself. Hog the microphone to fret and wail about the link between earthquakes and temperature. Insist that the ABC is hiding the truth about climate change, the grim reality being that the Mayan prophecies say this year will see the end of the world. Suggest wine corks be re-cycled to stopper flatulence in cows and humans, or swear blind you have proof of the Zionist Entity doctoring thermometers to hide the truth.

Yes, it would be silly, but so is Flannery, who is only just smart enough to make sure he gets paid. So turn out and give the warmists what they love — fear and panic and frothing hysteria. Flannery & Co will not know if you are serious, as his bona fide admirers are even more ridiculous. Just keep a straight face and peddle all the BS a fertile imagination can muster. That approach has certainly turned a nice dollar for the evenings’ host.

And don’t forget to bring a camera. A little video footage is bound to be a YouTube hit.

Jc

11 Feb 12 at 3:39 pm
For everyone complaining about slow loading, switch to Chrome, the last open forum that was taking forever in IE loads in seconds in Chrome.

CraigS

11 Feb 12 at 3:41 pm
Is Gab advocating the assassination of POSSUMS?

Gos, i hope so.

Carpe Jugulum

11 Feb 12 at 3:50 pm
Somebody still uses IE? Webkit browsers only, please sir (although I fear to use chrome due to the paranoid fear google is tracking where I go to sell my interests to advertisers).

Entropy

11 Feb 12 at 3:57 pm
Is Gab advocating the assassination of POSSUMS?

Maybe, erm, encouraging a trip to fluffy tail heaven.

nic

11 Feb 12 at 4:08 pm
Go the real thing Gab.
Or remain forever ” Pussum Dundee”

jumpnmcar

11 Feb 12 at 4:46 pm
Have one word to say to you gab. Bromakil.

Pickles

11 Feb 12 at 4:58 pm
Top idea, Jump:

Possum-hunting safaris in Melbourne. $125 two hour safari in the wilds of the ‘burbs.
Night vision goggles supplied.
BYO weapons.

I’ll need a website…

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 5:03 pm
Pickles, that’s a bit extreme – it’s damaging to the ‘viroment.

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 5:05 pm
Not when used according to the label.

Pickles

11 Feb 12 at 5:16 pm
Aboriginals really are just pets to green groups.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/indigenous-vision-for-kimberley-irks-greens/story-fn9hm1pm-1226268282835

Don’t build one port fellas. Build as many as you need.

JC

11 Feb 12 at 5:16 pm
About time this happened, Elsevier are a pack of arseholes who need hot pokers rammed up ém.

http://www.nature.com/news/elsevier-boycott-gathers-pace-1.10010

Timothy Gowers is surprised and delighted that thousands of mathematics and other researchers have joined him in a public pledge not to have anything to do with Elsevier, the Amsterdam-based academic publishing giant. He is leading a boycott because of company practices that he says hinder the dissemination of research.

John H.

11 Feb 12 at 5:19 pm
Possum-hunting safaris in Melbourne. $125 two hour safari in the wilds of the ‘burbs.

No thanks.
My kind of hunting, I’m into energy conservation.

jumpnmcar

11 Feb 12 at 5:19 pm
Wow. You guys sure know how to grow big crabs up there!

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 5:21 pm
The Avian’s mate Clive had a novel suggestion regarding the culling of those annoying koalas on Kangaroo Island.

Now we know where Gab got her inspiration…

Here’s a tasty li’l excerpt:

It is fairly apparent that the South Australian Government will need to cull the koala population of Kangaroo Island, reducing it from around 30,000 to around 10,000. This will be an expensive operation, costing perhaps $1 million.

One approach worthy of serious consideration would be to charge a fee for visitors to Kangaroo Island to hunt koalas.

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 5:27 pm
Fuck me dead.

That’s a large crab.

FDB

11 Feb 12 at 5:30 pm
$50 a head to cull koalas? They sit pretty still don’t they know?

Pickles

11 Feb 12 at 5:32 pm
One approach worthy of serious consideration would be to charge a fee for visitors to Kangaroo Island to hunt koalas.

lol… I applaud the guy for thinking outside the box – but can you imagine the international media outrage?

Perhaps we should have Koala Clubbing?

Fleeced

11 Feb 12 at 5:34 pm
Perhaps we should have Koala Clubbing?

Great idea Fleeced. We’ll call it Club Koala. You can kill your own koala and we have people to skin and turn the hide into a hat or whatever. As an added bonus, you can bag a koala and hat for each of your kiddies.

John H.

11 Feb 12 at 5:43 pm
Nobody could get all gooey over koalas once they’ve met one. They’re rude, surly, they spit, and scratch. OR, they’re just monged out on fricking eucalyptus leaves. Ingrates.

Peter Patton

11 Feb 12 at 6:13 pm
Ahoy, John H:

Rescusitation science…

Quite fascinating: Is It Possible to Reanimate the Dead?

Via InstaPundit.

C.L.

11 Feb 12 at 6:28 pm
Krugman vs the world

Mother Hubbard's Dog

11 Feb 12 at 6:30 pm
Damn! link didn’t work. Try again:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/paul-krugman-vs-the-world-02092012-gfx.html

Mother Hubbard's Dog

11 Feb 12 at 6:30 pm
Bob Katter deploys humble campaign bus.

C.L.

11 Feb 12 at 6:39 pm
The only thing missing from that bus is a giant Akubra on top.

Gab

11 Feb 12 at 7:02 pm
Nobody could get all gooey over koalas once they’ve met one. They’re rude, surly, they spit, and scratch.

Not to mention the noise the males make, sounds like a cross between a donkey, a pig and a salivating dog eager to tear off your face. It’d be pretty terrifying if you didn’t know what it was, you’d think there was some kind of mutant killer bunyip on the prowl.

Andreas

11 Feb 12 at 7:20 pm
Thanks CL,

Oddly enough I just finished a phone call with an old friend who was a nurse working in an emergency ward. Years ago she told me how they could reanimate people even after half an hour, though typically with extensive brain damage. She told me a horror story of how the police brought in a young aboriginal during those “deaths in custody” years. The police insisted on resuscitation but were warned the kid would be a vegetable. Didn’t matter, better than a statistic.

The article you reference highlights the value of dying in freezing conditions, and an earlier report I read suggested that the chances are even better if there is little oxygen in the bloodstream. This may relate to the well phenomenon of reperfusion injury, when blood again enters and dumps lots of oxygen it appears that is when big damage is done.

John H.

11 Feb 12 at 7:22 pm
Don’t you worry about Uncle Bob ( no. not the Tasmanian pillow biter ) he’ll do better than Hanson, and grow.

When he promises more individual freedom, QLDers listen.

The first QLD election campaign that i’ve looked forward too, a cracker, to be sure.

All he needs is Mal Maninga to endorse “the Katt”

jumpnmcar

11 Feb 12 at 7:25 pm
The venerable Mark Steyn:

The president of the United States has decided to go Henry VIII on the Church’s medieval ass. ……President Obama has embarked on the same usurpation of church authority as Henry VIII: as his Friday morning faux-compromise confirms, the continued existence of a “faith-based institution” depends on submission to the doctrinal supremacy of the state.

JamesK

11 Feb 12 at 7:36 pm
There might be some people here who will find this useful.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/

See …

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16926868

John H.

11 Feb 12 at 7:59 pm
http://www.katterlaxypiles.com

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 8:06 pm
John

Wow, that site could keep one distracted for hours. Taking the Wikipedia thing to another level.

Peter Patton

11 Feb 12 at 8:07 pm
Thanks John,

I’ll be looking into that site when I’m back at work.

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 8:10 pm
Capitalism when it’s on very good form. How could anybody begrudge the likes of Mr. Wolfram a seat within our top 1%?

Peter Patton

11 Feb 12 at 8:10 pm
Massive Premier League clash looming tonight:

The Mighty Reds V red devils

King Kenny V sir scottish drunk

From 11:45 tonight on Fox Sports One.

You’ll never walk alone.

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 9:02 pm
Test

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 9:06 pm
Test link.

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 9:08 pm
It turns out that the farcical Obama presser I alluded to earlier was itself a complete lie ie. even the ‘pretend’ compromise isn’t true:

“Despite what President Obama said at his White House press conference, the actual regulations make permanent the “interim final regulations” issued August 3, 2011 — the ones that sparked the furor in the first place.

Prefaced by 17 pages of the kind of rhetorical squid ink that President Obama defensively deployed at his press conference, the words that have the force of law appear on pages 18 to 20. That’s where the actual amendments to the Code of Federal Regulations are made by three departments — Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services — that Congress previously granted joint oversight of employer health plans.

The bottom line is this: “Accordingly, the amendment to the interim final rule with comment period amending 45 CFR 147.130(a)(1)(iv) which was published in the Federal Register at 76 FR 46621-46626 on August 3, 2011, is adopted as a final rule without change.” [Emphasis added.]

Translation: The Obama administration Friday afternoon put into federal law the very regulation that drew objections from almost 200 Catholic bishops, some 50 religiously affiliated colleges and universities, 65 North American bishops of Orthodox churches, numerous other Jewish, Evangelical and Lutheran leaders, and even some liberals — and without changing so much as a comma.

From this point forward, any changes to this regulation have to go through the formal regulatory process all over again.”

JamesK

11 Feb 12 at 9:13 pm
For the so called devils…

You got mud on your face, you big disgrace…

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 9:14 pm
Year by year, the more stories about the real JFK comes out…

I knew that John F. Kennedy was a compulsive, even pathological adulterer, given to taking outlandish risks after he entered the White House. I knew he treated women like whores. And I knew he had more than a few issues with his father about toughness and manliness and all that. But before I read in the newspaper that Mimi Alford’s just-released memoir, Once Upon A Secret: My Affair With President John F. Kennedy And Its Aftermath, described giving Dave Powers a blow job at JFK’s request and in his presence, I didn’t know that Kennedy had an appetite for subjecting those close to him to extreme humiliation.

It will be interesting if the women in St.Bobby’s life emerge one day…

Token

11 Feb 12 at 9:19 pm
Koala hunting in the day time would hardly be a ‘sport’

nic

11 Feb 12 at 9:23 pm
Koala hunting in the day time would hardly be a ‘sport’

It could still be fun, though…

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 9:28 pm
Year by year, the more stories about the real JFK come out…

Tokes, he wasn’t known as “two minute jack” for no good reason!

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 9:32 pm
Has there been a US Democrat president since Truman who was not a sleazy piece of crap (1), blithering incompetent (2), corrupt scumbucket (3), or some combination thereof??

The Shagster 1 (with bells on),2
Welfare man 2
Peanut by name… 1 (with bells on), 2
Blowjob Boy 1,2,3
Ye Preshizzle (TM Paco) 1,2,3 and all with bells on and flashing lights

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Feb 12 at 9:44 pm
Thanks Rabz,

Here’s another golden oldie that came up on the related list.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1KtScrqtbc&feature=related

He ain’t Heavy, he’s my brother – The Hollies

John H.

11 Feb 12 at 10:03 pm
Thanks John,

Hollies = Awesome.

While mining the Queen track, accidentally discovered this cover – I defy anyone to listen and not get right into it…

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 10:13 pm
The Dutch pull the plug on offshore windmills.

Offshore wind turbines came online in the Netherlands in 2006 and cost Dutch taxpayers more than $5 billion last year.

These things chop up dollar bills along with seagulls and albatrosses.

boy on a bike

11 Feb 12 at 10:14 pm
Apple vs Microsoft. No contest.

“Apple’s iPhone business alone is now bigger than Microsoft. Not Windows. Not Office. Microsoft. Think about that. The iPhone did not exist five years ago. And now it’s bigger than a company that, 15 years ago, was dragged into court and threatened with forcible break-up because it had amassed an unassailable and unthinkably profitable monopoly.

The free market really is a bitch.

boy on a bike

11 Feb 12 at 10:16 pm
The Dutch pull the plug on offshore windmills.

These things chop up … seagulls

There may be a use for them after all.

Rob

11 Feb 12 at 10:25 pm
OK, I know Dr Hook would have #Occupied somewhere but they knew how to finish a song and have fun (before they straight and lovey dovey)

jumpnmcar

11 Feb 12 at 10:32 pm
JC (Sorry for the nearly 24 hour delay, but other stuff got in the way)

Now you reckon the EU can just let the Greeks go, fuck ‘em. But in December you thought it would bring on an intolerable (Greek) bank run.

I’m not trying to be cute, but perhaps times have moved on and there is now a ‘colleague’ approved exit strategy? And if it can work for Greece, then why not Italy, Spain..

Either way, the prospect of the world enduring ongoing and endless European crises, bail-outs etc needs to be cauterised, somehow…

Lazlo

11 Feb 12 at 10:35 pm
Stay was the first Hollies hit.

Bub bub chiwaddy wad..

Lazlo

11 Feb 12 at 10:40 pm
John H,

What do you make of Brian Peskin?

.

11 Feb 12 at 10:42 pm
It is the evening of the day…

Just beautiful.

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 10:45 pm
Speaking of Dr Hook…

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 10:48 pm
Anyone worried about “globals warming”? If you’re worried about globals warming then you ought to be watching the program currently in 7Mate talking about what a meteor/comet hit would be like. That would be some warming and you wouldn’t have to worry much about the polar bears as they’d be fried alive.

I reckon that instead of spending these trillions trying to control the thermostat by 2 degrees, we ought to be spending money sticking huge nuclear devices on rockets to protect us against these giant rocks floating around.

JC

11 Feb 12 at 11:00 pm
Just beautiful.

Rabz, I hope this isn’t too much out of order, but MF singing this gave me deep feelings at the time as a 12 year old. Very deep stirings and uprisings. Shortly after this something happened to me which I will never forget (because I still now do it as often as possible)

Lazlo

11 Feb 12 at 11:10 pm
The LDP got 12.6% of the vote in the Ramsay by-election and 6.8% in Port Adelaide, held in SA today. Both were higher than the Greens. Details here.

DavidLeyonhjelm

11 Feb 12 at 11:11 pm
“… talking about what a meteor/comet hit would be like.”

Wasn’t that the whole premise of “the Road“?

Except that what remained was like a supposed nookular holocaust from the fifties.

Frying, freezing, dying.

If ya gotta go, ya gotta go.

Just enjoy life until that moment.

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 11:14 pm
Laz,

You shouldn’t have those type of thoughts about catholic girls.

Shame.

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 11:16 pm
OK Back to the Mars Bars..

Lazlo

11 Feb 12 at 11:18 pm
The LDP got 12.6% of the vote in the Ramsay by-election and 6.8% in Port Adelaide, held in SA today. Both were higher than the Greens. Details here.

Wow! Great stuff.

JC

11 Feb 12 at 11:20 pm
OK Back to the Mars Bars..

Deep fried, I hope…

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 11:21 pm
While mining the Queen track, accidentally discovered this cover – I defy anyone to listen and not get right into it…

You sully a classic by finding, ugh, the chipmunk version? shudders.

nic

11 Feb 12 at 11:31 pm
What do you make of Brian Peskin?

Shite Dot, only saw his stuff earlier this week. Read some of it. Not impressed but a first impression.

I should add that I have become so cynical of voices out there that I always do data checks on people making claims.

BTW, this year I am trying to put some time into reading some cancer studies so my blog does have some entries on that. I’m not going to be offering advice so much as this is very much an exploratory stage. I prefer the cell biology stuff DOT and that rarely has direct implications for us.

My latest entry though offers this: fast each week. See:

http://healthycuriousity.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/starving-cancers.html

John H.

11 Feb 12 at 11:31 pm
Did someone mention Cath-o-lic Girls?

Father riley and various party goers:
Catholic girls
With a tiny little mustache
Catholic girls
Do you know how they go?
Catholic girls
In the rectory basement
Father rileys a fairy
But it don’t bother mary
Catholic girls
At the cyo
Catholic girls
Do you know how they go?
Catholic girls
There can be no replacement
How do they go, after the show?

Joe:
All the way
That’s the way they go
Every day
And none of their mamas ever seem to know
Hip-hip-hooray
For all the class they show
There’s nothing like a catholic girl
At the cyo
When they learn to blow…

Father riley:
They’re learning to blow
All the catholic boys!

Mary:
Warren cuccurullo…

Father riley:
Catholic boys!

Mary:
Kinda young, kinda wow!

Father riley:
Catholic boys!

Mary:
Vinnie colaiuta…

Chorus:
Where are they now?
Did they all take the vow?

Father riley:
Catholic girls

Warren:
Carmenita scarfone!

Father riley:
Catholic girls

Officer butzis:
Hey! she gave me vd!

Father riley:
Catholic girls!

Warren:
Toni carbone!

Chorus:
With a tongue like a cow
She could make you go wow!

Joe:
Vd vowdy vootie
Right away
That’s the way they go
Every day
Whenever their mamas take them to a show
Matinee
Pass the popcorn please
There’s nothing like a catholic girl
With her hand in the box
When she’s on her knees

Larry:
She was on her knees,
My little catholic girl

Chorus:
In a little white dress
Catholic girls
They never confess
Catholic girls
I got one for a cousin
I love how they go
So send me a dozen
Catholic girls
Ooooooh!
Catholic girls
Ooooooh!
(etc.)

Peter Patton

11 Feb 12 at 11:32 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO1elcunXI0

Peter Patton

11 Feb 12 at 11:32 pm
Deep fried, I hope…

How would you like that done sir?
Vaginal fluids or Glaswegian Batter?

Lazlo

11 Feb 12 at 11:37 pm
You sully a classic by finding, ugh, the chipmunk version? shudders.

oh nic – it was a bit of brevity, I hoped!

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 11:45 pm
Kick off!

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 11:46 pm
evra’s taken out the ferdipants – trying to get to that eevil Uruguayan racist, it seems…

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 11:47 pm
Rabz, there is brevity and then there are the chipmunks.

nic

11 Feb 12 at 11:54 pm
OK, nic, fair enough.

Incredible as it may seem, that’s actually the first chipmunks song I’ve ever heard in my life.

And they did a good job with the guitar solo at the end!

Rabz

11 Feb 12 at 11:58 pm
Ying Tong

Lazlo

12 Feb 12 at 12:02 am
What do you make of Brian Peskin?

I had previously responded but everytime I put up a link to my blog it gets blocked. Now happened 3 times, won’t bother anymore.

DOT, only saw his webpage earlier this week. Not impressed but only a quick look. He seemed a little too extreme for my liking. I did find agreement with his views on excessive exercise though, particularly given the emerging evidence that long distance athletes have higher rates of cardio issues latter in life.

John H.

12 Feb 12 at 12:09 am
Oh. And Dellers on why the Royal Society is now a joke.

Lazlo

12 Feb 12 at 12:10 am
Wang Chung

Rabz

12 Feb 12 at 12:11 am
“The LDP got 12.6% of the vote in the Ramsay by-election and 6.8% in Port Adelaide”

Nice. Some much-needed moolah, and more runs on the board to count towards getting past the “micro party” label.

Jarrah

12 Feb 12 at 12:15 am
Interesting Rabz, but beat The House of the Rising Sun

Lazlo

12 Feb 12 at 12:19 am
Laz,

A classic indeed, however:

Wait only for my boot heels to be wandering…

Rabz

12 Feb 12 at 12:23 am
Lazlo

How about ….

Sky Pilot Long version

John H.

12 Feb 12 at 12:24 am
And they did a good job with the guitar solo at the end!

Sigh. Someone somewhere has shat on Brian May’s perfection.

nic

12 Feb 12 at 12:31 am
Indeed Rabz. How about this is the greatest song of the 20c?

Lazlo

12 Feb 12 at 12:32 am
Every body have tonight, everybody smack swan tonight…

John Comnenus

12 Feb 12 at 12:35 am
Sigh. Someone somewhere has shat on Brian May’s perfection.

oops.

Someone here is an even bigger Queen fan than me…

nic, BTW my favourite footware is a pair of white leather adidas boxing boots. There are only two contemporary heroes of mine who’ve ever worn that footware – Cassius Clay and Freddie.

In the meantime, here’s a crazy li’l thang called lerve…

Rabz

12 Feb 12 at 12:52 am
Hey John C – where ya been of late, Squire?

Rabz

12 Feb 12 at 12:53 am
WTF – Blink and you’ll miss it – mancunian scumbags up 2 goals!

Rabz

12 Feb 12 at 12:56 am
How about this

Oh, poor ol’ Brian.

Don’t agree Laz. In my ‘umble ‘o’pinion, Good Vibrations is far more evocative and accessible.

Rabz

12 Feb 12 at 1:00 am
Europe: ETS has collapsed. It’s dead. Passed on, not resting. It’s expired. An ex-ETS.

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/the_ets_is_bust_its_dead/

Gab

12 Feb 12 at 1:29 am
And now for something completely different: Bill Maher on acid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FqAZ_7nBHS8#!

He’s funny and outrageous. Steve Jobs said one of the best things he did in his youth was take acid? Crick used LSD to help discover DNA? However the other day I read a news article which was about 10 great discoveries made by people using drugs. This could be artefact though, if you don’t sample all the discoveries where is the significance? Acid is a lot of fun but you need youth to cope with the intensity of it. People with anxiety issues should NEVER use acid. Which is ironic because anxiety issues can arise from being so bloody anal you never think outside the box.

Yeah he used it:

http://www.hallucinogens.com/lsd/francis-crick.html

John H.

12 Feb 12 at 3:52 am
Bob Katter deploys humble campaign bus.

I predict that Routemaster will be an unholy pain in the arse and Bob will wish he’d just gone with a beige Toyota Coaster.

Oh come on

12 Feb 12 at 3:53 am
Re: Breitbart’s promised Obama college videos. Breitbart’s a smart operator. I suspect that if the videos he had were dead girl or live boy-calibre, he wouldn’t be giving fore-warning. I doubt they’ll change the game much. Good for an applause line, though.

Oh come on

12 Feb 12 at 4:23 am
C.L. — I don’t know whether you follow Elizabeth Scalia’s blog or not (The Anchoress), but she’s got a couple of posts with good round-ups of the Obama “accommodation” reaction around the place. Click, click.

spot

12 Feb 12 at 8:03 am
Rabz,
Been hyper busy. Noted re boxing boots and Freddieand Cassius. But I seem to recall Boy George and Marylin in boxing boots in the 80′s. They weren’t as stylish as yours though. looking forward to catching up soon for somepoker.

John Comnenus

12 Feb 12 at 9:12 am
In the current Spectator there is an alarming piece about Quantitative Easing in Britain, a plan to have a second go at flooding the place with money after the first effort didn’t work. Too busy to pursue this at present, is there any good online commentary?

Rafe

12 Feb 12 at 9:25 am
Welcome to the sinking ship of climate alarmism.

http://joannenova.com.au/2012/02/we-are-winning-eh-part-4-or-so/

Rafe

12 Feb 12 at 9:40 am
The BOE doesn’t agree:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8772445/QE-saved-Britain-from-double-dip-recession-says-Bank-of-England.html

Some sane commentary on the last effort:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/liamhalligan/9076350/Britains-extreme-QE-is-dangerously-counter-productive.html

.

12 Feb 12 at 9:46 am
@spot

Read my posts and follow links at 9:13pm and 3:05pm yesterday.

JamesK

12 Feb 12 at 10:22 am
Good

Hang the fucker

http://www.news.com.au/world/bali-bomb-made-with-rice-ladle-scale/story-e6frfkyi-1226268609893

.

12 Feb 12 at 10:49 am
Completely OT.

For folks in Sydney, I sure hope you have bought your tickets to Roger Waters “The Wall” concert.

Melbourne concert was phenomenal, even from the cheap nosebleed seats.

It is not to be missed, and it’s your last chance to ever see it live…

mdh

12 Feb 12 at 11:01 am
Thanks for that, JamesK. Good catches. Even with the backing of the LeftStream Media behind him, I don’t think Obama’s gonna win this battle. That may be wishful thinking, but, I’m not so sure it is.

spot

12 Feb 12 at 11:17 am
If you refer to the dictionary, any dictionary really, to determine the meaning of “racist”, the definition provided is “progressives” and “hackneyed”.

Progressives are attempting to skewer Steven Crowder and Chris Loesch, claiming that they used the “N” word when saying the word “knickers” in a satirical video about the loss of American exceptionalism.

At no time did the duo use the “N” word, and to prevent hyper-dramatic liberals from whipping out their dog whistles, they even point to their pants when they say “knickers” in the video.

Gab

12 Feb 12 at 12:26 pm
I see ACTU ACT boss Sattler is complaining about recording hate mail in response to the Aus Day race riot she helped start. She is a coward who minds me of a pub brawler who rows the first punch then runs away when he furniture is flying – or something like that. What a despicable person. Like all Lefties she can dish it out but can’t take it back. She will now start the new meme for the mia to pursue – right wing hate groups attacking her because she started a race riot.

John Comnenus

12 Feb 12 at 12:41 pm
Here y’are Cats. Schizokitties.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

12 Feb 12 at 12:43 pm
Sorry, link no good, try:

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/schizokitties/

Mad Czech scientist revives old theory, may be something in it, but who can tell? Not time to kill your cat yet.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

12 Feb 12 at 12:48 pm
Yes, Spot – I’ve been reading The Anchoress for years. She’s great.

Not enough attention is paid to the ‘why’ of Obama’s Hitlerian attack on Christianity, specificially in relation to contraception. And people who aren’t mental midgets and morons also wonder why the hell any employer should pay for workers’ contraception.

The explanation is quite simple. The Democrat Party is wedded – nay, welded – to an extreme anti-natalist ideology whose signature dogma is passionate hatred and fear of human sexuality and fecundity. Institutionally allied to Planned Parenthood and Marie Stopes International – both organisations founded by ‘feminist icons’ who also happened to be white supremacists and Nazi sympathisers – the anti-natalists bitterly resent that pregnancy continues to prevent women from the ‘freedom’ of being as much like men as possible. Indeed, they almost literally regard pregnancy as an illness. This is why Obama opposed legislation designed to prevent accidentally un-aborted babies from being murdered, and why he insists that health insurance schemes cover the cost of combatting the natural disease of fecundity. Force is important for the anti-natalists because by imposing their dogma they satisfy themselves that they have successfully ‘won’ the debate about what, and who, women are – and should be. The Catholic Church was targeted because of its role in health care and its powerful indifference to secular ideology. It had to be humiliated for the ‘win’ to be real to them.

Obama did this because he is filled with fear and hatred, as are the feminist extremists advising him (like his hate-mongering wife).

We should also remember that leftist anti-natalism works hand in hand with gay lobby extremism. Homosexualists also hate fecundity, though with the idiosyncratic feature of hating it because it points to the axiomatic familial supremacy of heterosexuality. As a result of their success, policy-wise, the Church has already had to close some of the oldest and most successful adoption agencies in the United States. So the party of Bobby Kennedy (11 children) now officially believes that children can and should be murdered, that the extremist organisations that do the murdering should be subsidised by the state, that pregnancy is an illness and that the only families worth waxing sentimental about are the gay ‘families’ whose very existence destroys (they hope) the idea of women as designedly fecund, unchangeably different to – for the anti-natalists, inferior to – men.

Finally, an explanation of timing seems important. Well, the fact is support for abortion – for women’s right to ‘choose’ – has been plummeting for years. Almost every pollster has found that majorities now oppose abortion outright or oppose it in most situations. Added to this – and, to some extent, driving it – is science. The science of ultra-sound, the science of premmy medicine, the science of genetics (and all it tells us about we are as persons, in uetro and ab initio). The old ‘abortion on demand’ slogan of feminists has been abandoned. The old ‘just a clump of cells’ line has been discreetly binned. On science, the pro-abortion lobby has lost. On morality – in the public’s eyes – they have lost. It goes without saying that the holdout extremists have an especially livid hatred for the one institution that, above all, fought their despicable ideology. That was the Catholic Church. Corrupting the law – taking this and associated anti-natalist dogma – out of the public agora and enforcing them by fiat is the measure of both their loathing and also their epic failure.

We won. We always do.

C.L.

12 Feb 12 at 1:08 pm
Correction: …and all it tells us about who we are as persons, in utero and ab initio…

C.L.

12 Feb 12 at 1:11 pm
Whitney Houston dead at 48… No details yet, but I’m guessing drugs

Fleeced

12 Feb 12 at 1:12 pm
I did actually open a Houston thread.

Sinclair Davidson

12 Feb 12 at 1:15 pm
Sinc – the 1:08 PM thread post of CL’s deserves to be pulled out and made a new thread all by itself.

I don’t often say this CL, that post is exceptional in its moral clarity.

Very well done, sir.

Mk50 of Brisbane

12 Feb 12 at 1:22 pm
That’s odd: I find it nuttier than a fruitcake.

Steve from brisbane

12 Feb 12 at 1:32 pm
had a choice this morning. Go out in 30 degrees temps and mow the lawn, or watch Insiders.

They had the dreadful Crabb and the truly foul Marr.

The lawn got mowed.

Insiders is simply unwatchable any time it includes Marr.

Mk50 of Brisbane

12 Feb 12 at 1:34 pm
CL, there proof positive of the quality of what you’ve written. SFB does not even understand it.

But it’s a values-and-morals based argument, so of course he would not be able to.

Mk50 of Brisbane

12 Feb 12 at 1:35 pm
Which bit didn’t you understand, Steve? Or perhaps some words were too challenging for you. You can find dictionaries online these days, y’know.

Gab

12 Feb 12 at 1:35 pm
Snap!

Mk50 of Brisbane

12 Feb 12 at 1:36 pm
That’s odd: I find it nuttier than a fruitcake.

Pheww.

Imagine my horror if wrongologist Steve had said, “I totally agree.”

C.L.

12 Feb 12 at 1:38 pm
Yeah, snap. Although I don’t believe Steve has as much a morality deficit as a hatred of the Catholic Church surplus.

Gab

12 Feb 12 at 1:38 pm
That’s odd: I find it nuttier than a fruitcake.

From the same Democrats who believe in the sanctity of life as a reason why military action should not be taken when people are oppressed, who believe in social justice yet mock those who truly believe that pre-natal life is also sacred and those who devote their lives to caring for those who are born unwanted.

nic

12 Feb 12 at 1:48 pm
Just to add further to Mark’s endorsement of CL’s excellent comment at 1:08pm:

This isn’t as a result of nutty lefties dragging Obama further left than wise.

It’s Obummer. It’s who he is.

It was known before his election but not examined in the court of public opinion.

Here’s an example from that time:

Obama’s Abortion Extremism
by Robert P. George
October 14, 2008
“Sen. Barack Obama’s views on life issues ranging from abortion to embryonic stem cell research mark him as not merely a pro-choice politician, but rather as the most extreme pro-abortion candidate to have ever run on a major party ticket.
Barack Obama is the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to seek the office of President of the United States. He is the most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate. Indeed, he is the most extreme pro-abortion legislator ever to serve in either house of the United States Congress.

Yet there are Catholics and Evangelicals-even self-identified pro-life Catholics and Evangelicals—who aggressively promote Obama’s candidacy and even declare him the preferred candidate from the pro-life point of view.

What is going on here?”

Or here:

Obama and Infanticide
by Robert P. George and Yuval Levin
October 16, 2008
“Obama’s latest excuse for opposing the Illinois Born-Alive Infants Protection Act is that the law was “unnecessary” because babies surviving abortions were already protected. It won’t fly.
In last night’s presidential debate, Sen. John McCain finally found an opportunity to confront Sen. Barack Obama on his vote against protecting children who were born alive after an attempted abortion. Obama’s response followed the pattern of his approach to this subject throughout the campaign: deny the facts and confuse the issue. He said:

“There was a bill that was put forward before the Illinois Senate that said you have to provide lifesaving treatment and that would have helped to undermine Roe v. Wade. The fact is that there was already a law on the books in Illinois that required providing lifesaving treatment, which is why not only myself but pro-choice Republicans and Democrats voted against it.”

But the facts of the born-alive debate tell a different story.”

JamesK

12 Feb 12 at 1:50 pm
Socialists like murdering babies.

After all, they can’t fight back can they?

Mk50 of Brisbane

12 Feb 12 at 1:53 pm
Just as an addendum, that puts Obummer to the left of Barbara Boxer who voted for similar legislation at the federal level.

JamesK

12 Feb 12 at 1:54 pm
Insiders is simply unwatchable any time it includes Marr.

I was agog watching Marr’s performance and the ‘nothing to see here, move along’ defence of the Government among other things.
Funny how he has such a gimlet eye for what the Opposition has yet to do but finds nothing unusual about our present Government. Coming on his easy does it analysis of the facts concerning the boy removed from his gay parents owing to welfare concerns, nothing he says should surprise me.

nic

12 Feb 12 at 1:54 pm
And now for something completely practical…

Vid: How to fold a suit, pants and shirt to go in a suitcase without wrinkling

Gab

12 Feb 12 at 1:56 pm
Nic

You really took one for the team there.

If Marr is on that show, I simply turn it off. I have better things to do than watch the preening and mincing of a disgusting POS like Marr.

Mk50 of Brisbane

12 Feb 12 at 1:57 pm
Insiders is simply unwatchable any time it includes Marr

It was unwatchable this morning because it had 5 leftists agreeing with one another interspersed with Talking Pictures leftists agreeing with each other.

I like seeing Marr there cos he does more harm than good to his side.

He’s the Sarah Hansen-Young of commentators

JamesK

12 Feb 12 at 1:59 pm
It’s nutty and extreme in so many ways it’s hardly worth addressing.

I’m not going to spend much time on this: it would be akin to arguing with Graham Bird. But I would note that the it was Institute of Medicine recommended that contraception be covered as a “preventative service” that is designed to be part of the Affordable Care Act.

As noted in that link:

Women know that preventive services for women includes family planning. Today the IOM confirmed that contraception is prevention and is part of the prevention package that should be covered by all health care plans. By reducing co-pays and deductibles for women getting contraception, this will help women and couples plan their families, space their children, reduce unintended pregnancies, and promote better health for women and children. Preventing unintended pregnancies is the best way to prevent abortion.

Women spend decades of their lives trying to prevent pregnancy, and only a few years actually trying to get pregnant and having children. Making contraception affordable by eliminating co-pays and deductibles is common sense for millions of women and couples across the country – and a real benefit that women will see immediately in their pocketbooks. This coverage of contraception will truly help “Close the Gaps” for women.

I expect that by taking an extremist attitude against the compromise, the American bishops will lose support if their attitude is that no one who works for them, Catholic or not, should have access to free contraception, whether or not it is costing the Church.

Steve from brisbane

12 Feb 12 at 2:00 pm
It’s nutty and extreme in so many ways it’s hardly worth addressing.

SFB then proceeds to address it.

SFB, it’s called a moral code.

These are based on that ‘nutty… extreme…’ set of things called teh Ten Commandments.

The relevant one is No.5.

5. THOU SHALL NOT KILL.
Commands: live in peace and union with our neighbor, to respect his rights, to seek his spiritual and bodily welfare, and to take proper care of our own life and health; controlling one’s anger.
Forbids: all willful murder, suicide, abortion, euthanasia, artificial contraception, sterilization, cloning, endangering life and limb of self or others, fighting, anger, hatred, revenge, and bad example.

So, SFB, you are apparently cool with willful murder of innocents.

Nice.

You’re a left-winger, aren’t you?

Also, you notorious buffoon, read the US Bill. There is no compromise, you, being a gullible clod, have merely fallen for the spin. Again.

Mk50 of Brisbane

12 Feb 12 at 2:06 pm
“And people who aren’t mental midgets and morons also wonder why the hell any employer should pay for workers’ contraception.”

I’d go further. It’s patently silly to have healthcare paid for by employers at all. The US system is very badly designed. Obamacare/Romneycare don’t address the fundamental problems.

Jarrah

12 Feb 12 at 2:13 pm
Its interesting to note that Bobby Kennedy and Rick Santorum have so much more in common than Bobby or brother Jack have to modern Dems or the their radical leftist jerk of a leader, Obummer.

Ted was the the most disreputable Kennedy uber alles and not just politically.

Jack and Bobby, if alive, would be Reagan Democrats if not Republicans

JamesK

12 Feb 12 at 2:16 pm
But I would note that the it was Institute of Medicine recommended that contraception be covered as a “preventative service” that is designed to be part of the Affordable Care Act.

So the institute of medicine overrides religious beliefs, says conservative catholic Mrs. Steve.

The catholic church isn’t demanding it’s employees follow its views on contraception, you clueless dummy. What it is arguing is that the church shouldn’t be made to follow statist dictum, you appalling clown.
Mrs Steve seems to have his schtick down pat. He goes off for a while reading up on a particular topic at left wing sites and then brings the talking points back here as though they are his own.

Jc

12 Feb 12 at 2:17 pm
Thanks Gab. Just what I needed two weeks ago:)

Rafe

12 Feb 12 at 2:24 pm
The strange thing about people here turning it up to 11 on this issue is, the contraceptive pill is covered by the PBS in Australia. So taxes of devout Australian Catholics go, to what MK50 thinks, is a breach of the 5th commandment.

AJ

12 Feb 12 at 2:24 pm
@AJ

You don’t understand the issue.

Read JC’s comment above and wake up.

JamesK

12 Feb 12 at 2:25 pm
I’d go further. It’s patently silly to have healthcare paid for by employers at all. The US system is very badly designed. Obamacare/Romneycare don’t address the fundamental problems.

Most of here know its badly designed, jazza. We don’t need you to tell us that odumbocare is an abomination built on a badly structured existing system.

That isn’t the argument though, is it?

The argument as you well know is the state inserting itself in religion, ignoring separation and demanding the catholic church kneel in front of this affirmative action drop kick to bend to his wishes like he’s some sort of two bit African overlord like his appalling dad.

I find it really interesting how conveniently find fault with da system now, avoiding criticism of a leftist sack of turd when you have never made the libertarian argument in favor of gay marriage, preferring the statist solution.

And you’re a libertarian, jazza. Keep reminding us as we tend to forget.

Jc

12 Feb 12 at 2:26 pm
The strange thing about people here turning it up to 11 on this issue is, the contraceptive pill is covered by the PBS in Australia. So taxes of devout Australian Catholics go, to what MK50 thinks, is a breach of the 5th commandment.

Interesting how all the pretend libertarians are coming out of the swamp.

AJ, you fool, the catholic church has never taken a direct stand against US Medicare or it’s twin, Medicaid.

Jc

12 Feb 12 at 2:29 pm
Women know that preventive services for women includes family planning.

LOL.

C.L.

12 Feb 12 at 2:36 pm
The overwhelming evidence from lefty commentators and journalists out of the WH was that this was Obummer running against advice.

Here’s another article from August 2008:

Andrew McCarthy, National Review, August 22nd, 2008:

“There wasn’t any question about what was happening. The abortions were going wrong. The babies weren’t cooperating. They wouldn’t die as planned. Or, as Illinois state senator Barack Obama so touchingly put it, there was “movement or some indication that, in fact, they’re not just coming out limp and dead.”

No, Senator. They wouldn’t go along with the program. They wouldn’t just come out limp and dead.

They were coming out alive. Born alive. Babies. Vulnerable human beings Obama, in his detached pomposity, might otherwise include among “the least of my brothers.” But of course, an abortion extremist can’t very well be invoking Saint Matthew, can he? So, for Obama, the shunning of these least of our brothers and sisters — millions of them — is somehow not among America’s greatest moral failings.

No. In Obama’s hardball, hard-Left world, these least become “that fetus, or child — however you want to describe it.”

Most of us, of course, opt for “child,” particularly when the “it” is born and living and breathing and in need of our help. Particularly when the “it” is clinging not to guns or religion but to life.

But not Barack Obama. As an Illinois state senator, he voted to permit infanticide. And now, running for president, he banks on media adulation to insulate him from his past.

The record, however, doesn’t lie.

Infanticide is a bracing word. But in this context, it’s the only word that fits. Obama heard the testimony of a nurse, Jill Stanek. She recounted how she’d spent 45 minutes holding a living baby left to die.

The child had lacked the good grace to expire as planned in an induced-labor abortion — one in which an abortionist artificially induces labor with the expectation that the underdeveloped “fetus, or child — however you want to describe it” will not survive the delivery.

Stanek encountered another nurse carrying the child to a “soiled utility room” where it would be left to die. It wasn’t that unusual. The induced-labor method was used for late-term abortions. Many of the babies were strong enough to survive the delivery. At least for a time.

So something had to be done with them. They couldn’t be left out in the open, struggling in the presence of fellow human beings. After all, those fellow human beings — health-care providers— would then be forced to confront the inconvenient question of why they were standing idly by. That would hold a mirror up to the whole grisly business.

Better the utility room. Alone, out of sight and out of mind. Next case.

Stanek’s account enraged the public and shamed into silence most of the country’s staunchest pro-abortion activists. Most, not all. Not Barack Obama.

My friend Hadley Arkes ingeniously argued that legislatures, including Congress, should take up “Born Alive” legislation: laws making explicit what decency already made undeniable: that from the moment of birth — from the moment one is expelled or extracted alive from the birth canal — a human being is entitled to all the protections the law accords to living persons.

Such laws were enacted by overwhelming margins. In the United States Congress, even such pro-abortion activists as Sen. Barbara Boxer went along.

But not Barack Obama. In the Illinois senate, he opposed Born-Alive tooth and nail.

The shocking extremism of that position — giving infanticide the nod over compassion and life — is profoundly embarrassing to him now. So he has lied about what he did. He has offered various conflicting explanations . . .”

JamesK

12 Feb 12 at 2:38 pm
ASSISTANT TREASURER Mark Arbib says some of the big banks are placing their shareholders ahead of borrowers

Only some?

Mother Hubbard's Dog

12 Feb 12 at 2:49 pm
Sarah Palin on Obama: “WTF“?

Good question.

C.L.

12 Feb 12 at 2:49 pm
I expect that by taking an ~~extremist~~ principled attitude against the compromise,…

Sounds about right to me.

dover_beach

12 Feb 12 at 2:54 pm
Palin video: “WTF“?

C.L.

12 Feb 12 at 3:01 pm
Priceless.

dover_beach

12 Feb 12 at 3:03 pm
Mark’s endorsement of CL’s excellent comment at 1:08pm. You have hit the nail on the head, Mark & CL. Moral Clarity and a view into what drives Obama.

It deserves a post of its own.

Winston Smith

12 Feb 12 at 3:09 pm
Man accused of tattooing 40cm penis on man’s back appears in court

The alleged victim … had agreed to have some Yin and Yang symbols and dragons tattooed on his back but was shocked to discover a 40cm penis and testicles with an obscene slogan.

Brady is also charged under the Pubic Health Act, in relation to the tattoo.

Typical.

Mother Hubbard's Dog

12 Feb 12 at 3:11 pm
ASSISTANT TREASURER Mark Arbib says some of the big banks are placing their shareholders ahead of borrowers

Isn’t that a legal requirement? It’s certainly their moral one…

Fleeced

12 Feb 12 at 3:28 pm
Er, to look after the owner’s that is

Fleeced

12 Feb 12 at 3:36 pm
ASSISTANT TREASURER Mark Arbib says some of the big banks are placing their shareholders ahead of borrowers

So?

Methinks Comrade Arbib would dearly love to nationalise all those evil money grubbing banks so he and his ilk could spend the ill gotten gains on “social inclusion” (and massage parlours, taxi rides in the dead of night etc.)

Pedro the Ignorant

12 Feb 12 at 4:11 pm
Why doesn’t the bald idiot just worry about soccer and figure out who he’s going to knife in the back next time instead of the banks.

JC

12 Feb 12 at 4:51 pm
“We don’t need you to tell us”

Funny how you attack me, after I responded in agreement to CL who brought it up.

“I find it really interesting how conveniently find fault with da system now”

Get real. I’ve been criticising the US health system since forever.

“when you have never made the libertarian argument in favor of gay marriage”

You’re being absurd. I repeatedly stated in plain English, in short words so you’d understand, that my first preference is the deregulation of marriage, but if government was going to retain control, it shouldn’t discriminate.

Is it senility that makes you forget these things? Alzheimer’s? Or are you really just as stupid as you sound?

Jarrah

12 Feb 12 at 4:57 pm
Jazza:

Stop being a slippery little moron.

The argument at this very moment is not how US medical insurance is structured, it’s about the state instructing a religious institution how it must act.

You’ve always argued for a state based solution to da gay marriage. If you can show otherwise through evidence then present it. You can’t because it’s not true.

JC

12 Feb 12 at 5:01 pm
Jaz

Answer a direct question. Given what Odumbocare is, do you agree or disagree with its intrusion into religious matters and how it expected to mandate what the Catholic institutions must offer in their medical insurance schemes?

Yes or no.

JC

12 Feb 12 at 5:06 pm
“The argument at this very moment is not how US medical insurance is structured, it’s about the state instructing a religious institution how it must act.”

Yes, and it’s all very predictable and boring. I was simply pointing out that this problem could be solved, along with a host of other problems, if the fundamental structure is changed.

“You’ve always argued for a state based solution to da gay marriage.”

You’re simply flat-out lying, Joey. Not even convincingly. Everyone here knows it, and you’re just embarrassing yourself.

Jarrah

12 Feb 12 at 5:08 pm
Odumbo lied. Flat out lied.

Medical insurance premiums in the United States are on the rise, the chief architect of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul has told The Daily Caller.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Jonathan Gruber, who also devised former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s statewide health care reforms, is backtracking on an analysis he provided the White House in support of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, informing officials in three states that the price of insurance premiums will dramatically increase under the reforms.

In an email to The Daily Caller, Gruber framed this new reality in terms of the same human self-interest that some conservatives had warned in 2010 would ultimately rule the marketplace.

“The market was so discriminatory,” Gruber told TheDC, “that only the healthy bought non-group insurance and the sick just stayed [uninsured].”

“It is true that even after tax credits some individuals are ‘losers,’” he conceded, “in that they pay more than before [Obama's] reform.”

Gruber, whom the Obama administration hired to provide an independent analysis of reforms, was widely criticized for failing to disclose the conflict of interest created by $392,600 in no-bid contracts the Department of Health and Human Services awarded him while he was advising the president’s policy advisers.

Gruber also received $566,310 during 2008 and 2009 from the National Institutes of Health to conduct a study on the Medicare Part D plan.

In 2011, officials in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Colorado ordered reports from Gruber which offer a drastically different portrait in 2012 from the one Obama painted just 17 months ago.

“As a consequence of the Affordable Care Act,” the president said in September 2010, ”premiums are going to be lower than they would be otherwise; health care costs overall are going to be lower than they would be otherwise.”

Gruber’s new reports are in direct contrast Obama’s words — and with claims Gruber himself made in 2009. Then, the economics professor said that based on figures provided by the independent Congressional Budget Office, “[health care] reform will significantly reduce, not increase, non-group premiums.”

During his presentation to Wisconsin officials in August 2011, Gruber revealed that while about 57 percent of those who get their insurance through the individual market will benefit in one way or another from the law’s subsides, an even larger majority of the individual market will end up paying drastically more overall.

“After the application of tax subsidies, 59 percent of the individual market will experience an average premium increase of 31 percent,” Gruber reported.
Read the rest here.

JC

12 Feb 12 at 5:09 pm
Answer the question Jazz. Agree or disagree? Yes or no?

JC

12 Feb 12 at 5:10 pm
Odumbo’s official unemployement rate is 11%

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2012/02/09/dont-be-fooled-the-obama-unemployment-rate-is-11/

JC

12 Feb 12 at 5:13 pm
What question?

Jarrah

12 Feb 12 at 5:15 pm
Here, this one Jaz… you obviously missed it.

Jaz

Answer a direct question. Given what Odumbocare is, do you agree or disagree with its intrusion into religious matters and how it expected to mandate what the Catholic institutions must offer in their medical insurance schemes?

Yes or no.

JC

12 Feb 12 at 5:18 pm
“Yes or no.”

Only the simple-minded think there are simple answers to complex problems. But since you are suddenly keen to have my opinion, after objecting to me giving it earlier, I’ll humour you with a proper answer.

By its very nature, government is always making a multitude of different people and groups to pay for things they think are immoral, usually though taxes. (This is a central argument for reducing expenditure and therefore taxes.)

When it comes to religion or conscience, I think forcing people to go against their beliefs is wrong. I support the Christians’ right to oppose contraception, and to refuse to fund it, even though I disagree with them. I think people who want to work for Christian organisations should expect that things that are objectionable to those organisations are not going to be provided or supported.

Clearly the solution to both the concerns of the religious and the those wanting to have contraception included in their health plans is to eliminate the nexus between workplaces and healthcare, a jury-rigged anachronism that has outlived its usefulness. That way people can get whatever insurance they want, and religious organisations never have to pay for what they consider immoral behaviour. Except what they contribute through taxes, of course. But that’s a problem everyone has.

Jarrah

12 Feb 12 at 6:05 pm
Obama in 2009 and with only a moment of consequential thought any rational being would have known it could only only possibly be a lie:

“First, no matter what you’ve heard, if you like your doctor or healthcare plan, you can keep it. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.”

JamesK

12 Feb 12 at 6:14 pm
Only the simple-minded think there are simple answers to complex problems. But since you are suddenly keen to have my opinion, after objecting to me giving it earlier, I’ll humour you with a proper answer.

Lol.. Stop over-egging your omelet , jaz. There’s no need to nuance the answer. The only reason it was so hard is because it’s almost impossible pinning you down to get a straight fucking answer when it’s necessary to veer right.

It’s like taking castor oil for you ,isn’t it?

Jc

12 Feb 12 at 6:17 pm
Hahaha
Just saw the NRL Footy show promo, it’s a ripper.
No on youtube yet.
( clue, Australia day)

jumpnmcar

12 Feb 12 at 6:32 pm
No”t” on ……

jumpnmcar

12 Feb 12 at 6:33 pm
Brilliant infographic … well sots

Aussieute

12 Feb 12 at 6:53 pm
It’s going to take forever and a day to flush the bullshit and lies of the Obama administration from the body politic of the US.
Perhaps they can just do a reset thingy from the last election and any laws made after are made null and void?
Apparently they have a spare one left over from Hillary Clintons days.

Winston Smith

12 Feb 12 at 7:09 pm
I didn’t realise this:

After Mississippi rejected “personhood” and its threat to contraception, after Colorado rejected it twice, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul attended (Paul by satellite) a Personhood USA candidates forum in South Carolina. All signed a pledge to pursue “personhood” at the federal level. Mitt Romney did not attend the event, but when asked on Fox News before the Mississippi vote last year whether he would have supported such a measure as Massachusetts governor, he replied, “Absolutely.”

Do the people here who are up in arms about the Obama contraception mandate also support the complete legal banning of abortion via proposed “personhood” laws?

Just curious…

steve from brisbane

12 Feb 12 at 7:53 pm
Do the people here who are up in arms about the Obama contraception mandate also support the complete legal banning of abortion via proposed “personhood” laws?

Just curious…

No and it wouldn’t be banned either. If the SCOTUS at some stage overturns Row V Wade, as it should because it’s appalling law, the abortion issue will go back to the state legislatures where it belongs.

But let me ask you Mrs. Steve. You’ve said once that you’re against abortion. Do you support the proposed personhood laws…. as a conservative Catholic? Yes or no?

JC

12 Feb 12 at 8:00 pm
Human life begins at conception.

Therefore terminating that life is murder.

Nevertheless, there are circumstances when abortion is morally and ethically correct. For example, an ectopic pregnancy will kill both mother and baby before the baby has the slightest chance of survival. It is therefore morally correct to operate and kill the baby in order to save the life of the mother. This is classic bad-choice-worse-choice problem.

Abortion should be legal, safe, and rare.

And before you commence the usual stream of lefty bullshit, yes, my wife and I have walked that walk. Her choice was to accept the risk to her own life, and carry the baby to term. She got away with it – just – and yes, I will work until 70 as a result of that much-beloved child’s birth.

I have answered your question, now answer mine.

Was it morally and ethically correct of Preshizzle (TM Paco) Odumbugger to support a bill whereby when late term murder attempts on unborn babies failed (the baby was born live and breathing), the baby could be abandoned alone in a storeroom until it died of complications, thirst or other neglect?

Mk50 of Brisbane

12 Feb 12 at 8:09 pm
lol Steve walks along the garden path all smug and then steps on a rake. Thwack!

He does this every day.

Gab

12 Feb 12 at 8:15 pm
And Steve, philosophically such ‘personhood’ laws merely recognises what is already known. Human life begins at conception and the deliberate killing of the unborn (literally the most helpless and innocent human beings in existence) is murder. Only in ‘bad case worse case) situations such as ectopic pregnancy is such a grotesquely evil act even to be considered.

Once only admire the courage of mothers such a this young lady, God reward her.

Mk50 of Brisbane

12 Feb 12 at 8:27 pm
What Mrs Steve also failed to mention was that the Colorado initiative on which it was based went down by 40 points at the vote, so those attending the meeting were just grandstanding as there’s no way it will be carried if it couldn’t in conservative Colorado.

Mrs Steve was reading Rachael Maddow again. He’s such a conservative Catholic.

JC

12 Feb 12 at 8:29 pm
Even if we decide, as we often do, that just being human doesn’t guarantee any rights at all, what are the additional criteria?

Have any been suggested that would have any ethical, moral or scientific validity AND still condone 3rd trimester abortions in anything but the most dire emergency?

Here is my major disillusionment with a libertarian/rule of law society: in the USA, which is as close to such a structure as anyone has got, it essentially means that you have only those rights that you can hire a decent lawyer to defend.

Foetuses, including ones that have well-developed neurology AND have survived birth… ie., undeniably human and living… can’t sue. Hence, no rights.

wreckage

12 Feb 12 at 8:43 pm
Demographics=destiny. The left wants to disappear up its own arse and, by following the political paths so far enunciated, it will succeed. Each pro choice (aka anti-life) bleat is another vote for that. Smarter people than any of us commenting here have worked that out. Ignore it at your peril.

blogstrop

12 Feb 12 at 8:55 pm
Geez Wilkie is a whore.

But Mr Wilkie says there is no link between the funding announcement and his support for the Federal Government’s private health insurance changes.

He’s slime.

jumpnmcar

12 Feb 12 at 9:03 pm
Good to see ‘Catholic’ Steve is finally out in the open about his support for abortion.

I seem to recall that many states rejected desegregation too but that doesn’t mean much now. The pro-abortion movement is failing and collapsing like so many Bull Connors.

As I said above, the reasons are mostly related to science. Only a wacko or a backward obscurantist denies that human life begins at conception. This has implications and these will be played out legislatively and culturally in the years to come.

C.L.

12 Feb 12 at 9:05 pm
This has implications and these will be played out legislatively and culturally in the years to come.

Because the world will be inhabited largely by Mormons.

wreckage

12 Feb 12 at 9:20 pm
Only the simple-minded think there are simple answers to complex problems.

I don’t know how you can claim to know all complex problems MUST have complex solutions. A simple solution may be harder to find if it doesn’t fit the old paradigm.

Some examples of simple (or low tech) solutions to complex problems:

Bacteria causes ulcers, discovered by self inoculation
The ring structure of aromatic compounds, revealed as a vision in a dream
Low till/no till farming to tackle salinity and low rainfall on farms
Partition of countries to stop civil wars (e.g., Sudan, should probably happen in Somalia, Pakistan and Indonesia as well).
AIDS control – use of safe sex practices

.

12 Feb 12 at 9:22 pm
…and of course it has more uses than as money. Keynes was a jackass.

.

12 Feb 12 at 9:23 pm
Sorry, wrong thread

.

12 Feb 12 at 9:24 pm
CL didn’t answer the question.

Gab carried on like a goose as usual.

And no, JC, the personhood laws from conception seem a very ill conceived way to deal with abortion to me.

I have no opinion on the Obama vote on the late term abortion law because I’ve never read into it. He may have had an idefencible position on this: I don’t know.

I also consider it has little to do with the contraception mandate, which, as far as I am concerned, only stands to reduces abortions of all kinds, late included.

steve from brisbane

12 Feb 12 at 9:25 pm
Gab carried on like a goose as usual.

lol says the dodo bird.

Gab

12 Feb 12 at 9:30 pm
Hey SoB, how is your very own O/d satire site going?

How many comments have you elicited this year?

DavidJ

12 Feb 12 at 9:32 pm
Human life begins at conception.

Yes.

Therefore terminating that life is murder.

No. You are assuming ALL killing is murder.

Abortion should be legal, safe, and rare.

Yes.

.

12 Feb 12 at 9:36 pm
Feeling charitable and filled with good will towards mankind I just took a peek at Steve from Brisbane’s journal of a frightened and feeble urban cardigan wearer. Believe it or not this hilarious satirical character is warning against abuse of nutmeg and cinnamon.

Infidel Tiger

12 Feb 12 at 9:39 pm
Stevie. Done the house cleaning? Ironing? Sorted the brides wardrobe for tomorrow when she goes off for work?

Here’s some satire from oblivion dominion:

Catallaxy has the largest collection of obnoxious, immature, misogynistic, unreasonable, dishonest, disingenuous, lazy, dumb, gullible, un-insightful, self absorbed, uncharitable, childish, abusive, detached from reality, unpleasant, unscientific, selfish, tribal, repetitive, hypocritical, pedantic, tedious, psychologically unbalanced, and flat out wrong collection of commenters in all of the Australian blogosphere.

Tiny Dancer

12 Feb 12 at 9:39 pm
Yet he spends most of his time here, dodging dishwashing, his wife, kids and the ATO.

.

12 Feb 12 at 9:43 pm
2012 WMD:

nutmeg and cinnamon.

Gab

12 Feb 12 at 9:47 pm
CL didn’t answer the question.

What question?

Politicians are entitled to put their proposals to the people and see what happens.

Why would I object to a personhood amendment based on science?

But I see Steve – deeply humiliated to have backed another Obama lemon – is scrambling desperately for a distraction, lifted (as always) from one of his extremist commentators.

C.L.

12 Feb 12 at 9:49 pm
The nutmeg trip is not a pleasant one, or so I read, IT.

Uncle Scrooge has a lot to answer for.

steve from brisbane

12 Feb 12 at 9:49 pm
Why would I object to a personhood amendment based on science?

Because, if I recall correctly, you have previously said you support the Clinton formula of “safe, legal and rare”.

Supporting personhood laws seems akin supporting a position of “never”.

steve from brisbane

12 Feb 12 at 9:55 pm
By the way, Obama is on record favouring child murder as a “right.”

That language is used advisedly: murder.

He is a lowlife, a morally deranged extremist.

C.L.

12 Feb 12 at 9:56 pm
WSJ Editorial: Immaculate Contraception
An ‘accommodation’ that makes the birth-control mandate worse.

“Here’s a conundrum: The White House wants to impose its birth-control ideology on all Americans, including those for whom sponsoring or subsidizing such services violates their moral conscience. The White House also wants to avoid a political backlash from this blow to religious freedom. These goals are irreconcilable.

So you almost have to admire the absurdity of the new plan President Obama floated yesterday: The government will now write a rule that says the best things in life are “free,” including contraception. Thus a political mandate will be compounded by an uneconomic one—in other words, behold the soul of ObamaCare.”

JamesK

12 Feb 12 at 9:57 pm
Don’t know if Ansell will be too happy given that they must somehow give away their product so that others may give it away.

.

12 Feb 12 at 10:04 pm
You are assuming ALL killing is murder.

No, and I gave an appropriate example where an unborn baby can be ethically and morally killed.

In my previous career, killing was a normal part of the professional furniture so I could hardly assume ‘all killing is murder’ (not that I did any personally, I might add.).

In reference to the specific case of killing the unborn (AKA ‘abortion’) yes, I consider that in the vast majority of cases it is murder.

What did the baby do to warrant death? In most cases, it is killed for being a lifestyle inconvenience.

That’s no reason to kill someone IMHO.

I watched an interview once (years ago) where the female leftard strongly supported abortion and just as stongly opposed the death penalty for the worst criminals.

The interviewer said words to the effect of “How can your brain simultaneously support two entirely opposite ideas: you want the death penalty for the completely blameless and innocent while you oppose it for the truly evil, how can you not be a monster?”

And the interviewer just sat silent as she twisted in the wind, revealed for what she was, a hypocrite and yes, an amoral monster.

Mk50 of Brisbane

12 Feb 12 at 10:07 pm
I don’t often say this CL, that post [1:08pm comment] is exceptional in its moral clarity.

Very well done, sir.

Amen. It also reminds me why I miss CL’s blog so much.

Applause too for JamesK’s comment at 2:38pm.

The short, sharp back-and-forths here are often a lot of fun, but the longer more thoughtful postings are really a treat to read.

spot

12 Feb 12 at 10:33 pm
The nutmeg trip is not a pleasant one, or so I read, IT.

Uncle Scrooge has a lot to answer for.

Yes Steve. If only Mc Gruff could have arrested him and executed him via lethal injection, we could have fought off the nutmeg scourge that is sweeping our streets.

Then he could have finally made Top Cat move out of that damned alley and given Benny a proper recording contract!

.

12 Feb 12 at 10:37 pm
why I miss CL’s blog so much

His blog is still there, fortunately, and worth re-reading.

Bunyip stopped blogging for some time and returned to it. Perhaps CL will do the same…

Gab

12 Feb 12 at 10:45 pm
Mra. Steve searching for an appropriate answer in an argument

1. Go to Google search

2. Type in “Rahael Maddow, Obamacare, Catholics

or

3. Type in “Huffington Post, Obamacare, Catholics”.

Followed by plagiarizing in own words.

JC

12 Feb 12 at 10:49 pm
Poor lady died on her own in a hotel room with no-one with her. All her staff were somewhere else.
No family, nobody with her who cared, what a crazy world.

candy

12 Feb 12 at 10:51 pm
And (catching up on the day’s comments here) I also see that Steve has chosen to run with the line that if one doesn’t support “free” contraceptive ills and abortion ills for women, one is condemning them to a life of either serial pregnancies or serial abortions.

That one has been debunked so many times, it’s hardly worth doing it again, BUT… for the benefit of the slow children here:

In the US, oral contraception pills and condoms are cheap as chips. 15-20 bucks a month for the pill, a couple of bucks for a packet of condoms. And if a woman can’t even afford that, there are free and subsidised clinics all over the place – the taxpayer-subsidised Planned Parenthood being the biggest. Any American woman can get cheap or even free contraception already.

This whole kerfuffle is NOT about allowing or not allowing women to access cheap, reliable contraception. That’s the last thing it’s about. That’s why even people like me, who have no moral issues whatsoever with women using the pill or with men using condoms, are as deadset against this over-reach of State power as can be.

It’s about spitting in the eye of Christians, it’s about “putting them in their place,” it’s about using “women’s rights” as a stalking horse to piss on the Constitution, it’s about the grossest over-reach of government power I have ever seen in my lifetime.

Obama promised to “fundamentally transform America,” and Americans from all walks of life and all belief systems are finally awake up to where he’s trying to take us. And they’re increasingly worried, and increasingly angry.

spot

12 Feb 12 at 10:52 pm
You think it’s the first time someone has died alone, Candy?

JC

12 Feb 12 at 10:52 pm
“ills” = “pills”

spot

12 Feb 12 at 10:53 pm
It’s about spitting in the eye of Christians, it’s about “putting them in their place,” it’s about using “women’s rights” as a stalking horse to piss on the Constitution, it’s about the grossest over-reach of government power I have ever seen in my lifetime.

“sactly.

Obama promised to “fundamentally transform America,” and Americans from all walks of life and all belief systems are finally awake up to where he’s trying to take us. And they’re increasingly worried, and increasingly angry.

‘sactly.

I recall an interview he gave in 08 that was very instructive. A lot of people misread the interview thinking he had slight right wing tendencies because he mentioned how Ronald Reagan was a transformative figure while Bill Clinton wasn’t and that he wanted to be like Reagan.

Funny, but that got me very uneasy about him, as I thought he was giving away his true intentions.

JC

12 Feb 12 at 11:00 pm
JC never mind she’s with Jesus and all good and free of her burdens. Did she have children ? hope not

candy

12 Feb 12 at 11:00 pm
She had a daughter to Bobbie Brown, I think.

JC

12 Feb 12 at 11:04 pm
Obama’s Hitlerian attack on Christianity, specificially in relation to contraception

You’re an idiot.

Les Majesty

12 Feb 12 at 11:07 pm
Back to show us more of the special idiot Les?

Tiny Dancer

12 Feb 12 at 11:11 pm
TIny Prancer, you are an idiot too.

Les Majesty

12 Feb 12 at 11:15 pm
Tillman! Still waiting for your inside info on ASIO.

Abu Chowdah

12 Feb 12 at 11:19 pm
Mark Steyn, Mar 5th 2010:

“Why is he doing this? Why let “health” “care” “reform” stagger on like the rotting husk in a low-grade creature feature who refuses to stay dead no matter how many stakes you pound through his chest?
Because it’s worth it. Big time. I’ve been saying in this space for two years that the governmentalization of health care is the fastest way to a permanent left-of-center political culture. It redefines the relationship between the citizen and the state in fundamental ways that make limited government all but impossible. In most of the rest of the Western world, there are still nominally “conservative” parties, and they even win elections occasionally, but not to any great effect (let’s not forget that Jacques Chirac was, in French terms, a “conservative”). The result is a kind of two-party one-party state: Right-of-center parties will once in a while be in office, but never in power, merely presiding over vast left-wing bureaucracies that cruise on regardless.
Republicans seem to have difficulty grasping this basic dynamic. Less than three months ago, they were stunned at the way the Democrats managed to get 60 senators to vote for the health bill. Then Scott Brown took them back down to 59, and Republicans were again stunned to find the Dems talking about ramming this thing into law through the parliamentary device of “reconciliation.” And, when polls showed an ever larger number of Americans ever more opposed to Obamacare (by margins approaching three-to-one), Republicans were further stunned to discover that, in order to advance “reconciliation,” Democratic reconsiglieres had apparently been offering (illegally) various cozy Big Government sinecures to swing-state congressmen in order to induce them to climb into the cockpit for the kamikaze raid to push the bill through. The Democrats understand that politics is not just about Tuesday evenings every other November, but about everything else, too.”

JamesK

12 Feb 12 at 11:20 pm
James

Basically Steyn is saying that the demolituionists are far more strategic, risk taking and prepared to take an all in bet than the conservatives.

I think that’s both true and instructive. There’s a huge lesson to be learnt there by the right.

I think the poorly constructed Workchoices thingi here has frightened the shit out of the right when in fact they ought to be looking at it as one of the battles lost rather than a lost war.

You have to take chances and less softcockery.

JC

12 Feb 12 at 11:27 pm
What inside info on ASIO?

All I said I think is that they didn’t get everything 100% correct and the fact that they had a file on someone didn’t mean that person was actually doing anything illegal or treasonous.

I wasn’t aware any of that was breaking news.

Also seems unusual that I need to explain at a libertarian website that public servants often make mistakes and also often seek to justify their own existence e.g. find lots of threatening reds thus justifying ASIO having a budget next year. What happens to the public servants at ASIO if they say “nope, can’t find any spies – no need for a surveillance budget next year”?

But evidently you are far more trusting of the govt and its security apparatus than I am, Chowdah. I think a healthy scepticism of government when it says it needs to spy on citizens is warranted.

Perhaps some of the libertarians at the Cat could explain to you the basis principles involved here.

And who is this Tillman of whom you speak?

Les Majesty

12 Feb 12 at 11:28 pm
The Tea Party know the GOP establishment are softcocks.

If Obama under Obamacre (“at the Secretary’s discretion”) can tell private companies to supply contraceptives free of charge he can order other citizens to buy the Chevy Volt.

It makes a mockery of liberty and the Constitution.

The GOP have one chance and one chance only to overturn this and Obama must be removed.

The equivalent GOP response after that would be Cap, Cut and Balance Constitutional amendment.

Do the GOP have the cojones?

No, but that’s the Tea Party’s goal.

They’re in for the long haul.

They are that country’s best hope.

JamesK

12 Feb 12 at 11:39 pm
That’s not what you said. That rephrasing is perfectly acceptable.

If you decide to revert to the earlier construction I am waiting with bated breath to hear the scoop. I am an amateur fan of all things George Smiley, so was excited to read your casual but devastating observation. Unless you revive it I’ll go with George Sinodinus’ portrait, which surely comes from a position of first hand knowledge considering his prior career.

Anyway I like your new line. If you revert again without facts I’ll just have to add you to the list of bullshit generating left wing twats. M’kay?

Abu Chowdah

12 Feb 12 at 11:40 pm
By the way, Tillman, as a former long term public servant I have had opportunity to interact with people across a range if APS departments. I’m not naive, I’m just better informed than you. That’s why I am dismissive of the hereditary predisposition towards conspiracy theorizing that is the hallmark of total fuckwits like Bob Brown, Bob Ellis, David Marr and other parasites on western civilization.

M’kay, Tillman?

Abu Chowdah

12 Feb 12 at 11:45 pm
Les:

Asio is a line of defense against people that don’t like us, or wish to do us harm.

The Chinese spies stuff is bullshit because we really don’t have any economic secrets.

However it is important to know if they’re buying influence, or for that matter if anyone else is.

Spying is also important, as at times it could actually avert a war. If the US had more info on how many Sov military personnel there were in Cuba they wouldn’t have thought it a piece of cake to potentially bomb Cuban missile sites that would have ignited WW3.

911 could have been avoided.

ASIO did serve a useful purpose in keeping tabs on someone like Rhiannon as we now know just what a traitorous stooge she was during the cold war… essentially an existential war.

JC

12 Feb 12 at 11:48 pm
Abu, some other sorts of possible dispositions, hereditary and acquired. Blair on Schizokittens links to Atlantic Monthly article. Comments on Blair’s blog indicate range of issues discussed:

viz:

Crazy Czech scientist, dig the pic. Toxo been around a long time, and just one of many. Jared Diamond has the gen, blames the Neolithic for giving us germs galore. Very character building. As the bio-med types are wont to say: “Parasitology – last resort of the diagnostically desperate”. Sometimes works, though. Thought provoking in its own ineluctable way.

Not a good reason to needle out my increasingly dependent ancient moggie, still relentless in her pursuit of my affections.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B. of Sydney (Reply)
Sun 12 Feb 12 (12:38pm)

The article says that men who have picked up this infection from pet cats have higher testosterone levels and are more attractive to women than men who have not. Let’s hear it for cats! I’m heading to the pet store right now.

mike of gold coast (Reply)
Sun 12 Feb 12 (01:48pm)

The finding fits right in with the recent discovery of Human Endogenous Retro-Viruses.

Google and Wiki HERV for further shocking developments.

Harry Bergeron of Disease-Free Pleasantville (Reply)
Sun 12 Feb 12 (03:46pm)

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

12 Feb 12 at 11:50 pm
Lizzie, I am already irresistible to women without having to kennel some poufy Persian cat!

Abu Chowdah

12 Feb 12 at 11:53 pm
Abu, link to Blair’s piece is here

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

12 Feb 12 at 11:54 pm
Moggies and pigeons are respositories for all sortsa nasties

JamesK

12 Feb 12 at 11:54 pm
Too true, James. And yet people actually sleep with their pets! In the same bed! Yuck.

Gab

12 Feb 12 at 11:56 pm
Lizzie, I am already irresistible to women without having to kennel some poufy Persian cat!

Of course you are, Abu. Naturally. However, the Atlantic Monthly article also suggests Toxo may additionally be responsible for many other interesting conditions of both males and females.

The more serious link is to schizophrenia, where there does seem to be some compelling prevalence data relating to toxo and schizo link.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

13 Feb 12 at 12:00 am
Yep. I don’t even let my dogs inside the house.

Abu Chowdah

13 Feb 12 at 12:00 am
Does the study start, “as if women were not already inscrutable to men, it turns out this has been exacerbated…”?

Abu Chowdah

13 Feb 12 at 12:02 am
Gab, my cat sleeps with us. Often inbetween us. Or on top of one of us. We kick her down to the end of the bed quite often. She wheedles her way back up.

The things some men do for love of a woman, he says.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

13 Feb 12 at 12:06 am
That’s not what you said. That rephrasing is perfectly acceptable.

What did I say? Remind me.

Les Majesty

13 Feb 12 at 12:07 am
The Chinese spies stuff is bullshit because we really don’t have any economic secrets.

Why were there such intensive and targeted hacks into mining corporations in 2009 then?

Lazlo

13 Feb 12 at 12:07 am
Yes well, what could China gain? They can do all the spying they like but they can’t change world spot prices.

China cab just be arsewipes and renege on contracts or “chuck a Stern Hu” on us again.

.

13 Feb 12 at 12:09 am
Les:

Asio is a line of defense against people that don’t like us, or wish to do us harm.

The Chinese spies stuff is bullshit because we really don’t have any economic secrets.

However it is important to know if they’re buying influence, or for that matter if anyone else is.

Spying is also important, as at times it could actually avert a war. If the US had more info on how many Sov military personnel there were in Cuba they wouldn’t have thought it a piece of cake to potentially bomb Cuban missile sites that would have ignited WW3.

911 could have been avoided.

ASIO did serve a useful purpose in keeping tabs on someone like Rhiannon as we now know just what a traitorous stooge she was during the cold war… essentially an existential war.

Where did I ever say anything that contradicted that?

Les Majesty

13 Feb 12 at 12:09 am
Lizzie, your bed, your rules. My bed, my rules.

And peace once again descends upon the land.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 12:09 am
Yes well, what could China gain? They can do all the spying they like but they can’t change world spot prices.

Enough to ‘influence’ negotiations on contracts below the spot price.

Lazlo

13 Feb 12 at 12:16 am
I’m not naive, I’m just better informed than you. That’s why I am dismissive of the hereditary predisposition towards conspiracy theorizing that is the hallmark of total fuckwits like Bob Brown, Bob Ellis, David Marr and other parasites on western civilization.

It is entirely possible that you are better informed than I.

However I remain unimpressed with your reading comprehension skills.

Where did I ever engage in any conspiracy theorising or express any affiliation with or support for any of BB, BE, or DM?

You see, probably a lot of folk at ASIO are well-intentioned, as I assume you to be, but also lacking in basic literacy skills.

If the average ASIO officer is no better than you are at recounting what someone said, or drawing accurate inferences regarding the speaker’s views, then I imagine the average ASIO file is full of misrepresentations, distortions and inaccuracies.

Does not require a “conspiracy” or even malice.

Just your run of the mill incompetent public servant, doing his job to a mediocre standard.

Again, I am surprised that I need to explain to the Cat’s audience that government agencies, however desirable the outcomes they seek to achieve, often fuck shit up.

Les Majesty

13 Feb 12 at 12:17 am
as if women were not already inscrutable to men

Yep, it’s real Mars and Venus stuff, but with a kicker. Theory is Toxo causes brain damage or alteration that acts differentially in men and women: men go even more risk-taking and women become even more social and yappy. Underlying cause postulated to be a mediating factor – genetic pre-disposition to anxiety, which the sexes express it differently.

Other qualities, in same vein (e.g. concerning differential sense of smell etc), explored in various studies reported in the article. I gave it ten minutes this morning and found it quite interesting if you’re into speculative socio-evolutionary-biology and the impact of bugs on our species.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

13 Feb 12 at 12:17 am
Why were there such intensive and targeted hacks into mining corporations in 2009 then?

Lazlo,

I think up to that time the Chinese thought it was important to gain information about what the miners were thinking in terms of pitching a price for long term contracts. However that market has basically disappeared thanks to BHP deciding they were going to sell the vast majority of their output on the spot market and if there were requests for long term deals it would be based off the current spot price.

The days of annual price negotiations are over and therefore no necessity to really spy.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 12:17 am
Your post, which I cannot be arsed to try to find via this iPhone, said to the effect that that agency often fucked things up.

Pray, do tell. I want the scoop, not your dissembling bullshit.

Alternatively, define often.

Abu Chowdah

13 Feb 12 at 12:19 am
Thanks JC and dot, points appreciated.

But times change, information and blackmail are king, so don’t expect the Chinese to stop vacuuming up as much corporate and personal information as they can. They clearly have an advanced capability to do so.

Lazlo

13 Feb 12 at 12:24 am
Your post, which I cannot be arsed to try to find via this iPhone, said to the effect that that agency often fucked things up.

My reasoning is as follows:

A. ASIO is a government agency.

B. Government agencies often fuck shit up.

C. Therefore, ASIO often fucks shit up.

That was my reasoning when I first posted and it remains my reasoning today.

Where is the flaw in my assumptions or logic?

Pray do tell, Chowdah. No more dissembling bullshit.

Les Majesty

13 Feb 12 at 12:25 am
Again, I am surprised that I need to explain to the Cat’s audience that government agencies, however desirable the outcomes they seek to achieve, often fuck shit up

And yet so many Lefties are perfectly relaxed and comfortable about giving government agencies the right to micromanage their medical and healthcare needs.

Go figure.

spot

13 Feb 12 at 12:26 am
Chowdah

Perhaps with your entree to the corridors of power you have greater knowledge that a humble mere citizen such a myself, but pray do explain for the benefit of us ignorant outsiders why ASIO, uniquely among government agencies, should be presumed infallible.

Les Majesty

13 Feb 12 at 12:29 am
My dear Tillman, I told you I was a fan of intrigue. I am well aware that agencies fuck things up. However, the descriptor “often” suggests incompetence on a scale that would only be comprehensible to the febrile imagination of someone like Lee Rhiannon. The onus is with you.

Point out these fuck ups, Tillman. It’s time to show some sack or forever be typecast as a beta male blow in.

Will be back in a few hours to read the salacious headlines, as my plane is prepping for take off.

I remain, as ever….

Abu Chowdah

13 Feb 12 at 12:31 am
Not infallible. I am just EAGER to read your inside scoops. If you don’t want to excite trainspotters, don’t drop these enticing, casual eyebrow raisers. Idiot.

Safety demonstration, etc. Will check in later.

Abu Chowdah

13 Feb 12 at 12:34 am
It’s going to be interesting to see what Breitbart has on Odumbo.

I’m just speculating, but I reckon it’s a film of Odumbo making nice with Terrorist Bill Ayers or Bernardine Dorin and meant to embarrass him for denying he knew these two terrorists. This will blow his lies apart.

The problem for Odumbo is that this will stick with the public, no matter what his MSM supporters try and avoid it.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 12:40 am
Ok, Chowdah, if I understand you, you are saying that it’s safe to assume ASIO does not often fuck things up.

That’s just not an assumption I am willing to make.

Every law enforcement agency I have ever dealt with or read about has often fucked shit up, often spectacularly and egregiously.

Has the CIA often fucked shit up? Yep. Aldrich Ames, Curveball, and a series of horrendous misjudgments from Iran to Indochina to Central America to Afghanistan, repeated time and again over the decades.

I’m generally a fan of the CIA, but it is a simple fact that they have screwed up time and again. There is no point denying it.

Has the FBI often fucked shit up? Yep.

MI5? Yep.

MI6? Yep.

KGB? Yep.

Australian Federal Police? Oh you bet they have screwed the pooch big time and repeatedly.

So all these agencies repeatedly fuck up.

But ASIO is above all this, you say. ASIO does not often fuck shit up.

I simply don’t believe you. I find it statistically so improbable that ASIO, uniquely among government agencies, does not often fuck shit up that I am not prepared to give the notion any credence.

Sorry.

Les Majesty

13 Feb 12 at 12:44 am
It’s time to show some sack or forever be typecast as a beta male blow in.

What pathetic schoolyard bloviation. An infantile performance, Chowdah.

Les Majesty

13 Feb 12 at 12:46 am
Les

The original point was if ASIO had fucked things up over Repugnant Rhiannon. Unless ASIO simply lied about the telephone transcripts then it’s likely that what they say about this simply appalling woman is true.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 1:00 am
lOl

ABC promoting the idea of a change in their political wing’s leadership….. again

TONIGHT, ABC1′s Four Corners program will try to answer one of the great political questions of our time: how a government elected with widespread popular support came to brutally execute its leader after just a few years in office, lose its parliamentary majority at a disastrous election and is today historically unpopular with its credibility virtually destroyed.

After months of speculation, destabilisation and growing anxiety among Labor MPs over Julia Gillard’s prime ministership, the program has the potential to blast open the leadership debate and prompt more soul-searching inside Labor as the reality of its predicament sets in.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 1:28 am
Apologies if this has already been covered, folks.

JC: this data showing huge declines in petroleum consumption and the price of shipping seems pretty freaking ominous for the global economy; a pretty sure sign we’re going over the precipice as we speak –

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/02/petroleum-3-month-rolling-average-turns.html

Or am I missing something? Hope so.

Oh come on

13 Feb 12 at 1:54 am
OCO

Intereting. I’ve been watching the Baltic index do its tumble and all I could do was watch it and not have any real story to go with it that is new. Europe in recession, Developing world growth rate moderating?

I think the comment at the end of your piece says it all.

Rather, the huge dropoff in gasoline and petroleum usage in the US, coupled with falling shipping rates, a drop in Japanese Exports Three Consecutive Months, and a European Recession poised to get much worse,

the last one.. perhaps?

I honestly don’t know what to make of falling US consumption as other indicators of the US economy look healthy to be.

Perhaps the employment participation rate dropping off has had an effect? Perhaps US cars are getting more efficient?

I tend to look at what Buffet looks at and that is rail shipments and that looks fine to me. I also look at electricity consumption there and that’s basically doing okay too.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 2:16 am
Also the heavy duty globals warmning inspired bad winter in Europe could have slowed driving down as they’ve had snow etc. in places that is rare to see it such as Places like Rome.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 2:19 am
Re. the Obama tapes Breitbart says he has. As I said above, I reckon that they might make an impression on the choir, but not much beyond that. Breitbart’s a smart operator. If he had anything genuinely game-changing, I think he’d keep it under his hat. No point giving your enemy a heads-up about compromising material you have on them – this gives them a chance to have contingencies at the ready which they otherwise wouldn’t have prepared.

Oh come on

13 Feb 12 at 2:31 am
I reckon that they might make an impression on the choir, but not much beyond that.

But even that is good. No one on the demolition side including the MSN media is going to give a shit what’s in the tapes as they will support the fucker to the 9th circle of hell.

However it is important to the base and the 75% of indeps who have given up on the leftist loon as it energizes them to go out and vote.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 2:41 am
This Hendo post on the Moby Gale is hilarious reading.

Sally Jackson: Graeme Wood is putting more than $15m into the project. How long will that money last? What happens when it runs out?

Monica Attard: The money will last five years. I can’t see over the horizon after five years. Yet. Come back to me in one year on this one.

Sally Jackson: Will the site be aiming to make any money? How?

Monica Attard: We would like to think we can come up with novel ways to help pay our way in the world. We haven’t thought of any yet. That’s the honest-to-god truth.

I believe her.

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 2:42 am
Newspoll: Nobody believes Gillard and Swan are good economic managers (!), Abbott takes 9 point lead as economic leader.

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 2:46 am
Monica Attard: We would like to think we can come up with novel ways to help pay our way in the world. We haven’t thought of any yet. That’s the honest-to-god truth.

I believe her.

I believe her too. Look at her freaking bio. There’s no sign of a profit motive in there.

Wood’s an idiot. He’ll never make any money unless it was a vanity project otherwise it’s a one hit wonder. The left side of the media is full. There’s Fairfax, crikey and all of the ABC vying for that well serviced audience.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 2:50 am
bwhaahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahaahahhahaha – and my contemptuous guffawing actually went on a lot longer than you’d think despite the length of my bwhahaha chain – but but but isn’t the economy going to be the government’s “killing floor”??

Can you say epic fail? These people running our country are just so, so, so stupid. So mind-bogglingly stupid. Words fail.

Oh come on

13 Feb 12 at 2:53 am
Newspoll: Nobody believes Gillard and Swan are good economic managers (!), Abbott takes 9 point lead as economic leader.

I saw that and it spells even more trouble for the great, great negotiator. The moron was supposed to be touting the government’s strong economic record. However the more she tries doing this the more she reminds those people that polled against her what a lying self deluded slapper she is and ends up cementing their view of her even more.

She has no credibility left with the marginal voter and is completely out of contention. No one listens to her other than to associate her with contempt.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 2:55 am
Here’s what I think: the pounding the Iron Pact partners take on the internet has caused certain people to launch a counter-initiative designed to combat da Bolt and da Blair (and even da Cat).

A Fluffington Post, if you will.

Of course it goes without saying that it will fail.

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 2:55 am
Can you say epic fail? These people running our country are just so, so, so stupid. So mind-bogglingly stupid. Words fail.

Ahahahaha.

So true.

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 2:56 am
Tillman, they have all fucked up on occasion – that was never in doubt. But you said “often” which is a different ball game. I was excited because, being a Le Carre nerd, I thought you had some huge scoop. Instead it appears you consider the occasional cost of doing business – a fuck up now and again – to mean “often”.

To be precise, Tillman, I thought you had something juicy on them when instead you are peddling a tabloid mischaracterization. A fuck up or two every decade is not “often”. And that’s why all of this spooky organizations you listed are still in business. Because the people who run governments are realistic about risks, and not breathless fantasists like you.

I was excited to think You might have some scoop but suspected I was casualist bullshit. My suspicions were right and my narrow hopes have been dashed.

Abu Chowdah

13 Feb 12 at 3:52 am
Certainly Obama’s war on the Catholic Church is Hitlerian, ideologically. That’s not even a controversial usage of the adjective.

Not enough attention is paid, though, to the near mentally ill belief of Obama that pregnancy is an illness and that women shouldn’t buy their own contraceptives.

I explained what drives this fear and hatred of life above.

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 3:52 am
Not enough attention is paid, though, to the near mentally ill belief…that pregnancy is an illness

Indeed. A policy which implies such a belief is imagined to be moderate, while those opposed to it are thought of as ‘extreme’. What spectacular mendacity!

dover_beach

13 Feb 12 at 4:51 am
If Obama can demand that “preventative healthcare” be “free” under all health insurance policies, why can’t he demand that oil changes, tire rotations and all scheduled maintenance be “free” under car insurance policies, or that homeowners’ insurance include “free” gutter-cleaning, house-painting, window-washing and termite inspections?

spot

13 Feb 12 at 5:16 am
George Will, Sunday morning Political Panel discussion:

“Three points. As Paul Ryan said to you, this is an account gimmick that they’ve done that in no way hems the complicity of Catholic institutions and individuals in delivering services they consider morally abhorrent.

Second. You asked the question, ‘How did this come about?’ George (Stephanopulos – host & formerClinton chief of staff), this is what liberalism looks like. This is what the progressive state does. It tries to break all the institutions of civil society, all the institutions that mediate between the individual and the state. They have to break them to the saddle of the state.

Third. The Catholic Bishops, it serves them right. They’re the ones who were really hot for Obamacare, with a few exceptions. But they were all in favor of this. And this is what it looks like when the government decides it’s going to make your healthcare choices for you.”

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 9:17 am
Ode to the Welfare State (from 1949)

Father must I go to work?
No, my lucky son.
We’re living now on Easy Street.
On dough from Washington.

We’ve left it up to Uncle Sam,
So don’t get exercised.
Nobody has to give a damn-
We’ve all been subsidised.

RTWT.

Paul Williams

13 Feb 12 at 10:16 am
My reasoning is as follows:

A. ASIO is a government agency.

B. Government agencies often fuck shit up.

C. Therefore, ASIO often fucks shit up.

ASIO is not centrelink.

.

13 Feb 12 at 10:27 am
Certainly Obama’s war on the Catholic Church is Hitlerian, ideologically. That’s not even a controversial usage of the adjective.

Not enough attention is paid, though, to the near mentally ill belief of Obama that pregnancy is an illness and that women shouldn’t buy their own contraceptives.

Hahahahahahahahaha. Brilliant.

There I was thinking that the GOP might beat Barry in November by discussing the economy.

But now I see the strategy is to paint him as a Nazi because he is trying to ensure that women who want access to contraception can get it.

Not sure if that strategy will work much magic at the ballot box, but if you feel better for venting and going off on another Nazi rant then so be it.

So long as you feel good about yourself, CL.

Les Majesty

13 Feb 12 at 10:32 am
But now I see the strategy is to paint him as a Nazi because he is trying to ensure that women who want access to contraception can get it.

Buy a condom. Don’t force a religious healthcare group to act against their conscience.

.

13 Feb 12 at 10:34 am
Abu Chowdah sez:

I was excited… I thought you had some huge scoop… I thought you had something juicy on them… I was excited…

Sure sounds like you are easily excited, Chowdah. It’s also clear that you have a reading comprehension problem, cos I never said or intimated that i had a scoop on anyone, “huge” or otherwise.

Because the people who run governments are realistic about risks, and not breathless fantasists like you

Riiiiiiiiight. If I am a breathless fantasist, what do we call someone as easily excitable as you are?

Les Majesty

13 Feb 12 at 10:34 am
I know polling in America is extremely fickle and throws up odd results all the time, but still:

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 35% of Likely Voters say it would be more accurate to describe the agenda of Republicans in Congress as mainstream, while 52% feel extreme is a more accurate description. Thirteen percent (13%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Hard to see how the Republicans going all hot and heavy on contraception is going to help those figures.

steve from brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 10:36 am
I would like the amateur theologians of Catallaxy, and indeed the Catholic bishops, to explain why a Catholic employer paying for cover from an insurance company which the government obliges to provide free contraception is somehow morally responsible for “facilitating” said contraception, but is not morally responsible when its taxes help pay for government funding for Planned Parenthood, or indeed a war which the Church finds is unjust.

steve from brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 10:40 am
You have a hide as thick as a pack of elephants to play the inferiority complex game with anyone who challenges your belief set, Stepford Steve.

You think we should be able to renege on paying taxes by conscientious objection? Good. Now don’t be duplicitous about it and say you don’t think so.

.

13 Feb 12 at 10:43 am
Hard to see how the Republicans going all hot and heavy on contraception is going to help those figures.

I see your poll and raise you another Rasmussen:

But, among Catholics, only 28 percent believe religious organizations should be required to implement rules that conflict with church doctrine. Sixty-five percent are opposed. This is true even though many Catholics disagree with church teachings on birth control.

The impact is stunning since 54 percent of Catholics voted for President Obama in 2008. Today, just 39 percent of Catholic voters approve of the way he’s doing his job.

Perhaps some strategists thought that Catholics would welcome government help in battling the church on birth control. But Catholics who disagree with the church deal with the situation in the privacy of their own bedroom. They don’t need federal help. In fact, it is hard to imagine any person of faith wanting the federal government to have any say in church doctrine and how Holy Scripture should be applied.

Hard to see how Obama taking on the Catholic Church and trampling the Constitution is going to help him in November.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 10:44 am
So the Dem controlled Senate Congress not passing a budget in over 3 years is not extreme whilst the GOP controlled House Congress going “hot and heavy” on contraception is extreme, steve?

steve, u ar a troll.

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 10:45 am
Actually, I don’t follow your point, made as it is with your usual stupid aggression.

steve from brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 10:46 am
Apparently now proudly a stupid troll.

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 10:48 am
Playing dumb and drawing the passive aggressive card will do you no favours either, Stepford Steve.

Do you think taxation should be voluntary subject to conscientious objection to spending aims given you predicated this by the moral support of religious freedom elsewhere?

Yes or no.

If no, why did you frame a dishonest question.

You’re ‘fair game’ now Steve.

.

13 Feb 12 at 10:49 am
test?

Les Majesty

13 Feb 12 at 10:53 am
And here’s another Rasmussen, Gab:

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows that 49% are pro-choice when it comes to abortion, while 43% say they are pro-life.

Republicans saying they’ll do what they can federally to promote the “personhood” initiatives would only see more of the undecided lean to the “pro choice”, if you ask me.

steve from brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 10:56 am
Stop conflating the issues, Steve.

You know you’re in trouble when even the WaPo disagrees:

While Team Obama wanted to debate contraception, the Catholic League’s Bill Donahue said it was unprecedented “for the federal government to line up against the Roman Catholic Church.” Even The Washington Post, hometown paper for America’s Political Class, thought the administration ruling went too far and “does not make an adequate accommodation for those deeply held views.” When the Post thinks you’ve gone too far in imposing federal authority, it’s a sure sign that you’re pretty far out on a limb.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 10:57 am
I see steve using one his favourite and tiresome tropes: “if you ask me”.

We generally don’t steve.

In fact, we invariably haven’t and aren’t interested on every nauseating occasion you write: “if you ask me”.

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 11:04 am
Answer the fucking questions, Stepford Steve

GO!!!

.

13 Feb 12 at 11:05 am
What’s your point, dot?

You think we should be able to renege on paying taxes by conscientious objection?

No I don’t. Nor does the Church run such campaigns even though it knows some funding goes to organisations facilitating abortion (not just contraception.)

But how is this consistent with the Church (or Republicans) now insisting that employers paying for insurance with contraceptive cover when it is not the employer’s choice that this happen are somehow “facilitating” the provision of the cover?

steve from brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 11:13 am
Mrs. Steve:

Haven’t you got house work to attend to?

JC

13 Feb 12 at 11:16 am
No I don’t.

If no, why did you frame a dishonest question.

You’re ‘fair game’ now Steve.

GO!!!

.

13 Feb 12 at 11:18 am
And here’s another Rasmussen, Gab:

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows that 49% are pro-choice when it comes to abortion, while 43% say they are pro-life.

So what, you eggnog? Ask the question whether the Catholic Church should be compelled to provide cover for something it doesn’t believe in and see what that looks like.

On second thoughts don’t. I want to see Odumbo head into the election with this noose around his fat neck.

Dickhead, Mrs. Steve, you could be an atheist and be totally in support of the Church’s position. You could also be pro-abortion too.

Get back to the chores, Stepford.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 11:20 am
Go away yourself, dot. You are not worth the expenditure of my time and wisdom….

steve from brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 11:21 am
Small edit suggestion, Step.

Go away yourself, dot. You are not worth the expenditure of my time and wisdom especially with all the washing, cleaning and ironing I have to do today.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 11:23 am
Jeez… don’t whatever you do join the Iranian navy.

Feb 12 (Reuters) – Iran has built up its naval forces in the Gulf and prepared boats that could be used in suicide attacks, but the U.S. Navy can prevent it from blocking the Strait of Hormuz, the commander of U.S. naval forces in the region said on Sunday.

I think even radar surveillance would be a better job. At one stage the most dangerous job in the Iraqi army was radar because American missiles would lock on the signal and the final result wasn’t pretty.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 11:27 am
Excellent commentary on this on the Commonweal blog.

steve from brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 11:28 am
According to family members, before his assisted demise, Osama bin Laden told his kids and grandkids:

…Osama supposedly told his children and grandchildren. “Do not follow me down the road to jihad,” he said. “You have to study and live in peace and don’t do what I am doing or what I have done.”

http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/2012/02/12/strike-a-pose-theres-nothing-to-it-3/

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 11:29 am
Go away yourself, dot. You are not worth the expenditure of my time and wisdom….

Answer the fucking question you dishonest clown.

.

13 Feb 12 at 11:34 am
There I was thinking that the GOP might beat Barry in November by discussing the economy.

Actually, no. You’ve been saying Barry the food stamp king and deficit tripling deadbeat would win because of his outstanding management of the economy.

Adding to his economic nightmare, Obama – one of the dumbest men ever elected president – began a Hitlerian jihad against the Catholic Church. Chris Matthews (FFS) called his hatemongering “frightening” and dismissed his apologia as lies.

Joe Biden thinks its stupid.

Thanks, Barry!

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 11:43 am
…he is trying to ensure that women who want access to contraception can get it.

Ahahahahaha.

Poor dear sweet women – wandering around the streets trying to find contraceptives.

Ahahahahaha.

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 11:45 am
Notre Dame’s letter on the mandate gathering formidable signatories (tho’ not conservative catholic troll steve from Brisbane who reportedly responded: “que?”):

“The Obama administration has offered what it has styled as an “accommodation” for religious institutions in the dispute over the HHS mandate for coverage (without cost sharing) of abortion inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception. The administration will now require that all insurance plans cover (“cost free”) these same products and services. Once a religiouslyaffiliated (or believing individual) employer purchases insurance (as it must, by law), the insurance company will then contact the insured employees to advise them that the terms of the policy include coverage for these objectionable things.

This so-called “accommodation” changes nothing of moral substance and fails to remove the assault on religious liberty and the rights of conscience which gave rise to the controversy. It is
certainly no compromise. The reason for the original bipartisan uproar was the administration’s insistence that religious employers, be they institutions or individuals, provide insurance that covered services they regard as gravely immoral and unjust. Under the new rule, the government still coerces religious institutions and individuals to purchase insurance policies that include the very same services.

It is no answer to respond that the religious employers are not “paying” for this aspect of the insurance coverage. For one thing, it is unrealistic to suggest that insurance companies will not
pass the costs of these additional services on to the purchasers. More importantly, abortiondrugs, sterilizations, and contraceptives are a necessary feature of the policy purchased by the religious institution or believing individual. They will only be made available to those who are insured under such policy, by virtue of the terms of the policy.

It is morally obtuse for the administration to suggest (as it does) that this is a meaningful accommodation of religious liberty because the insurance company will be the one to inform the
employee that she is entitled to the embryo-destroying “five day after pill” pursuant to the insurance contract purchased by the religious employer. It does not matter who explains the
terms of the policy purchased by the religiously affiliated or observant employer. What matters is what services the policy covers…….” … RTWT

Signed:
John Garvey
President, The Catholic University of America
Mary Ann Glendon
Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard University
Robert P. George
McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University
O. Carter Snead
Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame
Yuval Levin
Hertog Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center

Many prominent other signatories under the following headings:
1. University and College Professors
2. University/College/Seminary Presidents, Deans, and Board Members
3. Scholars and Activists
4. Journalist and public intellectuals

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 11:57 am
Notre Dame’s letter on the mandate gathering formidable signatories (tho’ not conservative catholic troll steve from Brisbane who reportedly responded: “que?”):

“The Obama administration has offered what it has styled as an “accommodation” for religious institutions in the dispute over the HHS mandate for coverage (without cost sharing) of abortion inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception. The administration will now require that all insurance plans cover (“cost free”) these same products and services. Once a religiouslyaffiliated (or believing individual) employer purchases insurance (as it must, by law), the insurance company will then contact the insured employees to advise them that the terms of the policy include coverage for these objectionable things.

This so-called “accommodation” changes nothing of moral substance and fails to remove the assault on religious liberty and the rights of conscience which gave rise to the controversy. It is
certainly no compromise. The reason for the original bipartisan uproar was the administration’s insistence that religious employers, be they institutions or individuals, provide insurance that covered services they regard as gravely immoral and unjust. Under the new rule, the government still coerces religious institutions and individuals to purchase insurance policies that include the very same services.

It is no answer to respond that the religious employers are not “paying” for this aspect of the insurance coverage. For one thing, it is unrealistic to suggest that insurance companies will not
pass the costs of these additional services on to the purchasers. More importantly, abortiondrugs, sterilizations, and contraceptives are a necessary feature of the policy purchased by the religious institution or believing individual. They will only be made available to those who are insured under such policy, by virtue of the terms of the policy.

It is morally obtuse for the administration to suggest (as it does) that this is a meaningful accommodation of religious liberty because the insurance company will be the one to inform the
employee that she is entitled to the embryo-destroying “five day after pill” pursuant to the insurance contract purchased by the religious employer. It does not matter who explains the
terms of the policy purchased by the religiously affiliated or observant employer. What matters is what services the policy covers…….” … RTWT

Signed:
John Garvey
President, The Catholic University of America
Mary Ann Glendon
Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard University
Robert P. George
McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University
O. Carter Snead
Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame
Yuval Levin
Hertog Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center

Many prominent other signatories under the following headings:
1. University and College Professors
2. University/College/Seminary Presidents, Deans, and Board Members
3. Scholars and Activists
4. Journalist and public intellectuals

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 11:57 am
….he is trying to ensure that women who want access to contraception can get it

Here Step. I used go to Duane Reade, one of the big pharma chains.

Buy a pack of condoms and you even get flexipoints.

Step, are you seriously trying to create the impression that contraceptives are rare in the US? lol. You can even buy the things in the toilets at bus stops, you idiot.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 11:58 am
Baracuda brings another classic slap-down of the worst president ever:

Sarah Palin on HBO Palin Movie: I’ve Created More Impersonators Than Obama’s Created Jobs (Video).

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 12:01 pm
And Step.. if say you illegally traipsed over the border looking for a job and have difficulty with English, Duane’s can help you ask for a pack of condoms in your own language.

All the languages the speak.

http://www.duanereade.com/Pharmacy.aspx?d=l

JC

13 Feb 12 at 12:03 pm
In a first for him, George Soros criticises a German Chancellor.

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 12:09 pm
So George is saying don’t pay your debts, get into further debt by borrowing more?

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 12:17 pm
Sarah Palin at CPAC: “When I listened to his State of the Union last month, I was really struck that he barely mentioned unemployment and entitlements. What did he talk about? He gave us more promises, promises to give us “an economy built to last.” Well Mr. President, we do not want an economy built to last. We want an economy built to grow and we certainly do not want your economy build to last. We want your administration to end”

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 12:18 pm
In a first for him, George Soros criticises a German Chancellor.

Wait a short while and he’ll be trying to peddle a view that will help his risk position in the market.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 12:20 pm
Interesting thread over at Bunyip’s site. Hope he doesn’t mind, but I’m posting it here in full.

A FRIEND OF the Billabong who works in Canberra writes:

It’s an open secret Gillard’s spinners blitzed the gallery to blame Abbott straight after the Lobby incident and it is an open secret the gallery wants this to go away in the worst way. Pyne should call on (a prominent journalist) to explain why he was telling colleagues it was Abbott’s fault within minutes.

The journalist’s name will not be shared with readers, as there is no evidence stronger than mere assertion that he compromised his ethics and professional standards by serving as an eager publicist for Gillard’s orchestrated smears.

That said, the message took hold double-quick, as this Australia Day tweet by Ten’s Hugh Riminton suggests. Notice how denying a slander is “spinning hard” and also the implied assertion that Abbott wanted Humpytown shut down. Oh, and just for the record, Ten’s chief political correspondent was not the journalist named in this morning’s email.

The Billabong’s correspondent suggests Abbott’s people pick through reporters’ tweets for the hours after the riot, identify the worst and threaten libel actions against those who sheeted home the blame to the Opposition leader. Reporters are cowards, the correspondent writes, scared to go against the gallery’s groupthink. But the threat of being dragged into court, that could be something even more scary than colleagues’ disdain, He might have a point. The prospect might just loosen a few tongues.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 12:24 pm
Interesting thread over at Bunyip’s site. Hope he doesn’t mind, but I’m posting it here in full.

A FRIEND OF the Billabong who works in Canberra writes:

It’s an open secret Gillard’s spinners blitzed the gallery to blame Abbott straight after the Lobby incident and it is an open secret the gallery wants this to go away in the worst way. Pyne should call on (a prominent journalist) to explain why he was telling colleagues it was Abbott’s fault within minutes.

The journalist’s name will not be shared with readers, as there is no evidence stronger than mere assertion that he compromised his ethics and professional standards by serving as an eager publicist for Gillard’s orchestrated smears.

That said, the message took hold double-quick, as this Australia Day tweet by Ten’s Hugh Riminton suggests. Notice how denying a slander is “spinning hard” and also the implied assertion that Abbott wanted Humpytown shut down. Oh, and just for the record, Ten’s chief political correspondent was not the journalist named in this morning’s email.

The Billabong’s correspondent suggests Abbott’s people pick through reporters’ tweets for the hours after the riot, identify the worst and threaten libel actions against those who sheeted home the blame to the Opposition leader. Reporters are cowards, the correspondent writes, scared to go against the gallery’s groupthink. But the threat of being dragged into court, that could be something even more scary than colleagues’ disdain, He might have a point. The prospect might just loosen a few tongues.

http://bunyipitude.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/public-has-right-to-silence.html

JC

13 Feb 12 at 12:25 pm
In today’s column, atheist Charles Krauthammer writes as cogently on the intersection of faith and politics as any M.Div scholar:

Catholic soup kitchens do not demand religious IDs from either the hungry they feed or the custodians they employ. Catholic charities and hospitals — even Catholic schools — do not turn away Hindu or Jew.

Their vocation is universal, precisely the kind of universal love-thy-neighbor vocation that is the very definition of religiosity as celebrated by the Gospel of Obama. Yet according to the Gospel of Sebelius, these very same Catholic institutions are not religious at all — under the secularist assumption that religion is what happens on Sunday under some Gothic spire, while good works are “social services” properly rendered up unto Caesar.

It really is amazing the extent to which Obama’s social justice Christianity is making an impact on policy and the relative disinterest of the media in exploring these issues. It’s as if the specter of Jeremiah Wright has cast a permanent cone of silence over the discussion.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 12:36 pm
From the UK… Today in multiculturalism:

A MUM and daughter paying their respects in Dewsbury Cemetery were subjected to a torrent of racist abuse by a gang of up to 20 ~~Asians~~ Muslims.

The 39-year-old white woman, who was with her 11-year-old daughter, was going to lay flowers at her mother’s grave.

The mum and daughter had just been dropped off at the Pilgrim Crescent entrance while the woman’s husband went to park up.

It was at this point that a gang of Asian youths gathered and began taunting them.

They were called “white slags” and “white trash” as they laid flowers on a grave only yards away.

The woman, who asked not to be named, said her daughter was reduced to tears and added: “She was shaking. I had to hold her hand to keep her calm.

“I was frightened and thought we were about to be attacked. Thankfully they stayed by a wall near the cemetery gates.”

The woman, originally from Westtown, had travelled from Hull with her daughter and husband to visit her mother’s grave.

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 1:05 pm
Upthread:

“Monica Attard: We would like to think we can come up with novel ways to help pay our way in the world. We haven’t thought of any yet. That’s the honest-to-god truth.”

Translation:

I am waiting while Graeme figures out if he can get a government subsidy from Julia and her lickspittles, or whether he should go straight to the boss and ask Bob Brown for a few million bucks, like The Conversation ?

Wait for it…….

Myrrdin Seren

13 Feb 12 at 1:12 pm
“Monica Attard: We would like to think we can come up with novel ways to help pay our way in the world. We haven’t thought of any yet. That’s the honest-to-god truth.”

This is code for government funding. The ALP has funded the Gratan Institute, the Conversation and a number of other left wing organisations, why can’t Attard become a rent seeking subsidy tart like the rest of the lefty media?

Token

13 Feb 12 at 1:22 pm
….why can’t Attard become a rent seeking subsidy tart like the rest of the lefty media?

They are after all meeting unmet needs that the market isn’t able to provide….. like more leftwing media.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 1:25 pm
Rick Santorum wants to go where parish priests won’t:

“One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country,” the former Pennsylvania senator explained. “It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be…[Sex] is supposed to be within marriage. It’s supposed to be for purposes that are yes, conjugal…but also procreative. That’s the perfect way that a sexual union should happen…”

His fireside chats as President could be very interesting.

steve from brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 1:26 pm
Steve

You seem to have some real issues/hang-ups concerning sex and contraceptives. Okay we know you’re all for abortion, but why do you focus all your energies on matters concerning sex and contraception and how these relate to the Church and politicians?

Are you afraid you will be forced to have sex without contraceptives? Who’s holding that metaphorical gun to your head? You can tell us, we can help you. Think of it as free therapy.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 1:31 pm
Step, Mrs Steve…. i see you finished the morning chores.

Everyone knows he’s a social conservative and what he stands for so we don’t need a link to “Think Progress”, you Catholic conservative you. Lol

But let me ask you this, before you start the afternoon jobs.

How do you rate his views against someone who was a close member of “Rev” Jeremiah Wright congregation?

JC

13 Feb 12 at 1:32 pm
steve the conservative catholic troll hyperlinks to extreme leftist thinkprogress website where Rick Santorum is quoted describing the catholic religious view of sex:

“[Sex] is supposed to be within marriage. It’s supposed to be for purposes that are yes, conjugal…but also procreative. That’s the perfect way that a sexual union should happen…This is special and it needs to be seen as special.”

Thanx for that steve.

Presumably you guessed only catholics – and not just active conservative ones like you – but including ex ones like me know this.

The rest of the catallaxans don’t and you being a caring sharing kinda guy decided to do the noble thing….

It’s such an altruistic informative role you consistently play on this blog

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 1:35 pm
Answer the question Steve:

Why did you dishonestly frame a question earlier?

.

13 Feb 12 at 1:35 pm
Rick Santorum wants to go where parish priests won’t

.

You mean, like Obama?

Barry is the first president to ever interfere in the bedrooms of Americans with lectures about prophylactics.

But thanks for the link to Think Progress, Steve, a branch of the anti-semitic Center for American Progress.

In 2003, George Soros promised to financially support the organization by donating up to three million dollars…

Controversy arose after some center staffers for the CAP “publicly used language that could be construed as anti-Israel or even anti-Semitic.” Bloggers associated with CAP published several posts using phrases such as “apartheid” and “Israel-firsters,” causing NGO Monitor, American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and others to label them anti-Israel and call on CAP to disassociate themselves from these statements. CAP officials have since deleted Tweets that they claimed used “inappropriate” language and apologized.

Another great Steve blockquote.

This one financed by a Nazi collaborater.

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 1:37 pm
“My fellow Americans. Tonight I want to talk about the issue of pre-marital sex and contraception. We all know that young people today think that marriage is not important, as indeed did my wife in her 20′s, until she realised that sleeping for 5 years with the doctor who delivered her was not the right relationship for her.”

steve from brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 1:38 pm
WTF are you on about?

.

13 Feb 12 at 1:39 pm
“My fellow Americans. Tonight I want to talk about the issue of pre-marital sex and contraception. We all know that young people today think that marriage is not important, as indeed did I in my 20s, until I realised that sleeping for 5 years with men was not the right sort of relationship for me.”

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 1:41 pm
CL, you seem to be suggesting that Santorum is a homosexual.

steve from brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 1:43 pm
WTF are you on about?

Steve’s been free-basing on the Mr. Sheen.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 1:43 pm
Does dot not know of the Mrs Santorum story?

steve from brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 1:45 pm
Peter Kennedy ‘Catholic’ and abortion advocate Steve hasn’t heard this story.

Strange how comfortable he is with Julia Gillard’s sexual background, though.

Isn’t that odd?

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 1:48 pm
You are one creepy fella, Steve of Brisbane.

Your obsessive preoccupation with the sexual mores of those in the public eye is downright weird and would be deeply disturbing if:

a. I knew who you are, and
b. you didn’t live 5000kms away from me.

Pedro the Ignorant

13 Feb 12 at 1:49 pm
You’re scum of the earth Steve.

I have never said anything about any of the candidates partners.

.

13 Feb 12 at 1:51 pm
Has steve the conservative catholic troll hyperlinked to a picture of the albino monk yet?

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 1:54 pm
“They are after all meeting unmet needs that the market isn’t able to provide….. like more leftwing media.”

Well – following the lead from Europe and the UK, they probably figure there will be unmet blog demand for wordsmithing of ‘correct’ political views of any sort – once the internet has been purged of the voices of the unacceptable:

Lord Justice Leveson expressed sympathy for Bunglawala’s plea and said that any government regulation of the British media would have to extend to the Internet and include blogs, so as to ensure a “level playing field” between print and online media.

Myrrdin Seren

13 Feb 12 at 1:55 pm
Are you not getting any, Steve? Is that what the problem is?

spot

13 Feb 12 at 1:56 pm
I think that article Steve linked to makes the doctor fellow sound far more creepy than it does Mrs Santorum. So, she changed her beliefs – it happens to a lot of people 9not to Steve though, who remains a conservative Catholic to this day!)

That said, not a fan of Santorum – hope he doesn’t get it. Can’t get excited about any of them to be honest, but Mitt seems the least worst option.

Fleeced

13 Feb 12 at 1:56 pm
So, she changed her beliefs – it happens to a lot of people 9not to Steve though, who remains a conservative Catholic to this day!)

Shocking isn’t it? Like a person changes his or her beliefs. How can this possibly happen?

That said, not a fan of Santorum – hope he doesn’t get it. Can’t get excited about any of them to be honest, but Mitt seems the least worst option.

Yep.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 2:01 pm
My point – being made to maximise annoyance with the pillocks here – is that Republicans who are currently swaying towards Santorum haven’t quite got their head screwed on straight if they think that highly conservative Catholic views on contraception, shared only by a small percentage of Catholics but affecting nearly everyone else of childbearing age, is an attractive feature in a Presidential candidate.

Espousing conservative views on the value of marriage
(which, incidentally, I share) is also bit of a hard sell from a couple when one of them did exactly what most young people today figure is the “sensible” option (live with your boyfriend, don’t be in any hurry to decide) unless (I guess) the relationship really ended up bad for you. In fact, according to the reports, Mrs S broke up on pretty good terms with her much older boyfriend.

steve from brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 2:04 pm
Mitt and his magic underwear… his beliefs still not as whacky as Obama’s crowd. Being prez will be good practice for when he gets his own planet.

Fleeced

13 Feb 12 at 2:04 pm
Oh bullshit Steve.

Obama is the only person trying to enforce an ideal on anyone.

Federal banning abortion would require a constitutional amendment.

.

13 Feb 12 at 2:06 pm
I would have thought Rick Santorum loving and accepting a woman who was once less than angelic speaks volumes for his character and Christianity.

Also tends to undermine that whole ‘judgmentalism’ rap.

Talk about a narrative mix-up.

We do have to mark down ‘Catholic’ Steve’s epic bungling of this issue as one of the worst examples of his intellectual incompetence, hatred, Hi-Alanism and moral illness.

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 2:11 pm
dot – I was talking contraception, not abortion.

But now that you mention it, Santorum would likely been seen as extreme on abortion too, given most Americans actually lean towards abortion being legal in some situations.

steve from brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 2:11 pm
Gillard government bungles website:

The cost of Federal Parliament’s new website has blown out by more than $600,000 and is 12 months overdue.

Labor Senator John Faulkner has criticised the high cost and has called it a balls-up and pretty hopeless.

Cost of parliament website blows out.

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 2:13 pm
Steve you’re being especially dense today.

Lay off the Spray ‘n Wipe and stop snorting the Mr Sheen.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 2:14 pm
Most Americans now oppose abortion.

Those backing laws to make some or all abortions illegal…

ABC News/Washington Post Poll:

80 percent.

Time Poll:

54 percent.

Gallup Poll:

72 percent.

————————————-

CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll:

(Those opposing federal funding of all and any abortions:

61 percent.

————————————-

Pew Research Center:

78 percent.

CBS News Poll:

62 percent.

Virginia Commonwealth University Life Sciences Survey:

59 percent.

Gallup Poll (morally wrong):

50 percent (versus 38 percent).

http://www.pollingreport.com/abortion.htm

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 2:14 pm
steve the conservative catholic troll sez Santorum is a sinister catholic.

LOL

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 2:21 pm
I think Gab is right. Step’s been sniffing Mr Sheen.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 2:24 pm
dot – I was talking contraception, not abortion.

Santorum is going to outlaw condoms?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Dumbarse.

.

13 Feb 12 at 2:27 pm
Buffet plagiarizes me.

Lol

Stay out of bonds, gold and buy company stocks which have fortress like balance sheets and pricing power.

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/86013000/

Worth watching. (The Asian gal is a really honey pot)

JC

13 Feb 12 at 2:30 pm
Condoms should be FREE!

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 2:31 pm
The Gallop poll indicates that 77% of Americans believe that abortion should be always legal, or sometimes legal.

No wonder the “personhood” legislation fails. Yet all Republican candidates say they support the idea.

The Republicans are busy running to the right, but no one is following them.

steve from brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 2:34 pm
T

he Republicans are busy running to the right, but no one is following them.

Which of course is why for the first time in two or three generations you have more people self identifying as conservative/Republican than you do Democrat.

Are you freebasing om Mr. Sheen. Serious question. As you’re stupider than normal.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 2:37 pm
Pro-abortion ‘Catholic’ Steve now scare-quotes unborn babies as ‘persons.’

The Republicans are busy running to the right, but no one is following them.

You mean, like Joe Biden, Chris Matthews and the American public are running away from Obama’s far left-wing jihad against the Catholic Church?

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 2:38 pm
“Give us money!”

NEW migrants should get taxpayer subsidies to visit overseas relatives, an Islamic group has told the Federal Government.

The Islamic Women’s Welfare Association also says Muslims prefer to live close to their own people and Australia should consider how to “facilitate the purchase of homes for new migrants”.

Fleeced

13 Feb 12 at 2:42 pm
Step, Mrs Steve.

Here, when you’ve got a moment in between sheet changing etc. read this.

More States Move to GOP in 2011
Seventeen states solidly or leaning Republican, up from 10 in 2010

Solid and leaning GOP up 12

Solid and leaning Demolitionist -17

In 2011.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/152438/States-Move-GOP-2011.aspx

It’s perhaps the most important move we’ve seen in our lifetimes and resembles a tectonic plate shift and meanwhile Step is freebasing on Mr. Sheen

The Republicans are busy running to the right, but no one is following them.

ahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

JC

13 Feb 12 at 2:43 pm
The Islamic Women’s Welfare Association also says Muslims prefer to live close to their own people …

I share their pain and recommend they be given one-way tickets to the Middle East.

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 2:45 pm
We’ll see, JC. Especially if Santorum is the candidate…

steve from brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 2:46 pm
steve, the truly execrable conservative catholic troll.

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 2:48 pm
God I love Gary Taubes.

2kg fat lost already and 1kg muscle increase.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 2:49 pm
We’ll see what Step?

Santorum would likely lose against Odumbo. That isn’t the point, you moron.

The point I made is to your assertion that people are not following the GOP when in fact not only is the opposite the case, but the political plates have shifted.

This doesn’t mean the Demolitionists can’t win, but it certainly disproves your point and it also suggests the Demolitionists have more shit to shove uphill than the GOP, as party identification is pretty fucking important in a general sweep of things.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 2:52 pm
If low-life leftist trolls like steve say Santorum can’t win against Obummer but Romney can then what more do you need to know?

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 2:55 pm
Pyne destroying Gillard in Question Time re the race riot her staff organised on Australia Day.

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 2:55 pm
Steve reminds me of the Southern Democrat bigots who claimed that if JFK were elected, America would become a colony of the Vatican.

spot

13 Feb 12 at 2:56 pm
Gillard was an hysterical mess in Parliament.

She really needs Bob Hawke by her side in there.

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 3:10 pm
I heard her (didn’t see her) talking about Sorry Day at the start and seemed very emotional; thought she was going to cry. Again.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 3:14 pm
Gillard was an hysterical mess in Parliament.

She really needs Bob Hawke by her side in there

I reckon she’s close to breaking point. It’s not that far to go.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 3:17 pm
At least she doesn’t get the angry head wobbles.

steve from brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 3:18 pm
Pyne destroying Gillard in Question Time re the race riot her staff organised on Australia Day.

Pyne is starting to become a bit of a goer finally.

Labor Riot Watch: Pyne says they’ve been told by press gallery journalists that there was “multiple” people from Gillards office circulating in the Press Gallery immediately after the riot and all afternoon geeing journalists up to believe it was Tony Abbott’s fault – despite already knowing it was incited by their own office.

This was a crafted political operation organised undoubtably by John “The key is to realise that you don’t need to tell the whole truth” Mcturnan. The question now is did Gillard know.

The answer, after re-watching the footage of her with that question in mind, is of fucking course she did.

Welcome to Australian Labor politics – banana republic edition.

twostix

13 Feb 12 at 3:21 pm
At least she doesn’t get the angry head wobbles.

No, she goes into high pitch Vuvuzela mode.

She’s very close to breaking. It’s going to be fun to watch because she thoroughly deserve it and I won’t pity her for a second.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 3:21 pm
The Human Vuvuzela.

lol

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 3:23 pm
hahahahahahahhaha

There are 11 people covered by PHI.

The Liars party says only 30,000 will leave PHI and go public. They are such fucking liars it’s actually becoming funny.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 3:24 pm
At least she doesn’t get the angry head wobbles.

Nah she just gets her office to organise riots against her political enemies while they’re attending awards ceremonies for heroic emergency workers.

twostix

13 Feb 12 at 3:27 pm
The Islamic Women’s Welfare Association also says Muslims prefer to live close to their own people …

I share their pain and recommend they be given one-way tickets to the Middle East.

I think there are some very level headed people in the Islamic community who agree with you CL.

When you listen to this spokes-woman she is very polite, but you can hear she is tired of defending the morons and is happy to suggest we follow a Dutch plan of paying unhappy migrants to go back and not to return.

Token

13 Feb 12 at 3:28 pm
At least she doesn’t get the angry head wobbles.

When she gets angry her earlobes flap in the breeze.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 3:28 pm
Pyne is starting to become a bit of a goer finally.

Labor Riot Watch: Pyne says they’ve been told by press gallery journalists that there was “multiple” people from Gillards office circulating in the Press Gallery immediately after the riot and all afternoon geeing journalists up to believe it was Tony Abbott’s fault – despite already knowing it was incited by their own office.

Bolta has really picked up on this issue. One of his readers picked up a mistatement on Channel 9 news last night, and he chatted with Pyne about it on MTR this morning.

Looks like Pyne did a bit of work investigating and it appears the lying slapper may have lied one time too mnay.

Token

13 Feb 12 at 3:32 pm
Western Ignorance Where Islam and Iran are Concerned is Breathtaking

“Speaking to attendees at the 25th International Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran on Friday, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said:

“The developments and revolutions in the region and also the repeated retreats of the United States and the hegemonistic machines and the increasing weakness of the Zionist regime are unique opportunities for the Islamic ummah [Muslim people]which must be taken full advantage of…. Despite all the pressure and conspiracies, the Islamic Revolution… has stood firm, grown day by day, and its power has increased.”

Tehran Times ran a story about Khamenei’s remarks on Saturday and so did Mehr News, an Iranian news outlet located in Tehran, but Western news sources completely ignored his statement. The Western media did pick up on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s comment to the same audience that “[w]ithin the next few days the world will witness the inauguration of several big new achievements in the nuclear field.”

It’s not surprising that Western news sources picked up on Ahmadinejad’s proclamation, cryptic though it was, since Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons is front page news all over the world, but it’s shocking that they failed to grasp the significance of Khamenei’s remarks. From his perspective, the Arab Spring, Islamist political gains in Turkey, the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, the U.S. troop drawdown in Afghanistan, and headway made by Palestinians in their effort to destroy Israel, for example, dovetail perfectly with Iran’s emergence as a regional power in the Middle East and a potential nuclear power. The Western media’s failure to take note of Khamenei’s speech is all the more alarming since he is the head of Iran’s government, not Ahmadinejad.

Western ignorance where Islam and Iran are concerned is breathtaking. If we continue to ignore and/or make light of what is being done and said openly by Islamists leaders, particularly Islamist leaders in Iran, there will be hell to pay.”

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 3:38 pm
Or alternatively, this will be the 2,816th time in the last twelve months that someone at Catallaxy has said Gillard was about to be be undone.

steve from brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 3:38 pm
Stay out of bonds, gold and buy company stocks which have fortress like balance sheets and pricing power.

Sounds like AAPL. Just sayin’.

Les Majesty

13 Feb 12 at 3:41 pm
Am I in moderation? If so, why isn’t self-admitted tax-bludging troll Steve from B in moderation also?

NOT FAIR lol

Les Majesty

13 Feb 12 at 3:42 pm
Or alternatively, this will be the 2,816th time in the last twelve months that someone at Catallaxy has said Gillard was about to be be undone.

Does Tony Abbott being the target of an organised riot fall under the “Fair Game” belief of yours Steve?

I noticed you never condemned Gillards office for inciting it after you so quickly condemning the aboriginals when you thought it was all their doing.

Bit of a racist aren’t you.

twostix

13 Feb 12 at 3:44 pm
Or alternatively, this will be the 2,816th time in the last twelve months that someone at Catallaxy has said Gillard was about to be be undone.

I commend her. She’s absorbed a lot of criticism for all her lies and distortions but still able to hobble around. I’m just guessing the pressure is getting to be too intense now and she’ll break. Watch.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 3:46 pm
Essential media is out and it is 54-46 again for the 2,816th week running…

Interesting news, unlike the lefty luvvie class, few Australia are worried about Gina Rinehart efforts to buy a dying media company…

Q. Gina Rinehart (mining company owner and Australia’s wealthiest person) has recently bought a major stake in Fairfax newspapers (publishers of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age). Do you think this will make Fairfax newspapers reporting of politics and business more balanced and independent, less balanced and independent or will It make no difference?

Less balanced and independent 31%

More balanced and independent 7%
Make no difference 44%
Don’t know 19%

If you need any evidence where most of the Canberra Stenographers & ABC sit on political spectrum, follow the link to see which party most of the 31% comes from

Token

13 Feb 12 at 3:52 pm
Another interesting poll. Check out what self decleared the ALP & Green voters state when this is put to the test in a poll:

Q. Compared to other advanced industrial countries would you say Australia is fairer and more just, about average, or less fair and just?

Total more fair and just 46%
About average 38%
A little less fair and just 8%
A lot less fair and just 3%
Don’t know 5%

Next time we have Lefties (e.g. anything Julian Burnside or David Marr may utter) whine about how unfare Australian society is, it will be valuable to reference how 84% believe Australia is either equally or more fair and just than other industral countries.

Token

13 Feb 12 at 3:58 pm
PM Approval rating:

Total approve:

19 Jul 2010: 52%
13 Feb 2012: 36%

Total disapprove :

19 Jul 2010: 30%
13 Feb 2012: 53%

Oops.

Thanks for linking, Token.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 3:59 pm
Sure sounds like you are easily excited, Chowdah. It’s also clear that you have a reading comprehension problem, cos I never said or intimated that i had a scoop on anyone, “huge” or otherwise.

You said often, Tillman. It doesn’t match reality. Therefore you must know something we don’t. Do you follow?

It is you who is suffering cognitive impairment. My comprehension skills are not in question. Idiot.

Abu Chowdah

13 Feb 12 at 4:00 pm
Gab, Melanie Phillips has also been been writing about the West’s complacency regarding Iran:

http://melaniephillips.com/test

http://melaniephillips.com/why-iran-will-not-come-to-its-senses

Ivan Denisovich

13 Feb 12 at 4:01 pm
Question Time was funny. Gillard was presented with an old quote wherein she gave an “iron-clad guarantee” about maintaining the health insurance rebate. She was actually reduced to saying, ‘yeah – but that was in 2007 and I made a new commitment in 2010.’ Like Gillard really wants to go there when it comes to her 2010 ‘commitments.’

She now has so many lies on the go that she can’t square them all. That’s when she gets screechy and hysterical.

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 4:02 pm
That’s when she gets screechy and hysterical.

I laugh out loud when I hear the Vuvuzela mode. She really overdoes the hysterics, more or less proving the point.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 4:06 pm
So, Howard going to an election with GST as a policy didn’t count, hey CL?.

Twit.

steve from brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 4:06 pm
So, Howard going to an election with GST as a policy didn’t count, hey CL?.

Twit.

lol Houward, Houward … look at Houward. He’s the reason she’s turned into a lying, deceitful slapper. It’s Houward’s fault.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 4:09 pm
I laugh out loud when I hear the Vuvuzela mode.

Yeah – it’s funny. She really lays on the strine, starts flapping her arms around, blames Howard and da “rich.” Even her backbenchers looked kind of sheepish today when her rebate lie was quoted. The words “iron-clad guarantee” had the Opposition benches in hysterics.

Some of them had ashen faces saying, ‘oh shit – not another lie.”

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 4:12 pm
‘yeah – but that was in 2007 and I made a new commitment in 2010.’

Like I said before, if people don’t realise by now that Gillard’s promises and guarantees come with an expiration date, then they’re bloody idiots and deserve to be hoodwinked by the Lying Slapper.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 4:12 pm
Like I said before, if people don’t realise by now that Gillard’s promises and guarantees come with an expiration date, then they’re bloody idiots and deserve to be hoodwinked by the Lying Slapper.

To be honest, I see Labor rolling Gillard before the election as they know she’ll be crucified in endless ads.

If the Coalition had any sense they could make some wicked election ads by letting the slapper speak then noting there is an asterix with an expiry date on every promise.

Token

13 Feb 12 at 4:25 pm
Thank you for the links, Ivan.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 4:36 pm
Hey Moderators…

If you make the font any smaller we’ll need an electron microscope.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 4:39 pm
It’s your eyes, JC. Eye strain from trying to get creases in your jeans perfectly straight

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 4:43 pm
Reason Mag goes to town on the Chrysler Ad. Not in a Detroit build car.

On Super Bowl Sunday, America was treated to the most expensive political commercial in history—brought to you by Chrysler—called “It’s Halftime in America.”

In a series of vapid non sequiturs, Clint Eastwood’s gravelly voice pinned the promise of a city—no, a nation—to government dependency, claiming that “the people of Detroit” lost almost everything but because “we” pulled together and the “Motor City is fighting again”—punching, roaring, imbued with American grit—we survived.

Or, some might argue, after screwing stakeholders, discarding legal contracts, rewarding failed business models (while punishing those who employ better ones) and sticking taxpayers with the unions’ fat pension tab, America got a heaping spoonful of the Obama administration’s economic policy.

http://reason.com/archives/2012/02/08/obamas-halftime-hypocrisy

JC

13 Feb 12 at 4:47 pm
The way back for Gillard is to promise not to make any more promises

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 4:48 pm
The way back for Gillard is to promise not to make any more promises

No she’s lying.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 4:50 pm
lol… so the Half time in America was an Odumbo ad paid for by Chrysler.

Charming.

What about “It’s Halftime in America”? Well, cheers all around! White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer tweeted, “Saving the (American) Auto Industry: Something Eminem and Clint Eastwood can agree on.” (Eminem apparently read a script that was written by the same people who wrote the script that Eastwood read.) Obama’s campaign architect, David Axelrod, tweeted: “Powerful spot. Did Clint shoot that, or just narrate it?”

Hmm. Not sure. David—if I may—maybe you could ask Clint or the agency that created the commercial, Wieden+Kennedy, because it is reportedly staffed by folks who have worked on Obama campaigns and Democratic causes for years.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 4:52 pm
Gillard torture approval watch:

She wants to send asylum seekers to this country: Malaysia.

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 5:26 pm
Aide-visualisation.

Under the microscope: killer T cells attacking cancer cells.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 5:28 pm
Bunyip makes a suggestion to the Libs on a line of enquiry that may cause some discomfort to the Canberra Stenography Guild…

The Billabong’s correspondent suggests Abbott’s people pick through reporters’ tweets for the hours after the riot…

Token

13 Feb 12 at 5:34 pm
Bunyip suggests the twitter accounts of the members of the Canberra Stenography Guild might provide some interesting information on the riot started by Gillard’s staff.

The Public Has A Right To ….. Silence

http://bunyipitude.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/public-has-right-to-silence.html

Token

13 Feb 12 at 5:37 pm
Bunyip suggests the twitter accounts of the members of the Canberra Stenography Guild might provide some interesting information on the riot started by Gillard’s staff.

The Public Has A Right To ….. Silence

You’ll have to go visit Bunyips blog yourself as links seem to be blocked by the OT.

Token

13 Feb 12 at 5:38 pm
I haven’t been able to link Bunyip’s posts here either, Toke.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 5:41 pm
…and I thought Sinc enjoyed Bunyip’s roguish charm.

Token

13 Feb 12 at 5:44 pm
maybe Sinclair is jealous of Bunyip
s charm and good looks
———–

On another note, heads up Canberra Stenographers (yes that means Fairfax reporters), this is how a real journalist asks questions

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 5:48 pm
Nude

steve from brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 5:58 pm
Gab, sometimes the lads back home do me proud.

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 6:27 pm
open letter at a US trading blog.

D

ear Greece,

Get over yourselves. Your two years in the sun of holding world markets hostage are over. How disheartening it must be to burn down your cities and see stock market futures rally in celebration of your newfound status as Germany’s slaves.

In sum, shut the fuck up and return to your normal state of irrelevance.

Sincerely,
The rest of the world

JC

13 Feb 12 at 6:30 pm
‘Course the answer is simple.

The Irish government awoke one morning and decided to make an open ended gaurantee of the debts of Irish banks – all of which were companies owned by shareholders traded on various stock exchanges.

Now what shower of clowns would do that?

Swanee – how da banks love ya, how da banks love ya
Their dear old swanee,
Kevvie – how da banks love ya, how da banks love ya
Their dear old Kevvie…..

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 6:39 pm
JC, control + and _ embiggen the font.

Winston Smith

13 Feb 12 at 6:59 pm
Thanks Winston.

I think it was me that “smallified” earlier without realizing it.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 7:01 pm
This weeks Q&A .

Two righties, which if you include Tony Jones are matched against 4 lunatic leftwing idiots.

Tonight’s Panel

Jenny McAllister – ALP National President
Helen Kroger – Liberal Senator
Mikey Robins – Comedian
Robert Manne – Writer and academic
Tim Wilson – Institute of Public Affairs

This padding ought to be stopped. It’s just blatant.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 7:07 pm
4-Corners tonight might be more rewarding JC

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 7:16 pm
James

4 Connors is basically a hail Mary pass for the Alliance.

They did this when they thought The Liars Party was in trouble with Rudd. The week before the Lying Slapper knifed the little Turd in the back, they ran a negative story on him. The obvious conclusion is that they were dropping the rope for the Slapper to get rid of him.

Tonight is the same thing, only that they have the slapper in their sights, as they realize she’s as popular as an exploding dirty bomb in a busy CBD street.

Don’t for a second think (as you know) this is an anti-Labor thing. It’s actually the opposite. It’s a fucking lifeline to get rid of the slapper.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 7:27 pm
Q&A – seriously, people watch it?

Why?

Mk50 of Brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 7:37 pm
Well, Mk50, last week it was to watch Judith squish the lefties like they were fleas.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 7:40 pm
Bolt:

On ABC TV’s The Drum today: four out of four people around the desk agree that only irrational people are against gay marriage. After a couple of minutes of general agreement they run out of anything more to say, and move on.

Just as entertainment, let alone information, this fails.

Well yes becuase 1) it’s the ABC and 2) you are not allowed to disagree; you will be labelled as a bigot, racist, sexist, etc etc and never invited back.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 7:46 pm
Q&A – seriously, people watch it?

Why?

Amusement.

Every program last year had at least 2 or 3 questions on da gloabls warming.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 7:48 pm
A Four Corners team has been unearthing the truth about Labor in power. It’s an extraordinary exposé containing revelations about one of the great political dramas of our times.

unearthing? We know everything those idiots are up to. The union clerks party is pretty transparent in an nontransparent way.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 7:51 pm
4-Corners tonight is on the leadership question in one quarter of the Alliance

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 7:51 pm
And look at the line up on Q&A after 4 corners, which will be partial towards Rudd.

They have Robert Manne on as a panelist, who has be advocating strongly for the little Turd.

The political wing of the Alliance is doing a hit job on the Slapper is my bet.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 8:08 pm
I smell this skunk a mile off. There’s a good chance the slapper is gonsky in a week if the union clerk’s media wing’s advocacy catches on.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 8:11 pm
Wow, Santorum’s reiteration of Catholic dogma is wrong because his wife shagged an older man when she was twenty.

steve is the most conservative Catholic to ever live.

wreckage

13 Feb 12 at 8:14 pm
I feel sorry for Steadman

Tal

13 Feb 12 at 8:14 pm
Q&A – seriously, people watch it?

Why?

Some people are too lazy to go & get an actual fork to stab themselves in the eye with.

badm0f0

13 Feb 12 at 8:19 pm
I reckon they’re going to make the Lying Slapper look good and Kevvy made to look menacing and hating Gillard because she’s a female. Okay, it’s a mammoth task to make Gillard look good, but it is the ABC, where Spin 101 is taught at Masters Level.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 8:24 pm
A nice pair of shoes would be a good start

Tal

13 Feb 12 at 8:26 pm
Nice to see you back, Tal. You’ve been missed.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 8:33 pm
Pray that Mikey Robbins doesn’t try and go all serious and relevant – but just plays for the yocks.

Robert Manne should come with a health warning for depressives.

Myrddin Seren

13 Feb 12 at 8:37 pm
why isn’t self-admitted tax-bludging troll Steve from B in moderation also?

Why aren’t you both?

Tiny Dancer

13 Feb 12 at 8:43 pm
“…like watching a stage-managed soviet party meeting…”

lol. That on the ABC!

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 8:43 pm
On another note, heads up Canberra Stenographers (yes that means Fairfax reporters), this is how a real journalist asks questions.

Oh Gab, that’s a classic.

BEAUTIFUL.

Not one member of the Canberra Stenography Gallery has the balls to do anything like that. I love how he blasts those smug, robotic thieves at the end.

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 8:51 pm
Pray that Mikey Robbins doesn’t try and go all serious and relevant – but just plays for the yocks.

I initially liked him, but once the Howard government was elected more and more jokes would end with John Howard to the canned laughter of the audience.

He’ll get on very well with Manne.

Token

13 Feb 12 at 9:01 pm
Some people are too lazy to go & get an actual fork to stab themselves in the eye with.

Good point M0fo, stabbing the eye is less painful

Token

13 Feb 12 at 9:03 pm
Nearly two years after the fact, Gillard is still lying about her role in the Rudd knifing.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 9:05 pm
lol. That on the ABC!

Remember, this is the ABC that made and televised “ Bastard Boys” (9 years after the fact) just before the 07 election when workplace relations was an issue.

I blame them for ” Kruddslide ” and Combets popularity.

jumpnmcar

13 Feb 12 at 9:08 pm
Bloody hell this is an ABC beat up on Dudd.

sean

13 Feb 12 at 9:09 pm
OK. I’ll give the Australian Bolshevik Collective’s 2030 show a try. ten minutes.

I have Seeley’s 1883 classic ‘The Expansion of England’ to get a start on.

What’s the Collective’s show called’ ‘Four Comrades?’

probably for their fave socialist heroes Marx, Stalin, Hitler and Mao, I guess…

Mk50 of Brisbane

13 Feb 12 at 9:13 pm
I’d be interested to know your reaction to the Four Corners program, Mk50. And CL’s and JC’s and the rest…

Maybe Sinclair could do a post on the topic?

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 9:21 pm
The slapper looked like she was about to cry. She didn’t one single question straight up.

I thought it was absolutely devastating against her, especially with the fact that her office was preparing a victory speech two weeks before the stabbing… and she wouldn’t answer the question if she knew about. Fucking liar until the end.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 9:30 pm
Internal polling done comparing her and Rudd for leader, the decision to dump Rudd hung on this poll and Gillard can’t remember the poll.

In which case the current PM has dementia.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 9:33 pm
gonski I reckon.

sean

13 Feb 12 at 9:34 pm
She’s basically gone. All the bad shit she was up to is catching up and of the course now the flagship program of the Union clerk’s party media wing has blown her up.

I’ll say it again, she looked like she was about to cry. No wonder she was in full Vuvuzela mode in parliament today. She knew was the public was about to see on TV about her and the machinations to stab the Little Turd in the back.

This government is a comedy show. Freaking union clerks can’t run chook raffle without fucking it up. No fucking class.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 9:35 pm
Internal polling done comparing her and Rudd for leader, the decision to dump Rudd hung on this poll and Gillard can’t remember the poll.

In which case the current PM has dementia.

lol.. she suddenly goes all Sgt. Schulz on us. She’s really fucking gutless too and her own worst enemy. If you’re PM, grow a set and tell it how it is instead of playing the deceit game.

Tell the truth. The little turd was hated inside the party and she thought the best thing was for him to go and the slapper take over.

She can’t even be fucking honest about that without being shifty.

She’s close to breaking point, I reckon.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 9:39 pm
Poor Kevvie!

Done over by the scheming slapper.

An ABC hatchet job on the slapper.

The poor slapper!

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 9:42 pm
“Some people are too lazy to go & get an actual fork to stab themselves in the eye with:”
Best sense of humour you have badm0f0 always make me laugh!

candy

13 Feb 12 at 9:43 pm
What time Newspoll?

If Labor are sub 30 she’s definitely gone by the end of the week.

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 9:43 pm
Oh dear.

Stedman will be dusting off the curling irons.

C.L.

13 Feb 12 at 9:46 pm
Tim Wilson is such a hunk. And intelligent too.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 9:48 pm
As for all the threats of resignation if the Little Turd get back in….

hahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahha

look at their resumes. State secretary of (insert union name), labor party adviser…

Where are they going to get a job? Who’s going to any of these idiots?

They’re just empty threats.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 9:49 pm
the thing is just about everyone saw the tears in Mr Rudd’s eyes at the time of his speech and his distressed children, and he sat stoically in parliament until he could not bear it any longer.

History can’t be undone and those images remain in people’s minds. It’s a pickle for the ALP.

candy

13 Feb 12 at 9:49 pm
Bloody hell this is an ABC beat up on Dudd.

My sage and oft sought advice for Mr Rudd is to go nuclear. The next time some mouth breather from the press asks you about a leadership challenge, tell them it is your ambition to be Prime Minister again.

Infidel Tiger

13 Feb 12 at 9:51 pm
oops… hire..

JC

13 Feb 12 at 9:52 pm
Gab – opened up a 4 corners thread

Sinclair Davidson

13 Feb 12 at 9:52 pm
OMG thanks, Sinclair. Damn, now I’ll have to comment (The pressure, the pressure)

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 9:54 pm
I’d pay good money for Bitar & Arbib to to advise my competitors.

badm0f0

13 Feb 12 at 9:56 pm
I’d pay good money for Bitar & Arbib to to advise my competitors.

I do.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 9:59 pm
Tim Wilson is such a hunk.

Mrs d reckons his boyfriend is gorgeous too.

Sinclair Davidson

13 Feb 12 at 10:02 pm
QnA is demagogue central.

Mikey Robbins is parody of ABC JJJ moral superiority

JamesK

13 Feb 12 at 10:06 pm
Mikey Robbins is parody of ABC JJJ moral superiority

He’s a disgusting little tax-eater. He’s smug in the only way a lefty ABC type can be revoltingly smug.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 10:09 pm
Tim Wlison does an outstanding job of things. he really caught that stupid labor bimbo on the hop too.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 10:10 pm
lol here’s the fix… Robert Manne surprisingly gets the question about the little turd vs the lying slapper and the ABC fix is in.

Fat Tony Jones is even getting in on the act now.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 10:13 pm
his boyfriend

Shuddupshuddupshudupp.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 10:13 pm
What’s wrong with Helen Kroger tonight?

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 10:14 pm
“Where are they going to get a job? ”

JC – they parachuted Robert Tickner into the Red Cross so he could nicely politicise that NFP;

There is some raving leftoid on the board of the NRMA constantly railing against anything to do with fossil fuels and large corporations; and

ex-NSW Police Minister Peter Anderson was parachuted into a job at Macquarie Uni which even Mike Steketee in the Oz had to report as an unfolding trainwreck.

Regrettably, the comrades almost always seem to be found work – usually on the taxpayers’ coin.

While a Lib or Nat backbencher suddenly found without a seat usually has to go back to the farm ( if they have one ) or scramble for a salary ( I am not talking the more high profile ex-MPs ).

The Labor tribe ensure that the entitlements just keep flowing – barring outright imprisonment ( hello Milton Orkopoulos )

Myrddin Seren

13 Feb 12 at 10:20 pm
his boyfriend

Doomlord is pitiless

Myrddin Seren

13 Feb 12 at 10:21 pm
Mickey Robbins is well past his use-by date.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 10:23 pm
Q&A now running a Chaser’s attack on Gina Rhinehart. They really are despicable.

I’d actually pay to get the job to be able to fire the ABC’ers for the coalition. They ought to auction that job off.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 10:30 pm
And Robert Manne still lying:

“Murdoch owning 70% of the press”. Maybe not lying, just thick…and irrelevant.

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 10:32 pm
Maybe not lying, just thick…and irrelevant.

Gab, he’s from Latrobe. If you’re expecting genius you’ll be sorely disappointed.

JC

13 Feb 12 at 10:36 pm
Tim Wilson for PM.

Think about it…

Gab

13 Feb 12 at 10:38 pm
The caucus sacked Rudd. Bloody hell, more outright lies from the ALP.

sean

13 Feb 12 at 10:51 pm
Just watched the slapper on the ABC.

How the hell can she run a chook raffle let alone the govt when she can’t remember a thing about the fortnight leading up to the knifing and she hasn’t even got the courage or moral authority to deny it.

God she is shit

Tiny Dancer

13 Feb 12 at 10:56 pm
APPLE just hit 500 bucks a share. IF the get the Apple TV right, it’s going to 1,000 says a trading blog. I reckon he’s right too.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 2:00 am
Dolly Parton will be raking in millions, as we speak.

After death, Houston music sales soar.

Why? Because she wrote it.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 2:11 am
Tim Wilson for PM.

Think about it…

Who’s this Tim Wilson that you’re breathless for, Gab?

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 2:13 am
What? You don’t know, CL?

He’s gorgeous, intelligent, witty, great communicator and a snappy dresser. That picture does him no favours, he’s much better looking.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 2:16 am
Tim was on Q&A tonight and he was just wonderful.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 2:19 am
Dolly Parton will be raking in millions, as we speak.

There was a reappraisal of Dolly in the 90′s over there from what I recall. It gradually dawned that she really wasn’t the airhead portrayed, but a very good entertainer and superb business woman. People began to see her in a new light.

Her hubby sounds like a funny dude. She once mentioned him in an interview and he sounded really cool.

On May 30, 1966, she and Carl Thomas Dean were married in Ringgold, Georgia.[12] She had met Dean at the Wishy-Washy Laundromat two years earlier on her first day in Nashville. His very first words to her were: “Y’all gonna get sunburnt out there, little lady.”[13]

Dean, who runs an asphalt road-surface-paving business in Nashville, has always shunned publicity and rarely accompanies her to any events. According to Parton, he has only ever seen her perform once. However, she has also commented in interviews that, although it appears they do not spend much time together, it is simply that nobody sees him. She has also commented on Dean’s romantic side claiming that he will often do spontaneous things to surprise her, and sometimes even writes her poems.[14]

The couple partly raised several of Parton’s younger siblings at their home in Nashville, leading her nieces and nephews to refer to her as “Aunt Granny”. She has no children of her own. Parton is also the godmother of actress and singer Miley Cyrus.[15]

On May 30, 2011, they celebrated their 45th anniversary. Later, she said, “We’re really proud of our marriage. It’s the first for both of us. And the last.”

JC

14 Feb 12 at 2:29 am
Dolly Partin is way more than fantastic pair of boobs.

She is extremely talented and a very shrewd business woman.

I love that she and her husband have kept it together despite the show biz.

“Y’all gonna get sunburnt out there, little lady.”

Love it.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 2:36 am
Prayer of praise at Grammys.

THE music industry paused at the Grammy Awards yesterday as a prayer was offered for fallen star Whitney Houston…

Grammy host LL Cool J opened proceedings with a prayer for Houston.

“Heavenly father, we thank you for sharing our sister Whitney with us,” he said. “Though she is gone too soon, we remain truly blessed to have been touched by her beautiful spirit.”

That moment of phony religiosity was soon followed by this performance – by some whore I haven’t heard of.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 2:47 am
Fairfax and the ABC diagnose the problem: it’s the voters.

“ECONOMIC trouble for the Coalition! Radio National Breakfast on Friday:

MICHELLE Grattan: My take on this week was that the opposition had quite a lot of trouble getting its economic lines through. It was clearly under pressure from the government. It did seem confused on the question of its commitment to a surplus.

The economy good news for Labor! Phillip Coorey in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday:

AS Labor found out last week, when it stops talking about itself and focuses on policy and the economy, all does not seem lost.

So what can explain Newspoll? Radio National Breakfast yesterday:

FRAN Kelly: Today’s Newspoll shows Julia Gillard being marked down for her handling of the economy, trailing Tony Abbott nine points on this issue. Why is that, do you think?

Michelle Grattan: Well, clearly the government has had trouble getting its economic message through, had trouble getting any credit for what it’s done on the economy, and these figures illustrate that point very, very dramatically. This comes as the Coalition last week had quite a bad week on this economic question, because its statements on surplus were confusing, and they’ve been changing. Tony Abbott after last week, after not being willing to state a position on when a Coalition government would get back to surplus, is now saying that they’d have a surplus in their first term.

Kelly: That’s the point, isn’t it? There’s been a lot of commentary criticising Tony Abbott and his economic team about the strength of that team and yet here the polls show that the people think that they are way ahead of the government.

Grattan: Well, exactly. And the government obviously thought that it was on a good thing here because last night Labor launched an internet ad, capitalising on the various statements on the surplus, but it just shows that the government has a lot of work to do on its own side and it’s hard to see how it can turn around this position because what’s going to change?

Kelly: Well, especially if you get the triple-A rating from the credit agencies and you are still being marked down on your handling of the economy, it suggests there’s something else at work, doesn’t it?

Sean Carney in The Age , February 4:

IT is truly bizarre that a government that has steered a growing economy through a global financial crisis during which most of its biggest trading partners have suffered deep recessions is not only met with indifference but open hostility by most voters. Something is profoundly wrong with the public’s comprehension of the contemporary Labor Party. The malady demands extensive treatment.”

Cut & Paste

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 2:47 am
IT is truly bizarre that a government that has steered a growing economy through a global financial crisis during which most of its biggest trading partners have suffered deep recessions is not only met with indifference but open hostility by most voters.

It’s not in the least bit bizarre because the gubbermint did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to forestall, lessen, ameliorate or stop the so-called GFC.

Two other things did: Costello’s finances and China’s.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 2:52 am
BTW, to whoever posted this link in the last dew days, I hate you – the tune has been stuck in head ever since!

Fleeced

14 Feb 12 at 2:54 am
It never ceases to amaze me how low Steve from B is prepared to sink in argument. Santorum is mocked because he faithfully recounts actual Catholic teaching regarding sex and contraception whereas some parish priests do not. He then moves on to slur Mrs. Santorum’s reputation, and by implication, her husband’s, by repeating her past indiscretions. And then he makes the erroneous claim that the implications of certain polls on abortion conflict with personhood amendments. They don’t. Polls re abortion generally show that there is no majority support for unqualified access to abortion. To obtain a majority these polls have to include qualified support for abortion, for instance, situations where the life of the mother is in danger. The fact that people in these polls qualify the availability of abortion is precisely because they implicitly or explicitly recognize the personhood of the unborn child. Otherwise, why would one qualify its availability?

dover_beach

14 Feb 12 at 2:54 am
Unfortunately, the GFC was a huge gift to ALP and the stenographers. It’s an excuse that won’t die, at least amongst the journalist scum.

Abu Chowdah

14 Feb 12 at 3:19 am
So what did the ALP do in response to the GFC? Crap its pants and spend tens of billions of dollars on Batts are Burning and assembly halls that cost ten times as much as they should have. And this allows them to claim that their actions (action – the stimulus) saved Australia from the ravages of the GFC. Riddle me this, then; how come stimulus spending has been a MISERABLE FAILURE everywhere else? How come it worked in Australia, despite the fact that it’s acknowledged that much of the money spent was wasted and/or misallocated? Why did it work in Australia but not anywhere else?

Oh, ok, the Chinese stimulus package is acknowledged to have worked in China, because the Chinese government said it did. Much like what’s going on here, funnily enough.

Of course, the answer as to why we didn’t get hit for six in the GFC lies in China, but it doesn’t have anything to do with deficit spending – here or there.

Oh come on

14 Feb 12 at 3:53 am
Fleeced – linky no worky.

What was the song?

Rabz

14 Feb 12 at 6:45 am
Tim Blair nails media hypocrisy, again.

Money quote: We probably won’t be hearing much about Ulugbek from now on. By contrast, if he’d been named Jed and lived in a trailer park, this boy would be front-page news around the world.

Mk50 of Brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 8:54 am
Oh come on:

The Chinese stimulus, a flexible labour market, the drop nin the CR by 57% and a floating exchange rate saved us.

All you need do is look at what the stimulus did to trend cap ex. It destroyed it. Now we see lower disposable income as consumer spending floundered for over two years and now we have as the total of ALP policy, no net job growth after an unsustainably high growth rate in 2010.

Any half hearted Austrian economist saw it coming.

The question to Dudd, Juliar and Shane Wand is what was the ROI of the stimulus?

It is hilarious just how migh how many jobs these fools claim to have created considering over the last 12 months, there was a net loss in employment.

Their stupidity and arrogance is sickening.

.

14 Feb 12 at 9:03 am
Airhead Plibersek is turning the Labor’s backflip on the Health Insurance Rebate into the greatest victory since WWII.

The opposition launched an attack yesterday on the means test, saying it was in breach of Julia Gillard’s ”ironclad” promise before the 2007 election not to touch the insurance rebate.

The Health Minister, Tanya Plibersek, likened the opposition’s blocking of a measure that she said would save $100 billion over 40 years to the causes of economic failure in Greece, which showed what happened if governments were ”too timid to rein in spending”.

A. I can’t believe Plibersek would turn a $750m saving into $100B over 40 years,

B. I can’t believe the stenographers at Fairfax actually printed it

C. If Labor announces a budget surplus in May 2012, it is likely by the time the accounts are calculated in 2013 it will have disappeared. Remember Treasury’s initial revenue estimates on the MRRT? After all, they having figured out how this will work:

A health fund which asked not to be identified has told the Herald that government officials have been unable to provide formal directions on how the funds would handle the complex layers of means test until the legislation is passed.

Token

14 Feb 12 at 9:06 am
Tim Blair nails media hypocrisy, again.

Money quote: We probably won’t be hearing much about Ulugbek from now on. By contrast, if he’d been named Jed and lived in a trailer park, this boy would be front-page news around the world.

Did anyone mention Ulugbek’s religion? Surely he is a southern evangelical or a Catholic.

Token

14 Feb 12 at 9:15 am
Did anyone mention Uluglug’s religion?

Buddhist?

Rabz

14 Feb 12 at 9:26 am
I love Gerard Henderson’s work:

There tends to be an obsession in the Western media with power. In recent years the Australian Financial Review Magazine has published an annual “Power Issue”. And now the publishers of the Crikey newsletter have set up “The Power Index”. There is a problem with word usage here. Power is most appropriately associated with authoritarian regimes and is retained by force.

In democratic societies, elected leaders possess authority, legitimised by the ballot box. Successful prime ministers or presidents exert their authority after taking account of the checks and balances on absolute rule.

Whack.

Token

14 Feb 12 at 9:49 am
Not an unbiased writer but this is the money quote

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3827746.html

“What are your so-called Christian leaders in Australia thinking?” shrieked a Christian woman in a candlelit Aleppo home. “Don’t they realise our freedoms in Syria are the envy of other Arab countries – and impossible in Qatar?! If Bashar (Al Assad) goes, we will be lambs to the slaughter.”

And this:

The heavily armed kidnappers had kept 18 captives in one room and provided food and bedding. Each day of his nine-day confinement, an imam had spoken to the detainees about religious duty. Ultimately my nephew, a Sunni Muslim, had been given four choices – fight with his captors against the government and kill as many police, soldiers, security agents, and non-Muslims (i.e. non-Sunnis) as possible; take ammunition supplied by them to destroy key infrastructure and wreak havoc; pay a substantial ransom; or be killed on the spot.

Why is the US idiotically backing more of this Arab spring nonsense?

jtfsoon

14 Feb 12 at 10:04 am
and non-Muslims (i.e. non-Sunnis)

That is the money quote.

Why is the US idiotically backing more of this Arab spring nonsense?

I think their advisers are full of shit. Gadaffi should have been held to account for his international terrorism decades ago. Who in the White House understands the Arab world? The whole place is FUBAR, one of the few failures I can attribute to Churchill, was his delineation of national boundaries based on old colonial entities or arbitrary lines on maps.

Just let Turkey, Israel and Jordan run the whole damned place.

.

14 Feb 12 at 10:08 am
‘Power’ is a capacity to satisfy one’s desires; authority is a quality bestowed on a person or an office. The former is a matter of degree the other not. Democratic governments have both, as do ‘authoritarian’ governments. You can also imagine the peculiarity of suggesting that ‘authoritarian’ governments lack the quality that is expressly supposed to qualify them.

dover_beach

14 Feb 12 at 10:19 am
Fleeced – linky no worky.

Hmmm… still works for me. Marianne Faithfull – As Tears Go By (1965)

Fleeced

14 Feb 12 at 10:25 am
For d-b: the point, which should be obvious and uncontroversial, is that it is laughable to suggest that the US electorate, comprising Catholics who ignore Church teaching on contraception at a rate of something like 98%, and other Christians and religions who have no detailed teaching on contraception at all, would welcome a President who wants to talk to them about the evils of contraception. Yet that is what Santorum was claiming in that interview: he would be the President to talk out about how using contraception and having sex outside of marriage they were doing the wrong thing.

Even if he did talk out about pre-marital sex, how convincing is that going to look to young people who are aware that his wife shacked up with a boyfriend (a creepily older boyfriend, as it happens, and certainly without her parent’s blessing) for much of her 20′s, broke up with him on relatively good terms according to the reports, and then settled down to a happy marriage with Rick. In other words, she did exactly what young people tend to think is reasonable – try out a relationship by living with someone, be careful not to fall pregnant to them, and if it doesn’t work out in your 20′s, there’s lots of time left to find the partner who is right for you.

The only way this is not going to look hypocritical is if she had a bad experience in that relationship: that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Of course you can argue the same about Obama and drugs: the difference being, Obama does not spend a lot of time personally talking about the evils of experimental drug use in his 20′s because it would look kind of hypocritical. Santorum seems immune to the idea of perceived hypocrisy. Sure it wasn’t him who shacked up with a partner in his 20′s, but his wife, who has taken a fairly high profile in pro-life matters and talks in very religious terms, has not addressed why her views took a dramatic change to sexual conservatism, and why she therefore thinks her life should not be taken as an example of what young people think is a reasonable way to live in their 20′s.

You know what she should do – not explain it, but also suggest to her husband that it’s kind of awkward if he keeps bringing it up too.

Finally – I have pointed out before, there is strong reason to believe that less use of contraception amongst teenagers and the poor in the US leads to a much higher unintended pregnancy rate compared to European countries, and thus a significantly higher abortion rate.

You are presumably one of the fantasists who believes the only way to reduce abortion is to re-invent a society where less premarital sex happens, and couples living together are prepared to have family sizes that used to be more common 100 years ago before contraception become more widely available and abortion safe.

That is not going to happen. Be realistic about human nature, will you? Tortured Catholic theology about the importance of semen hitting the vagina and being at least capable of meeting an egg is not going to change human nature nor put the technological genie back in the bottle.

The only realistic way to reduce abortion amongst those who would contemplate having one (and that’s a lot of women) is to encourage use of contraception if you don’t want sex to lead to a baby.

This is not inconsistent with teaching that sex is fun but also a serious matter and no contraception is fool proof, so you ought to treat sex seriously – which basically means (in my formula) “don’t have sexual relationships – especially ongoing ones – even with contraception unless you have a commitment in place that will ensure you can both happily live with the potential long term consequences: namely, a baby. Don’t rely on abortion as an answer: by the time you realise you’re pregnant, you may not be comfortable with the idea, even if you think you are now.”

steve from brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 10:33 am
I do not want Santorum as the Republican candidate but god you are one sleazy low down unchivalrous fucker, steve.

jtfsoon

14 Feb 12 at 10:34 am
Cheers, Jason.

steve from brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 10:36 am
Santorum should demand satisfaction from steve, the way he has been talking about his wife. Why don’t you just be done with it and call her a slut while you’re at it?

jtfsoon

14 Feb 12 at 10:37 am
Steve, just go and get laid already. Even if you have to pay for it, it’ll be cheaper in an opportunity cost kind of way than spending the hours that you do teleporting to others’ bedrooms.

spot

14 Feb 12 at 10:38 am
Where is my point about perceived hypocrisy wrong?
Why don’t you answer that instead of being a Catallaxy blowhard.

steve from brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 10:41 am
This is why I sullied him with the C bomb yesterday.

You’re a big man Steve, slagging off some American dudes wife in Australia.

Get back to the Abbot penis watch, Stepford Steve.

“That is not going to happen. Be realistic about human nature, will you? Tortured Catholic theology about the importance of semen hitting the vagina and being at least capable of meeting an egg is not going to change human nature nor put the technological genie back in the bottle.”

Says a man obsessed with an Australian politician’s penis.

.

14 Feb 12 at 10:44 am
Steve lines up his defence from me:

“Aggressive stupidity”

“Don’t hit me, I think I’m a woman”

.

14 Feb 12 at 10:45 am
Steve could star in a political drama/comedy about sexuality and chivalry:

“But I’m a Conservative!”

.

14 Feb 12 at 10:47 am
Steve, you are so boring and long-winded.

Gab, yes, Tim is yummy and smart.

Gotta go to work. Have a great day, all.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

14 Feb 12 at 10:58 am
Steve

You’re the Hindenburg of cretins.

No comment from you on the latest Gillard debacle, naturally.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 11:03 am
I have not called her a slut.

I said she shacked up with a guy creepily older than her. This is true by the standards of about 95% of people.

I haven’t even mentioned the fact that he was abortionist, because that is not relevant to today’s point…

steve from brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 11:08 am
The Gillard matter is one of little consequence or importance, Gab.

Catallaxy obsession with her is actually kind of loopy.

steve from brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 11:09 am
John Cochrane on the condoms in health insurance issue. Really pretty simple. Volumes didn’t need to be written on it

http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/john.cochrane/research/papers/wsj_health.pdf

jtfsoon

14 Feb 12 at 11:13 am
The Gillard matter is one of little consequence or importance, Gab.

Catallaxy obsession with her is actually kind of loopy.

Um yeah sure.

Loopy stuff.

.

14 Feb 12 at 11:15 am
Fleeced – the link would’t work on the iPad for some reason. Did on the PC however.

It was me BTW who posted the Miss Faithful clip.

Rabz

14 Feb 12 at 11:18 am
What is laughable is that you think Santorum or any politician should merely accede without argument to the sensibility of the vast majority of the US electorate. Of course, although you might think so on this issue on others you do not.

In other words, she did exactly what young people tend to think is reasonable

So you also support recreational drug use for twenty-somethings before they settle down because this is something twenty-somethings also think is reasonable? No? Thought not.

You are presumably one of the fantasists who believes the only way to reduce abortion is to re-invent a society where less premarital sex happens, and couples living together are prepared to have family sizes that used to be more common 100 years ago before contraception become more widely available and abortion safe.

Not at all, but you seem to think that we can reduce abortion by essentially capitulating to a sexual culture that will only see abortion increase because sex is increasingly taken unseriously.

Be realistic about human nature, will you?

Where below have you taken “human nature” ‘realistically’?

This is not inconsistent with teaching that sex is fun but also a serious matter and no contraception is fool proof, so you ought to treat sex seriously – which basically means (in my formula) “don’t have sexual relationships – especially ongoing ones – even with contraception unless you have a commitment in place that will ensure you can both happily live with the potential long term consequences: namely, a baby.

To which I should also add, except that contraception (and abortion) in fact are one of the many things that undermine the seriousness with which we are supposed to regard sex. This is precisely what you want to skip over even though you want to promote a view of sex that is otherwise almost as conservative, from the point of view of twenty-somethings, as that of the Church and almost as likely to be ignored given the surrounding culture.

dover_beach

14 Feb 12 at 11:20 am
National Review editorialises that Gingrich should step aside to allow asantorum a clean shot and a 2 man race

Public Policy polling ( link a pdf file) has Rick Santorum’s taking a large lead in Michigan’s upcoming Republican primary.

He’s at 39% to 24% for Mitt Romney, 12% for Ron Paul, and 11% for Newt Gingrich.

Santorum’s rise is attributable to two major factors: his own personal popularity (a stellar 67/23 favorability) and GOP voters increasingly souring on Gingrich.

Santorum’s becoming something closer and closer to a consensus conservative candidate as Gingrich bleeds support.

PPP surveyed 404 Republican primary between February 10th and 12th. The margin of error for the survey is +/-4.9%

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 11:21 am
You haven’t been reading much, have you Jason?

Cochrane does not acknowledge that there is a strong argument that contraception cover reduces the cost of health insurance – some studies suggest quite substantially.

Premium increases would be minimal, and should be nothing in the long term.

Cochrane also talks as if it is going to stop development of cheaper pills. How much cheaper than $20 a month does he think they can go? (sure you can say – well why do you have to provide them free if they are so cheap. I suspect that has more to do with psychology than anything else.)

steve from brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 11:21 am
DB,

Hard to comment on income and substitution effects (your third para) without hard numbers.

.

14 Feb 12 at 11:23 am
Cochrane does not acknowledge that there is a strong argument that contraception cover reduces the cost of health insurance – some studies suggest quite substantially.

Name them.

Cochrane also talks as if it is going to stop development of cheaper pills. How much cheaper than $20 a month does he think they can go? (sure you can say – well why do you have to provide them free if they are so cheap. I suspect that has more to do with psychology than anything else.)

You bloviating dullard.

.

14 Feb 12 at 11:25 am
Cochrane does not acknowledge that there is a strong argument that contraception cover reduces the cost of health insurance – some studies suggest quite substantially.

Even if there were such a relationship this would nevertheless not justify the government requiring insurance providers to provide contraception.

Hard to comment on income and substitution effects (your third para) without hard numbers.

??

dover_beach

14 Feb 12 at 11:29 am
Cochrane does not acknowledge that there is a strong argument that contraception cover reduces the cost of health insurance – some studies suggest quite substantially.

If there is, most insurers would do well to offer it.

jtfsoon

14 Feb 12 at 11:31 am
Not at all, but you seem to think that we can reduce abortion by essentially capitulating to a sexual culture that will only see abortion increase because sex is increasingly taken unseriously.

You don’t know that for certain. It depends on preferences (condoms are so cheap price doesn’t come into it).

I was one of the young ones to remember the Grim Reaper.

Apparently people younger than my demographic don’t take safe sex as seriously as people of my age.

.

14 Feb 12 at 11:31 am
d-b: the Protestant evangelical churches and (even more so) the Mormons are examples of religions that teach strongly and without equivocation that sex is for marriage, while allowing that contraception (at least of the kind preventing fertilisation) as not inherently wrong.

Their position on this is not rejected in massive numbers by their congregation, unlike in the Catholic
Church.

Both may agree that it is regrettable that contraception allows extra marital sex to be less “risky”; but the way to convince people that sex outside of marriage is not a good idea is not by arguing that all sex must be open to pregnancy.

No one believes that except you, CL, some bishops and the Pope.

steve from brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 11:32 am
The Gillard matter is one of little consequence or importance, Gab.

How predictable can you be?

Yet again nothing to see here, move along…again.

twostix

14 Feb 12 at 11:39 am
Hey, remember Attack Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatch.

Well, it’s baa-aack.

This time, it’s called Truth Team!

Ahahahahaha.

——————————–

In other Obama fail news…

Caught on video: The horrifying proof that Libya’s freedom fighters have turned into brutal torturers.

Heckuva job, Barack.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 11:40 am
Excellent Piece on JFK’s and the intern by Richard Fernandez – also makes you wonder about Australias currently leaders

http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/

”
Kennedy had an appetite for subjecting those close to him to extreme humiliation.”

http://www.tnr.com/blog/timothy-noah/100566/jfk-monster

RodClarke

14 Feb 12 at 11:40 am
the Protestant evangelical churches and (even more so) the Mormons

So you think we can convince twenty-somethings and so on to adopt the sexual morality of Protestant evangelicals and (even more so) the Mormons? Seriously?

Their position on this is not rejected in massive numbers by their congregation, unlike in the Catholic
Church.

That is because their congregations are a fraction of those of the Church; and because they remove those within their congregations that promote a permissive sexual morality.

Both may agree that it is regrettable that contraception allows extra marital sex to be less “risky”; but the way to convince people that sex outside of marriage is not a good idea is not by arguing that all sex must be open to pregnancy.

That is precisely what you just argued above when you say:
“don’t have sexual relationships – especially ongoing ones – even with contraception unless you have a commitment in place that will ensure you can both happily live with the potential long term consequences: namely, a baby”. Of course, it is possible that the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.

No one believes that except you, CL, some bishops and the Pope.

That has been established Catholic teaching for two millenia; it’s hardly limited to a handful of Catholics.

dover_beach

14 Feb 12 at 11:42 am
WTF??? Not surprising that Nanabelle Crap is behind this fluff

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/take-two-pollies-grill-gently–20120211-1svqx.html

jtfsoon

14 Feb 12 at 11:43 am
I’ve always thought that JFK was an over-rated mediocrity. And he literally stole the election from the much more substantial Nixon.

jtfsoon

14 Feb 12 at 11:45 am
This is idiocy. The church preaches an ideal. The saints were not all holy people to start with. You are obviously preferred to use a condom than to have an abortion. The only equivocation happens because of the assumption that their God is endlessly forgiving and loving.

If you’re going to preach to us Steve, try Isaiah 49.

.

14 Feb 12 at 11:46 am
Why is the US idiotically backing more of this Arab spring nonsense?

You aint seen nothing yet.

Reuters: Obama proposes $800 million in aid for “Arab Spring”.

And that Taliban office in Qatar – guess who’s paying its expenses? The United States.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 11:48 am
I’ve always thought that JFK was an over-rated mediocrity. And he literally stole the election from the much more substantial Nixon.

He was a lightweight whose stuff ups caused the Cuban Missile crisis.

I saw the article about him, so in hindsight do we find out he was pro-segrigation, we now find he used his power to abuse women for his sick pleasure.

Thank goodness Ike warned him about showing backbone, else he really would’ve made a mess.

Token

14 Feb 12 at 11:50 am
..would’ve made a bigger mess.

Token

14 Feb 12 at 11:51 am
Reuters: The insurance industry are asking out loud who is going to pay for Obummer’s free contaception for all drivel

“President Barack Obama’s compromise on free birth control coverage left health insurers stuck with the bill, sparking worries over the precedent set by the new policy.

Obama on Friday made insurers responsible for providing free birth control to employees of religious groups, aiming to placate outraged leaders of the Catholic church who oppose contraception and to defuse an election-year landmine.

Free birth control is mandated under Obama’s 2010 healthcare law.”

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 11:53 am
That is precisely what you just argued above when you say:

Come on, it is not.

The fact that sex can lead to pregnancy even if you are trying to use contraception carefully is a reason to take sex seriously (and I am talking in the context of relationships where people are not sure if they want the full commitment to the relationship yet.)

This has no connection with a widely rejected theological teaching that it’s impossible to have legitimate sex, even with a wife, if you put a condom on.

Oh, I forgot the pinprick exception. Maybe that fixes the sex again!

steve from brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 11:58 am
Their position on this is not rejected in massive numbers by their congregation, unlike in the Catholic Church.

LOL. The foundational doctrine of all protestantism is sola scriptura.

Which means that protestants totally reject their churches’ dogma far – FAR – more than Catholics do.

In fact, they reject the whole thing.

Not to worry – one Church endures and will forever. Remember the ‘Crystal Cathedral’?

Bankrupt Crystal Cathedral Sold to Catholics for $57M.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 12:01 pm
JamesK, the very article you cite has comments like this:

The administration says insurers should ultimately make up any initial costs by avoiding expenses associated with unintended pregnancies.

That view was echoed by Wendell Potter, former top spokesman for insurer Cigna Corp who is now an industry critic.

“Providing contraception, even for free, is cost-effective for insurers so I don’t think they’ll balk,” he said, adding it could even save them money in the long run.

“It may add a little administrative complexity to what they do, but they can deal with it.”

For a more detailed look at the cost question, you can read this:

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/02/13/cost-contraception-in-insurance-plans-what-data-say

steve from brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 12:01 pm
This has no connection with a widely rejected theological teaching that it’s impossible to have legitimate sex, even with a wife, if you put a condom on.

It is an ideal they are talking about. Are you seriously arguing this ideal causes abortions? Fuck me you are stupid. Do you think all buddhists follow the path of enlightenment or they just use it as a guide to live a life consistent with the four noble truths?

The religions are quite honest about the fact that it requires sacrifice to live like Christ or Buddha.

.

14 Feb 12 at 12:04 pm
Oh, I forgot the pinprick exception.

Still lying, Steve?

You got that reference from a woman writer who was referring to IVF, not contraception. And she dismissed the idea.

You’re a morally deranged, dishonest person.

Your hero Obama went to war with the Catholic Church and we crushed him like a bug. The pro child murder wacko WILL do as he’s told on this – or else.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 12:06 pm
Yeah ok Steve. It makes so much sense that business savvy Obama who plowed Keystone and set up Solyndra to fail was the only one who knew how good they’d have it.

You really are a duplicitous fool.

.

14 Feb 12 at 12:07 pm
What is it with this obsession of yours, Steve. I don’t understand it. Why do you care what people do in their bedrooms! You really are very very sick. Keep both hands on the keyboard.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 12:08 pm
You’re an insurance consultant now, steve?

jtfsoon

14 Feb 12 at 12:09 pm
Your hero Obama went to war with the Catholic Church and we crushed him like a bug. The pro child murder wacko WILL do as he’s told on this – or else.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Obama+attack+religious+freedom+will+cost/6140103/story.html

Ivan Denisovich

14 Feb 12 at 12:14 pm
For a more detailed look at the cost question, you can read this:

Thanks for that link to far left-wing ‘Reality Check,’ Steve – a site that proclaims its role as advancing left-wing ‘reproduction policy.’

Our Partners: Past & Present

Advocates for Youth, SIECUS, Isis, Inc. – We worked in tandem with these organizations on Fresh Focus: Sex Ed Digital Video Contest. In addition, we presented at Isis, Inc.’s inaugural conference, Sex::Tech, on technology and sexual health education for youth in San Francisco. Our very own Martha Kempner was previously the SIECUS vice president for communications and information.

Alternet, Daily Kos and Firedoglake – Every day, we cross-post our favorite or most relevant posts on each one of these blogging platforms. Click here for our posts on Daily Kos, here for our posts on Alternet, and here for our posts on Firedoglake! And when in doubt, just search our name (RH Reality Check) using any of these three sites’ search engines and they should direct you to our posts.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) – When it comes to many of the hot topics we’re reporting on, we need to get a sharpened legal perspective out to our readers; that’s where the ACLU comes in! The ACLU writes about the issues with which its members are involved (potential or impending legal cases, for example) right here on our site.

Americans for UNFPA – We have previously published a weekly or semi-weekly post from Anika Rahman on women’s global health issues.

Catholics for Choice – The Catholics for Choice help us incorporate a religious perspective on reproductive health into our work, and help us to support the facts using their unique angle. We support each other by working together on articles to change themistaken belief that religion and reproductive health are somehow contradictory to one another. They’re of immeasurable value to us, and to the causes that we both support!

That’s all code for advocacy of abortion and the left’s wacko anti-natalist agenda.

“Catholics for Choice” has been officially condemned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as a fake ‘Catholic’ organisation at war with Catholicism.

Right up there with your George Soros and Rachel Maddow links!

LOL.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 12:15 pm
The administration says insurers should ultimately make up any initial costs by avoiding expenses associated with unintended pregnancies.

Apparently the people who have to pay don’t agree steve.

You are a disgusting inane leftist steve who believes in something for nothing.

Like all disgusting leftist vermin, you are like a child and innocent only insofar as second stage thinking is beyond you.

When challenged, you rationalise what you want to believe no matter how utterly insane the premise.

The Obummer administration’s woeful response to the obvious question is just such an example.

The moment you ask and answer honestly you become a conservative.

That’s clearly beyond your ken steve.

You conservative catholic slimy troll.

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 12:17 pm
Isn’t it amusing how CL will sometimes play the “ad hom” card in defence, but when there are articles that quote things like facts and figures, all he can use in offence is the “ad hom” himself.

Jason – so I read up on issues.

It’s something that people here continually show they don’t like to do.

steve from brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 12:19 pm
You’re an insurance consultant now, steve?

Jason – so I read up on issues.

Yeah right. Explain the follwoing:

It makes so much sense that business savvy Obama who plowed Keystone and set up Solyndra to fail was the only one who knew how good they’d have it.

You dodge every question I pose to you. You cannot psychologically handle this debate, Rosie.

.

14 Feb 12 at 12:21 pm
Obummer: we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 12:22 pm
Watermelons try to pull a Gillard:

GREENS MPs who posed with a Socialist Alliance banner in Sydney on Sunday have claimed it was intended as a joke at the expense of this newspaper.

But the humour has been lost on some of their fellow NSW Greens, who said yesterday they plan to raise the matter at a state council meeting this weekend, as the split between the environmentalist and anti-capitalist sections of the party widens.

[H/T Blair & ultimately Imre Salusinszsky]

Token

14 Feb 12 at 12:31 pm
Mrs. Steve:

The administration says insurers should ultimately make up any initial costs by avoiding expenses associated with unintended pregnancies.

That view was echoed by Wendell Potter, former top spokesman for insurer Cigna Corp who is now an industry critic.

“Providing contraception, even for free, is cost-effective for insurers so I don’t think they’ll balk,” he said, adding it could even save them money in the long run.

“It may add a little administrative complexity to what they do, but they can deal with it.”

hahahahahaha let me see the actuarial studies confirming this bullshit.

This like saying an insurance company will pay for abs brakes because they help reduce accidents.

What a fucking laugh. Any actuarist selling that crap would to be sacked.

Step, get back to the ironing as it’s hitting the roof.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 12:31 pm
dot – I don’t engage with you because half the time your spittle flying invective makes a point that is unclear to me, and the other half your points are so stupid as to not deserve rebuttal.

Your last one falls into the latter category.

Insurance companies probably think the Obama mandate is a bit of a pain in the arse administratively, and hence aren’t rushing to endorse it.

But as actual evidence from funds that have had the State based mandate in place for a long time suggests that it does not cost them money, I find that more convincing than listening to funds whine about new paperwork.

steve from brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 12:33 pm
But the humour has been lost on some of their fellow NSW Greens, who said yesterday they plan to raise the matter at a state council meeting this weekend, as the split between the environmentalist and anti-capitalist sections of the party widens.

Despicable. The left wing of the Greens is like a fucking virus.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 12:33 pm
Steve, I think it’s time you ditched this personna, and made another. You’ve managed to debauch this one so successfully, that it’s unreadable.
Perhaps your next one can be a little less sex obsessed?

OK?

Winston Smith

14 Feb 12 at 12:34 pm
dot – I don’t engage with you because half the time your spittle flying invective makes a point that is unclear to me, and the other half your points are so stupid as to not deserve rebuttal.

No dickhead I am much more educated than you and you never have an answer for me. You cannot intellectually keep up, Stepford Steve.

You’re just pissy I cut through your hormonal passive aggressive BS.

You’ve dodged about five key questions today.

Now name those insurance studies. GO!!!

.

14 Feb 12 at 12:35 pm
Come on, it is not.

It is precisely what you argued implicitly, except you fail to recognize that both contraception and abortion undermine the seriousness with which you believe we are meant to regard sex and all it entails because in situations where contraception fail and pregnancy obtains there is always abortion to erase the responsibilities inherent in human sexuality. The Church’s position is far more coherent than your own because the former recognizes the grave threat that contraception and abortion are to sex and sexuality being taken seriously.

dover_beach

14 Feb 12 at 12:36 pm
Stepford Steve says this is “too stupid to deserve a rebuttal”

You’re an insurance consultant now, steve?

Jason – so I read up on issues.

Yeah right. Explain the follwoing:

It makes so much sense that business savvy Obama who plowed Keystone and set up Solyndra to fail was the only one who knew how good they’d have it.

You’re just a lying arsehole.

.

14 Feb 12 at 12:37 pm
dot – I don’t engage with you because half the time your spittle flying invective makes a point that is unclear to me, and the other half your points are so stupid as to not deserve rebuttal.

Untrue. Dot is rightly rude to you because you thoroughly deserve to be treated with scorn and contempt. In fact I actually think he’s too nice to you, Step.

Your last one falls into the latter category.

He’s always clear and concise.

Insurance companies probably think the Obama mandate is a bit of a pain in the arse administratively, and hence aren’t rushing to endorse it.

Dickhead, the admin work for this is nothing material. This is another example of this administration lying however. They lie to the American people that this will be free or costless when in fact nothing could be further from the truth. This exemplifies why US insurance premiums are going up 30% this year.

But as actual evidence from funds that have had the State based mandate in place for a long time suggests that it does not cost them money, I find that more convincing than listening to funds whine about new paperwork.

Show me the evidence. I want to see the tables from an independent source.

Go!

Dot and I can read them, although Dot is better trained in that crap.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 12:39 pm
Isn’t it amusing how CL will sometimes play the “ad hom” card in defence

CL actually correctly characterized your statement. The pinprick example was not an appropriate example.

dover_beach

14 Feb 12 at 12:40 pm
Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput:

“No similarly aggressive attack on religious freedom in our country has occurred in recent memory..…….

..the current administration has created a mandate which is the embodiment of culture war. At its heart is a seemingly deep distrust of the formative role religious faith has on personal and social conduct, and a deep distaste for religion’s moral influence on public affairs. To say that this view is contrary to the Founders’ thinking and to the record of American history would be an understatement.”

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 12:41 pm
Go away and do your own research JC.

Stop sitting around doing your bloviating, sitting-on- your (so Jason tells us) skinny arse act of “prove it to me!”

steve from brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 12:44 pm
To say that this view is contrary to the Founders’ thinking and to the record of American history would be an understatement.”

The religion clause in the constitution was attached for this very reason. The founders were concerned about a government interfering or a religious group overtaking the government and imposing their values on others.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 12:45 pm
Steve, you made the assertion/allegation/whatever so the burden of proof is on you, not JC.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 12:46 pm
studies show

do your own research

You lying arsewipe.

.

14 Feb 12 at 12:46 pm
Go away and do your own research JC.

Stop sitting around doing your bloviating, sitting-on- your (so Jason tells us) skinny arse act of “prove it to me!”

Step, I wouldn’t expect you to prove it to me, as I don’t think a “graduate” from a rural TAFE (Dip Arts) would be able to make head or tail of an actuarial table, which is why I just asked for the link. Go!

JC

14 Feb 12 at 12:48 pm
JC has a “skinny arse”? And this interests you why?

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 12:48 pm
Step:

You understand it’s Administration propaganda, right? No actuary in his right mind would suggest an insurance carrier wouldn’t incur primary costs from such a mandate because they get it back on the back end. It just wouldn’t happen.

It may very well be true that they do, however that would eventually be reflected in the carrier’s gross margins and if there is any competitive pressures it would be one element in deciding what they charge for future premiums… less or more.

Doofus, it’s exactly like the ABS brakes example I gave and the behavior of firms as a result.

You’re such a gullible tool, Step.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 12:54 pm
d-b, I consider you are arguing beyond logic and reason today.

steve from brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 12:55 pm
Pastor Rick Warren who gave the invocation at Mr. Obama’s Inaugural at Obummer’s personal request announces his willingness to go to jail rather than obey the new DHHS regulations

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 12:57 pm
Pastor Rick Warren who gave the invocation at Mr. Obama’s Inaugural at Obummer’s personal request announces his willingness to go to jail rather than obey the new DHHS regulations

Good work, Odumbo. Great effort in an election year. Lol.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 12:59 pm
studies show

do your own research

Man up, Princess. Otherwise you’re a lying coward.

.

14 Feb 12 at 1:01 pm
Taxpayers fund outrageous wages for GMH.

GM Holden has agreed to an extraordinary wage deal that will lift the income of 4000 employees by up to 22 per cent by 2014, despite the carmaker seeking a taxpayer-funded assistance package from the Gillard government.

In a deal hailed by union leaders as “spectacular”, workers will receive a “guaranteed” 18.3 per cent increase over the next three years, with some workers to receive up to 22.3 per cent.

Holden refused to comment on the deal yesterday but The Australian has obtained full details of the agreement, which the union said contained no productivity trade-offs. “In the automotive industry it represents the best deal yet to be negotiated and is highly recommended to members,” union leaders Ian Jones and John Camillo wrote in a circular to members outlining the deal.

They said the “value of the wage deal is magnified tenfold when you gauge it against the latest CPI (inflation) figures of 2.1 per cent and the horrendous state of automotive manufacturing in this country”.

http://m.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/industrial-relations/holden-signs-record-pay-deal-as-unions-wins-22-per-cent-wage-rise/story-fn59noo3-1226270229745

What? That’s why they want more subsidies. Give them nothing and let them sink or swim.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 1:07 pm
I note Andrew Elder has been ruminating about Judith Sloan making a run at Parliament:

Another “rich economic mind” from the Coalition who has been raising her profile has been Professor Judith Sloan. She doesn’t need to raise her profile for academic or corporate appointments. She used to be a director of the ABC and she is using its various outlets to raise her profile (well, many of them anyway – there isn’t yet a Judith and Hoot, but on current projections it’s only a matter of time). She lives in Melbourne and has a strong connection to Adelaide, having worked at Flinders University for many years. There’s only one Liberal seat available in either city:

- Menzies, currently occupied by Kevin Andrews; and
- Boothby, currently occupied by one person who has achieved less than Andrews: Andrew Southcott. This is the guy who qualified as a medical practitioner and then led the opposition, such as it was, to a tobacco control measure on the basis of advertising and brand rights. If you think it’s unfair to summarise his career that way, name me one achievement of Andrew Southcott other than getting re-elected.

Sloan would find it difficult to adjust to party politics and a non-deferential media. If she were to run, it would be a rare example of the Coalition putting their best people into Parliament and would give them the policy substance they currently lack.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 1:08 pm
My bullshit antennae fling straight up and go hyper whenever i see ” studies show” as the opener. I have 100% verifiable proof that whenever a such a claim is made it’s absolute crap.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 1:08 pm
d-b, I consider you are arguing beyond logic and reason today.

You said that sex must be taken seriously because, among other things, of the possibility of pregnancy. Except that contraception and abortion mean we no longer need to take sex seriously, at least so far as the possibility of pregnancy is concerned. So you have yourself undermined one of the reasons you’ve offered for taking sex seriously. What about this is beyond logic and reason?

dover_beach

14 Feb 12 at 1:11 pm
Although it appears I can’t link it, I note Andrew Elder has been ruminating about Judith Sloan making a run at Parliament. He nominates Andrew Southcott in Boothby as the sacrificial lamb.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 1:11 pm
You mean this, m0nty:

Another “rich economic mind” from the Coalition who has been raising her profile has been Professor Judith Sloan. She doesn’t need to raise her profile for academic or corporate appointments. She used to be a director of the ABC and she is using its various outlets to raise her profile (well, many of them anyway – there isn’t yet a Judith and Hoot, but on current projections it’s only a matter of time). She lives in Melbourne and has a strong connection to Adelaide, having worked at Flinders University for many years. There’s only one Liberal seat available in either city:

* Menzies, currently occupied by Kevin Andrews; and
* Boothby, currently occupied by one person who has achieved less than Andrews: Andrew Southcott. This is the guy who qualified as a medical practitioner and then led the opposition, such as it was, to a tobacco control measure on the basis of advertising and brand rights. If you think it’s unfair to summarise his career that way, name me one achievement of Andrew Southcott other than getting re-elected.

Sloan would find it difficult to adjust to party politics and a non-deferential media. If she were to run, it would be a rare example of the Coalition putting their best people into Parliament and would give them the policy substance they currently lack.

Anyway, enough kite-flying.

http://andrewelder.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/no-doubt-no-benefit.html

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 1:18 pm
You mean this, m0nty:

Another “rich economic mind” from the Coalition who has been raising her profile has been Professor Judith Sloan. She doesn’t need to raise her profile for academic or corporate appointments. She used to be a director of the ABC and she is using its various outlets to raise her profile (well, many of them anyway – there isn’t yet a Judith and Hoot, but on current projections it’s only a matter of time). She lives in Melbourne and has a strong connection to Adelaide, having worked at Flinders University for many years. There’s only one Liberal seat available in either city:

* Menzies, currently occupied by Kevin Andrews; and
* Boothby, currently occupied by one person who has achieved less than Andrews: Andrew Southcott. This is the guy who qualified as a medical practitioner and then led the opposition, such as it was, to a tobacco control measure on the basis of advertising and brand rights. If you think it’s unfair to summarise his career that way, name me one achievement of Andrew Southcott other than getting re-elected.

Sloan would find it difficult to adjust to party politics and a non-deferential media. If she were to run, it would be a rare example of the Coalition putting their best people into Parliament and would give them the policy substance they currently lack.

Anyway, enough kite-flying.

http://andrewelder.blogspot.com.au

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 1:19 pm
You mean this, m0nty:

Another “rich economic mind” from the Coalition who has been raising her profile has been Professor Judith Sloan. She doesn’t need to raise her profile for academic or corporate appointments. She used to be a director of the ABC and she is using its various outlets to raise her profile (well, many of them anyway – there isn’t yet a Judith and Hoot, but on current projections it’s only a matter of time). She lives in Melbourne and has a strong connection to Adelaide, having worked at Flinders University for many years. There’s only one Liberal seat available in either city:

* Menzies, currently occupied by Kevin Andrews; and
* Boothby, currently occupied by one person who has achieved less than Andrews: Andrew Southcott. This is the guy who qualified as a medical practitioner and then led the opposition, such as it was, to a tobacco control measure on the basis of advertising and brand rights. If you think it’s unfair to summarise his career that way, name me one achievement of Andrew Southcott other than getting re-elected.

Sloan would find it difficult to adjust to party politics and a non-deferential media. If she were to run, it would be a rare example of the Coalition putting their best people into Parliament and would give them the policy substance they currently lack.

Anyway, enough kite-flying.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 1:20 pm
Yes, that.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 1:21 pm
That would be fantastic news.

jtfsoon

14 Feb 12 at 1:26 pm
Sinclair: please delete repeated posts where appropriate.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 1:29 pm
No, says Mumble:

The Gillard government lags behind the opposition on perceptions of economic competence. Does it matter?

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 1:29 pm
Remember how Australia was the most nation of earth, and worse than Harlem for Indian students?

New global rankings: Melbourne is Australia’s best university city

MELBOURNE is the top city for students in Australia and would be number one in the world were it not for the affordability factor, according to global rankings company QS.

The Victorian capital ranks fourth in the top 50 on a new list. Sydney ranks sixth, with Brisbane at 22, Perth at 25 and Adelaide at 29.

See the full list of best student cities.

Paris leads the table, followed by London and Boston, Vienna is number five. Australia has the most cities in the top 50.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/university-rankings/new-global-rankings-melbourne-is-australias-best-university-city/story-fna15id1-1226270510299

Peter Patton

14 Feb 12 at 1:30 pm
Charles Krauthammer:

“To flatter his faith-breakfast guests and justify his tax policies, Obama declares good works to be the essence of religiosity. Yet he turns around and, through Sebelius, tells the faithful who engage in good works that what they’re doing is not religion at all. You want to do religion? Get thee to a nunnery. You want shelter from the power of the state? Get out of your soup kitchen and back to your pews. Outside, Leviathan rules.

The contradiction is glaring, the hypocrisy breathtaking.”

I recommed rtwt

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 1:31 pm
Is Mumble auditioning for the circus as a contortionist? Man, he’s twisted himself in fucking knots spinning for the Alliance.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 1:31 pm
Isn’t it amusing how CL will sometimes play the “ad hom” card in defence

I pointed out that you were lying about the “pinprick” – as I did last week.

Then I made fun of your far left-wing, anti-Catholic source.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 1:33 pm
Andrew Elder is really a fantasist, with a really bad case of Abbott Derangement Syndrome. Elder just can’t get over the fact that the ALP are terrible wastrels and power hungry low-life scum.

Sinistra delenda est

Rococo Liberal

14 Feb 12 at 1:39 pm
Gillard met with unionists. The Canberra Times refers to them as “the workers”.

Ms Gillard told the workers her Government would monitor the situation and keep in close contact with Alcoa management during the five-month review period.

She said supporting innovation and increased productivity in the manufacturing industry was a Government priority. But during question time, the Prime Minister had to endure an Opposition attack over the carbon tax, which kicks in on July 1, and the impact it could have on the aluminium industry.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott pointed to Treasury modelling predicting the sector would decrease by 61.7 per cent because of the carbon tax.

”Why is the Prime Minister introducing the world’s biggest carbon tax when the Government’s own advice shows that it will destroy an industry, cost jobs and hurt struggling communities?” he said.

Mr Abbott suggested the Government had a ”deliberate policy” to reduce output in the aluminium industry.

But Ms Gillard accused the Opposition Leader of fear mongering.

Given Gillard’s hate of the “big palludahs” and her aim of reducing “carbin pallushun” you’d think she be happy about Alcoa’s inevitable demise in Australia.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 1:41 pm
Mr Abbott suggested the Government had a ”deliberate policy” to reduce output in the aluminium industry.

Well, of course.

That is THE WHOLE POINT of the tax.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 1:46 pm
White House Economic Adviser: ‘We Need a Global Minimum Tax’

“He supports corporate tax reform that would reduce expenditures and loopholes, lower rates for people investing and creating jobs in the U.S., due so further for manufacturing, and that we need to, as we have the Buffett Rule and the individual tax reform, we need a global minimum tax so that people have the assurance that nobody is escaping doing their fair share as part of a race to the bottom or having our tax code actually subsidized and facilitate people moving their funds to tax havens,” Sperling said.

The new left are fucking loons. Funny though.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 1:50 pm
Tanya Plebeserk being interviewed, mentioned that they (Labor) introduced the graphic warning pictures on cigarette packs.

Maybe my memory is wrong, but didn’t the Howard government effect that?

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 1:51 pm
Some ‘achievement.’

It’s a pity the government didn’t put graphic warnings on their asylum seeker policy.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 1:55 pm
Oooh. That one went for the jugular, CL.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 1:58 pm
Gillard more shrill than usual in QT. Avoids answering Abbott’s question on why she continues with the CO2 tax when even Treasury’s modelling shows it will hit the aluminium industry hard.

She really has soared to new heights of irrelevance.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 2:06 pm
Except that contraception and abortion mean we no longer need to take sex seriously

I have been making the point that contraception is not foolproof. This is well known.

As for abortion: my proposition was that lovers should be careful about anticipating abortion as being something they will have without regret or harm to their relationship. As the example of Christopher Hitchens shows, I don’t think many people, even atheist humanists, are completely casual about ending pregnancy, and the later the pregnancy, the more they will have some misgivings. And an abortion is, I suspect, often what starts the end of a youthful de facto relationship: it changes things.

So I am putting forward an argument to the “not entirely sure if committed to the relationship” set of young people living with their first boyfriend or girlfriend as follows: “don’t think contraception and safe abortion means sex isn’t serious.”

This is entirely consistent with, and not at all harmed in any way, by the proposition “if you are married and want to plan when or how many children you have, most forms of contraception are OK and will not automatically make your sex wrong in any sense.”

You are replying “But contraception and abortion means we no longer need to take sex seriously”

That is actually no response at all.

There is a difference between worrying about the societal effects of contraception and worrying about its effects in a marriage relationship.

You do not have to accept that it is always wrong within a marriage in order to argue that it is has contributed to people more readily entering into de facto relationships, which is almost certainly a net harm for society.

steve from brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 2:20 pm
Greg Hunt doing excellent job of showing up Gillard’s hypocrisy on Alcoa and carbon tax. She’s spinning very fast. Hunt produced Aloca’s statement and Gillard calls the statement “the opposition’s figures”.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 2:26 pm
None of pro-abortion ‘Catholic’ Steve’s comments have anything to do with Obama’s failed attack on the Catholic Church.

Poor old Steve.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 2:27 pm
Oh boy.

Gillard extra-screechy in Parliament.

LOL.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 2:28 pm
Opposition hasn’t asked her anything about the 4Corners expose, yet. The suspension must be killing her.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 2:33 pm
Wearing a plush Speaker’s gown and a bow tie, Mr Slipper followed the Serjeant-At-Arms into the chamber.

There were about 50 people watching in the public gallery, and parliamentary staff also gathered for the occasion.

One spectator called for Mr Slipper to give a “wave for your subjects” but the sombre-looking Speaker was focused on the parade.

Glad to see that Australia still has its wags

Nic

14 Feb 12 at 2:47 pm
None of pro-abortion ‘Catholic’ Steve’s comments have anything to do with Obama’s failed attack on the Catholic Church.

Maybe that’s because d-b and I have been talking about something else…

You fail to provide any proof of me being “pro abortion”, incidentally, you casual liar.

steve from brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 2:55 pm
Man, she sounds screechy and nervous. She’s overdoing opposition bashing too and it looks fake.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 2:56 pm
Anyone seen or heard from Andy Leigh? He appears to have gone underground. Where is the little runt?

JC

14 Feb 12 at 2:59 pm
You fail to provide any proof of me being “pro abortion”…

LOL.

Maybe that’s because d-b and I have been talking about something else…

Is that how you see it? To everyone else, it has been Dover humiliating you repeatedly, as each of your lies and creepy obsessions are dissected and demolished.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 3:02 pm
Greens agree to slugging “wealthy” Australians with higher health insurance.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/health/greens-deal-seals-passage-of-legislation-for-a-private-health-insurance-means-test/story-fn59nokw-1226270795847

N.B. You’re “Wealthy” if earning >$83k per annum if single, and >$166K if family. Green Labor: in touch with “Australian werking famolies”.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 3:03 pm
Dover humiliating you repeatedly

Harsh, but true.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 3:04 pm
Kate Ellis is on now taking about working families.

Onya Kate.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 3:06 pm
Anyone seen or heard from Andy Leigh?

He’s an elitist.

A darling of progressive leftists.

They’ve abandoned the PM as the ABC demonstrated in no uncertain fashion last night

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 3:07 pm
Kate Ellis is on now taking about working families.

Talking but saying nothing.

Meow.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 3:08 pm
He’s an elitist.

He thinks he is.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 3:08 pm
Where is the little runt?

Probably looking for the place where they keep big runts:)

Rococo Liberal

14 Feb 12 at 3:09 pm
Only the first sentence should have been in blockquotes.

They don’t like her flat accented vernacular and the banshee screeching during question time

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 3:09 pm
Chris Pyne is really excellent. Lot’s of class and very articulate.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 3:09 pm
What a surprise: Gab nods sagely while CL declares triumph.

steve from brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 3:11 pm
Wow! Labor brains trust is out in full force today.

Katie Ellis and now Lurch. God almighty.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 3:11 pm
oops lots not lot’s.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 3:12 pm
I have been making the point that contraception is not foolproof. This is well known. As for abortion: my proposition was that lovers should be careful about anticipating abortion as being something they will have without regret or harm to their relationship.

We could eliminate the squeamishness about surgical abortion via pills like RU486 used as abortifacients or earlier as ‘emergency contraception’; options you would appear to have no problem with given they are part of the suite of ‘preventive’ health care the Obama administration seeks to provide by fiat.

This is entirely consistent with, and not at all harmed in any way, by the proposition “if you are married and want to plan when or how many children you have, most forms of contraception are OK and will not automatically make your sex wrong in any sense.” You are replying “But contraception and abortion means we no longer need to take sex seriously”

No, I was merely re-stating in fewer words your position. You raised the possibility of pregnancy as a reason, among others unnamed, for taking sex seriously but contraception and abortion provide a means around this possibility and therefore a reason to take sex less seriously. So what other reasons apart from the transmission of STDs do you have for today’s twenty-somethings to persuade them of the seriousness of sex? I say this because, in my experience, most twenty-somethings find the practice of casual sex reasonable in certain circumstances, as a prelude to “settling down”.

There is a difference between worrying about the societal effects of contraception and worrying about its effects in a marriage relationship.

Quite, and since I haven’t confused the two there isn’t any reason to address this any further.

dover_beach

14 Feb 12 at 3:12 pm
I don’t believe Dover set out to deliberately humiliate you, Steve. He just gave coherent and rational statements based on fact. You humiliate yourself all on your very own.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 3:13 pm
The Opposition bungled Question Time.

Only two questions on Gillard’s Four Corners lies – one from Bishop was a vaudeville gag, the other one badly worded and predictably ruled out of order.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 3:13 pm
I don’t believe Dover set out to deliberately humiliate you, Steve. He just gave coherent and rational statements based on fact. You humiliate yourself all on your very own.

Good point.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 3:15 pm
The Opposition bungled Question Time.

I’m not sure. I think they took the view that if the opponents are fighting among themselves then stay out of it.

It will be interesting to watch the Alliance’s Media Wing (ABC) now go after the libs big time, to try and even the score.

Watch. They are so predictable.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 3:18 pm
Will someone please explain to these ALP/Green twunts that giving away other peoples money infruitless gestures to ‘the poor’ is not moral, ethical, noble, progressive or philanthropic. Tax is theft.

Ever since the ALP has been in Government, we top marginal rate taxpayer are paying more and more tax so that the ALP can subsidise the indigent, bring in grandiloquent dig-and-then-fill-in-the-hole schemes whilstwanking on about ‘working families’ and making the economy worse and worse.

Have these wankers ever thought that if they left well enough alone, and stopped adding to the cost of everthing, that ‘working families’ could easily pay their way without useless income redistribution mechanisms that only serve to provide a meal ticket for more half-educated public servants.

Sinistra delends est

Rococo Liberal

14 Feb 12 at 3:20 pm
oops, delenda est

Rococo Liberal

14 Feb 12 at 3:21 pm
Angry rant there RL.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 3:21 pm
Scott Sumner broadsides the Krug again.

To summarize, supply-siders are not obsessed with getting the rich to work longer hours. They want Americans to work more, save more, and invest more. And to the extent they make that labor supply claim for tax cuts for the rich, it’s using an income-compensated assumption, i.e. the Laffer curve. You may not buy that argument, but Krugman has not found any logical inconsistency in supply-siders touting Murray’s findings.

http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=13068

JC

14 Feb 12 at 3:28 pm
we top marginal rate taxpayer are paying more and more tax so that the ALP can subsidise the indigent, bring in grandiloquent dig-and-then-fill-in-the-hole schemes whilstwanking on about ‘working families’ and making the economy worse and worse.

It just doesn’t pay to be “wealthy” or get ahead under your own steam under this government.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 3:30 pm
It will be interesting to watch the Alliance’s Media Wing (ABC) now go after the libs big time, to try and even the score.

Watch. They are so predictable.

Yep. Last time the Rudd/ Gillard thing really flared they had Malcolm Turnbull on Lateline pronto, as I recall, in the hope of undermining Abbott. So transparent. That’s sure to be a priority now. Just depends whether Turnbull will accommodate them again.

Ivan Denisovich

14 Feb 12 at 3:39 pm
This sounds like a great read

http://mises.org/daily/5917/Street-Freak

Street Freak is a great American success story — with a twist. A young man gets out of the Coast Guard and dreams of having a Wall Street career, working in the center of capitalism — the World Trade Center. But he doesn’t have the top-tier college pedigree that paves the way to the brass ring. The competition is fierce in the Lehman Brothers training class. He has a slim chance of earning a position.

His training is rudely interrupted by 9/11 and the author must live with the memory of watching the second plane ram into the second tower right above him. Training resumes across the Hudson and would eventually include performing security-guard duties. But while his classmates don’t take the menial job seriously, Dillian does, and it serves him well.

He’s granted an interview and tells of reading Burton Malkiel’s A Random Walk Down Wall Street, a book extolling the virtues of efficient-market theory. “I read the book,” Dillian tells the interviewer, “decided it was loathsome, nihilistic, academic bullshit, and set out to spend the rest of my career proving it wrong.”

Dillian gets his start in index arbitrage, only watching at first, then calculating his mentor’s P&L, and finally was allowed to trade. When the firm moves back to New York, and the head man Dick Fuld abolishes business casual, the author goes on a cheap suit shopping spree at Men’s Warehouse, spending for five suits what his coworkers pay for one. But his frugality put him on the wrong side of the “Lehman Handshake.” (You’ll have to read the book.)

The author has a gift for math, while knowing little about finance when he began. As he writes, “I just wanted to create money out of speed and pure intimidation.” He says he had no idea what the market was doing, but tick by tick Dillian developed an extraordinary sense for the direction of the beast that is the futures market.

jtfsoon

14 Feb 12 at 3:41 pm
We top rate taxpayers, etc,

Then get a good tax agent/accountant and start legally minimising your tax.

To paraphrase the goanna: “you’d be mad not to”…

Rabz

14 Feb 12 at 3:44 pm
Have these wankers ever thought that if they left well enough alone, and stopped adding to the cost of everthing, that ‘working families’ could easily pay their way without useless income redistribution mechanisms that only serve to…

Which wankers are you talking about? The current lot or the previous lot who’re responsible for the Popakid Grant and the Buyahouse Bribe?

Will someone please explain to these ALP/Green twunts that giving away other peoples money infruitless gestures to ‘the poor’ is not moral, ethical, noble, progressive or philanthropic.

It’s politics?

Adrien

14 Feb 12 at 3:49 pm
Then get a good tax agent/accountant and start legally minimising your tax.

RL is a tax lawyer.

Adrien

14 Feb 12 at 3:50 pm
Sinistra delends est

Will you be ending all your posts with this very catchy chant RL?

Should you be calling you Rococo Liberal the Elder?

Token

14 Feb 12 at 3:50 pm
His training is rudely interrupted by 9/11 and the author must live with the memory of watching the second plane ram into the second tower right above him.

Strsnge. I have an Australian friend that worked for Lehman and he also saw the second plane slamming into the building. They must have been close by as it happened.

I had traders like him and funnily enough they were the most successful without even knowing the first thing about economics and the navel gazing that goes with it. One dude had no degree and he consistently made $10 to 15 million a year for the firm , year after year which makes it appear it wasn’t random. He kept repeating, it’s not economics bullshit, it’s demand and supply and dynamics.

These guys simply estimate demand and supply like no one else can and they’re focused on market movements every second of the day.

They just don’t understand economics they deliberately stay away from it and have no biases. None. Very few traders are like that. Talk to them about market economics and they just yawn.

It turned my mind that trading (not investment) is actually comprised of two elements. Extremely good money management and a strong unbiased focus.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 3:53 pm
New global rankings: Melbourne is Australia’s best university city

D’uh!

Adrien

14 Feb 12 at 3:55 pm
Can someone explain.. Serious question.. would this fucker shampoo his beard? How do you wash that freaking thing so it doesn’t stink of food particles?

https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSIjL4UT_875Us8sn3BxPASJJySpFsKOHkeTVi4cRMkyRnKV5hX

JC

14 Feb 12 at 3:57 pm
Robert Gottliebsen:

“my proposal is that, instead of Australian banks borrowing high-cost offshore money, the Commonwealth government should undertake the overseas borrowing and lend the money to the banks, giving them much cheaper money and enabling them to lower – and not increase – interest rates.”

According to Gottliebsen, some cabinet ministers may be taking this idea seriously because “this would enable Canberra to exercise greater control over the banking industry.”

Capitalist Piggy

14 Feb 12 at 3:58 pm
lol… Gottliebsen is a nasty piece of work – he gets off on the idea of big government and government controls.

Fleeced

14 Feb 12 at 4:05 pm
“my proposal is that, instead of Australian banks borrowing high-cost offshore money, the Commonwealth government should undertake the overseas borrowing and lend the money to the banks, giving them much cheaper money and enabling them to lower – and not increase – interest rates.”

And putting the government on the hook if things go wrong. Screw that.

Driftforge

14 Feb 12 at 4:07 pm
Cap

The statist central planner dickheads are really coming out of the swamp these days.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 4:09 pm
How the fuck has Gottliebsen got a job as an economic commentator? That’s the question that ought to be asked after coming economic sludge like that. Who pays the imbecile a subscription fee for his web based rag?

JC

14 Feb 12 at 4:12 pm
I wonder if Kemlani is still alive. Perhaps Gottliesben could suggest to to Shane Wand he asks Kemlani to Iraq for a loan like Whitlam’s government did.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 4:14 pm
oops

…..suggest to Shane Wand he asks Kemlani to ask Iraq for a loan like Whitlam’s government did.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 4:17 pm
Did the banks really rub Swan’s nose in it, or is that just how the media, many of whom have no idea about how the banks borrowing costs or the ability of the treasurer to pressure them, portrayed the situation. It’s more to do with Swan’s talk being ruffed up by reality.

sean

14 Feb 12 at 4:17 pm
TIM WILSON: Yes, it is but I think before we worry about means testing private health insurance we should means test other giant subsidies, like the automotive car industry and to other major industries like aluminium that suck billions of dollars of public resources to prop up their profits and I don’t understand how the ALP can turn around to individuals and say, Australian individuals, you can’t have money and then say but, by the way, multinational car companies who make profits overseas can.

Well said.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 4:19 pm
You raised the possibility of pregnancy as a reason, among others unnamed, for taking sex seriously but contraception and abortion provide a means around this possibility and therefore a reason to take sex less seriously.

I keep saying “and people are mistaken for believing that contraception and abortion make sex less serious” and you keep ignoring that this is what I am saying.

I think I have enough of the fog bound nature of arguing with you for one day.

steve from brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 4:21 pm
Gottliebsen resurrects bank nationalisation.

What a complete moron.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 4:23 pm
Sean

No, the banks are acting rationally. Their cost of funds have gone up as a result of this government borrowing $100 million to fund their spending/deficit and funding costs have gone up as a result of government failure in Europe.

Crowding out really does exist.

Keynesian dropkicks of course think money is unlimited and have no concept of basic demand and supply/ price.

The Alliance ought to do the honest thing here and simply go back to interest rate controls and directed lending. They’re obviously partial to Chavezian economics, so they ought to go the whole hog.

Gottliesben will be there cheering of course. Moron.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 4:24 pm
oops %100 million per day.

Gottliebsen resurrects bank nationalisation.

What a complete moron.

Who wants to own up buying his useless rag now I wonder.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 4:25 pm
Obummer’s 2012 budget was released and obummer went out to immediately sell it.

His 2011 budget was defeated 97-0 in the US Senate.

His latest ‘contribution’ for his ‘economy built to last’ campaign (sound familiar folks?) would increase spending over CBO projections (double the amount projected over the next 10 years) and baseline adding lotsa new spending on items that do not even currently exist in current law, increases taxes and increases the deficit over anything anybody has projected whilst slashing defence even more than previously projected.

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 4:29 pm
I’m so fucking incensed with Bobby Gottliesben I sent the moron an email.

Hi Robert:

Are you actually serious that the government borrow overseas money and lend it to banks?
Robert, are you in some sort of Ground Hog Day time warp intermittently living back through the Kemlani affair?
Your suggestion is perhaps the stupidest I’ve read for a while, but unfortunately we have a government that would take your stupid suggestion seriously.

I can’t believe you would even go close to suggesting such rot.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 4:34 pm
You know what. I thought about. I think the Alliance ought to take Bobby’s proposal seriously and do it. Just do it.

Instead of slowly trashing the Australian economy and send us off the cliff slowly in slow mo, which is what they really want to do. Lets do it quickly and get it over and done with. Lets just run off the cliff like this.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 4:38 pm
Poilitico: The president’s budget promises major investments to spur a manufacturing reviva

Who said keynesianism ws dead?l

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 4:43 pm
BOJ goes full retard. About time too.

http://ibankcoin.com/news/2012/02/13/boj-to-expand-asset-purchase-fund-by-y10t-about-130-billion/

BOJ To Expand Asset-Purchase Fund By Y10T (about $130 Billion)

JC

14 Feb 12 at 4:43 pm
As for all the threats of resignation if the Little Turd get back in….

hahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahha

look at their resumes. State secretary of (insert union name), labor party adviser…

Where are they going to get a job? Who’s going to any of these idiots?

They’re just empty threats.

The Labor Party are acutely aware of the unemployability, and disciplinary value therein, of nearly all Labor MPs. The Party is their only ticket out of Centrelink. If any MP really does quit and bring down the government (unless they cook up a preselection deal with Abbott and cross the floor) then they will be totally locked out of working in any of the unions or ALP electorate offices. They might get a gig waiting tables at a Chinese restaurant if they’re lucky.

Fisky

14 Feb 12 at 4:44 pm
Their ABC: Brandis ‘alarmed’ at medal for Bolt case lawyer

“Senator Brandis says he was alarmed by the commission’s choice.

“The celebration of an outcome in a piece of litigation which was I think on any view a setback of freedom of speech and freedom of the press is not something that human rights advocates ought to be celebrating or to be given awards for,” he said.

Human Rights Commission president Catherine Branson says Mr Merkel was recognised for his long-term commitment to human rights, and not for a single case.”

The sooner conservatives realise that this is war not historically norm politics the better.

Leftists are a greater threat to western culture than radical Islam.

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 4:51 pm
The right should immediately award Bolt a martyrs medal to mark a day in free and open speech. Doesn’t matter, just make one up.

These are serious probes the left is making into our fabric and it may be not enough to just laugh at them, they have to be scorned and ridiculed off the stage.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 4:56 pm
So the fascist ‘human rights’ community has awarded a medal to Merkel for the Bolt decision.

I see Bolt is playing it coy with a “No Comment” post.

No, Andrew. Time to saddle up again and speak.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 4:59 pm
RL

Then get a good tax agent/accountant and start legally minimising your tax.

Dude, how’s tricks? Business is slow, eh? Next you’ll by hawking yourself on LP.

Peter Patton

14 Feb 12 at 5:09 pm
JC

That’s what I think every time I see this dude. Seriously, he could have a family of five living in all that, and he’d never know.

Peter Patton

14 Feb 12 at 5:18 pm
This dude.

http://www.australianoftheyear.org.au/pages/images/SAOTY%20finalist%20-%20Patrick%20Dodson.JPG

Peter Patton

14 Feb 12 at 5:19 pm
I don’t like Bolt but hate what happened to him. It was stupid and demonstrates how deeply PC madness has permeated even the legal profession.

The whole thing was a circus. Here’s a real tradegy with aborigines …

I was talking to a friend of mine who works in an NT hospital and the stories she told me about aborigines were amazing. Like how you have to be careful driving at night because they sleep on the road or just walk straight onto it without looking, of how difficult they are as employees. My friend is absolutely disgusted at the level of violence against women and children, that is still going on and a report last week stated soaring levels of suicide amongst aboriginal girls. She is convinced that most aborigines simply cannot function in our culture, they are too far removed from and yes Peter Patton she did state they are just plain dumb. Aborigines do have the lowest iq in the world … .

But none of the above matters, what matters is nailing a journalist who dared challenge the PC crowd. Very sad indictment on so called intellectual leaders and politicians.

John H.

14 Feb 12 at 5:28 pm
Human Rights Commission president Catherine Branson says Mr Merkel was recognised for his long-term commitment to human rights, and not for a single case.

What a crock of shit. This man is a flagrant serial abuser of human rights.

.

14 Feb 12 at 5:32 pm
Rating Action: Moody’s adjusts ratings of 9 European sovereigns to capture downside risks

Moody’s actions can be summarised as follows:

- Austria: outlook on Aaa rating changed to negative

- France: outlook on Aaa rating changed to negative

- Italy: downgraded to A3 from A2, negative outlook

- Malta: downgraded to A3 from A2, negative outlook

- Portugal: downgraded to Ba3 from Ba2, negative outlook

- Slovakia: downgraded to A2 from A1, negative outlook

- Slovenia: downgraded to A2 from A1, negative outlook

- Spain: downgraded to A3 from A1, negative outlook

- United Kingdom: outlook on Aaa rating changed to negative

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 5:35 pm
Ever since the ALP has been in Government, we top marginal rate taxpayer are paying more and more tax so that the ALP can subsidise the indigent, bring in grandiloquent dig-and-then-fill-in-the-hole schemes whilstwanking on about ‘working families’ and making the economy worse and worse.

Complete bollocks, as you would well know being a tax lawyer. Stop lying, RL.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 5:39 pm
Human Rights Commission president Catherine Branson says Mr Merkel was recognised for his long-term commitment to human rights, and not for a single case.

Well, Yasser Arafat was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize so anything’s possible in the Human Rights industry if you’re prepared to set the bar there.

Ivan Denisovich

14 Feb 12 at 5:39 pm
Complete bollocks, as you would well know being a tax lawyer. Stop lying, RL.

M0nty strays into Accounting and starts a dick of himself again.

Hey M0nty, please tell us again why PAYGWT is not a deducatable expense to corporations…

Token

14 Feb 12 at 6:03 pm
…and makes..

Token

14 Feb 12 at 6:04 pm
Hey Token, show me where those paying the top marginal tax rate have paid “more and more tax” under a Labor government.

In reality, the government tax take has been steadily going down across both Howard and Rudd/Gillard. Victimhood fantasies by RL don’t change that fact.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 6:10 pm
Hey Token, show me where those paying the top marginal tax rate have paid “more and more tax” under a Labor government.

First off, you lying moron, they parliamentary vote was taken in the Howard era which the Liar’s party supported. They voted for the cuts in Howard’s period and because they never had the numbers to reverse it in the senate after they got in power it went through automatically from what I recall.

Last year they imposed a surcharge for the QLD flood relief which I’m betting won’t be gone when they promised it would.

So yea, monster they have raised taxes you fucking leftwing clown.

STFU

JC

14 Feb 12 at 6:21 pm
Screw the Facebook IPO. I’m considering re-mortgaging the house and plonking the lot on the Coalition to win the next Fed election.

32% tax free ROI in 12 or fewer months.

Should be fun telling the wife what I’ve done.

Infidel Tiger

14 Feb 12 at 6:39 pm
he Australian Government Solicitor says the legal bill for the investigation into federal Labor MP Craig Thomson has cost taxpayers $912,562.

Whatever it takes.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 6:43 pm
m0nty – ahem

Sinclair Davidson

14 Feb 12 at 6:47 pm
Mr CROOK: Today in question time I asked a question of the Prime Minister regarding native title compensation. The Prime Minister stated that she had not heard from the Premier of Western Australia on this issue and for the record I would like say that the Prime Minister received a letter from the premier on 14 April 2011, which she subsequently replied to on 29 May.

She really does have issues with her memory. I think it’s called Liementia.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 6:49 pm
m0nty – ahem

That graph is meaningless without taking into account the increase in income by the three groupings. The only reason the top quartile’s share hasn’t gone down precipitously is because their incomes have risen in highly inequitable fashion, in comparison to the other two.

In any case, it doesn’t prove anything about Labor as it only includes one full year of Rudd, in which the top 25% share was flat.

You want duelling graphs, try this one (the top marginal tax rate having gone down again post the end of that graph to 45%) or this one.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 7:05 pm
m0nty, the historical tax rates you linked to show that the last change in the top 45% tax bracket, from 150,000 to 180,000 p.a., occured in 2008/2009.

However this change was actually passed in the previous year’s budget by the Coalition. As Costello said in his 2007 budget address.

From 1 July next year, we will increase the 40 per cent threshold from $75,000 to $80,000 and the 45 per cent threshold from $150,000 to $180,000.

And given that those people on $180,000 in 2008/2009 dollars would now be getting $195,000 if you adjust for CPI, more and more people are paying this top rate, and next year bracket creep will probably have eliminated any benefit the top earners received from the lower second top rate.

Plus, we should also bear in mind that Labor in opposition consistently opposed Costello when he raised the top threshold, running a disgusting campaign about the Coalition’s “handouts to the rich”. If Labor had had their way, we’d still be paying 45% on every dollar over 60k.

Fisky

14 Feb 12 at 7:07 pm
CNN- traditional Obummerphiles:

“A piece of advice: If you’re worried about President Barack Obama’s budget, find something else to fret over. The president’s blueprint has about as much chance of becoming law as yours. It’s all about election year 2012, not fiscal year 2013.
Don’t take my word for it. Take Harry Reid’s. The Senate majority leader — the Democrat most responsible for moving Obama’s agenda through Congress — said Friday that there’s no need to bring the budget to a vote this year.
“It’s done. We don’t need to do it,” Reid said, citing spending outlines agreed to in August’s debt ceiling agreement.
This isn’t shocking news. It’s been more than 1,000 days since the Senate passed a formal budget. Washington governs today by lurching from one fiscal crisis to the next. Budget plans are about drawing clear political and ideological lines between Democrats and Republicans.”

Translation: It’s a joke so you don’t have to worry.

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 7:12 pm
Costello explains in his memoirs, here, how the Labor Party tried to destroy his tax cuts.

http://books.google.com.vn/books?id=5sGtRZsuNnEC&pg=PA281&lpg=PA281&dq=labor+costello+tax+cuts+rich&source=bl&ots=6jo_0pGTRw&sig=J-2wDc3FtT5UP_tfh8vkoixqfVs&hl=vi&sa=X&ei=LRc6T8-IBvCuiQf2uK2SCg&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

Labor must not be allowed to pretend that they supported tax cuts. They ran interference, with their Press Gallery supporters, and then caved eventually.

Fisky

14 Feb 12 at 7:14 pm
m0nty, the historical tax rates you linked to show that the last change in the top 45% tax bracket, from 150,000 to 180,000 p.a., occured in 2008/2009.

If you look at the tables, you will notice in 2009/10 that further easing of middle-income rates meant a flat $2150 tax cut for $180k+ earners. Admittedly there seems to be no change from 2010-11 to 2011-12.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 7:15 pm
m0nty – talking crap. Sorry. Tax burden for high income earners has increased.

Sinclair Davidson

14 Feb 12 at 7:20 pm
Also remember that most of the intellectual Left opposed every single Costello tax cut in the previous decade, meaning that they really wanted people on 60 or 70k to pay 45%. Here’s Ross Gittins, for example, attacking Costello’s tax cuts:

http://www.smh.com.au/business/tax-cuts-we-can-well-do-without-20090630-d3q7.html

The same people were decrying the “brain drain”, calling for more spending to somehow address this, but not making the obvious connection with income tax.

I bet m0nty opposed Costello’s tax cuts at the time, too, didn’t you m0nty?

Fisky

14 Feb 12 at 7:21 pm
Christ you’re a deceitful dishonest little creep Monster.

This is your statement posted by your very own computer, right?

Hey Token, show me where those paying the top marginal tax rate have paid “more and more tax” under a Labor government.

I showed you how they did, you clown and yet you persist, but now try and slide out of it by implying you asked something else.

Yes, labor raised taxes on the marginal earners, you clown. It’s a fact.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 7:21 pm
Tax as a percentage of their income has decreased, Sinclair. That is what matters.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 7:22 pm
Tax as a percentage of their income has decreased, Sinclair. That is what matters.

Really? Proof? Link?

Sinclair Davidson

14 Feb 12 at 7:26 pm
I bet m0nty opposed Costello’s tax cuts at the time, too, didn’t you m0nty?

Costello inherited a healthy tax base from Keating and added to it with the GST. Now Gillard has to clean up after he slashed 11-figure sums from the tax take. As in the US, there wouldn’t be any furore over surpluses in Australia if we were taxed at the same rate as during the Clinton/Howard era. The government would be be swimming in money.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 7:27 pm
If you adjust for inflation only, rather than say real wages, then yes, people on 180K in 2008/9 paid 32.2% average tax as opposed to 194,400 paying 31.4% now.

However if you adjust for real wages over that time then they are paying more, as are most other taxpayers.

And we must never forget that the Left opposed Costello’s tax cuts in the last decade. They really did want people on average weekly earnings paying 45c.

Fisky

14 Feb 12 at 7:27 pm
Really? Proof? Link?

I just linked it.

try this one (the top marginal tax rate having gone down again post the end of that graph to 45%)

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 7:28 pm
Tax as a percentage of their income has decreased, Sinclair. That is what matters.

No, not if you adjust for wages rather than inflation. That’s the important thing here, because individuals in the top bracket would be paying proportionally more tax now than they did in 2008.

Fisky

14 Feb 12 at 7:33 pm
Monty – that’s the statutory rate. It doesn’t prove your point.

Sinclair Davidson

14 Feb 12 at 7:34 pm
If you adjust for inflation only, rather than say real wages, then yes, people on 180K in 2008/9 paid 32.2% average tax as opposed to 194,400 paying 31.4% now.

However if you adjust for real wages over that time then they are paying more, as are most other taxpayers.

Well then, that’s alright. Clearly the government’s policy should have been to force real wages down so that people would pay less tax. You idiot.

When the government lowers marginal tax rates but people pay more tax due to real wages going up… I don’t see how you can criticise the government for that. Everybody wins as far as I can tell.

I find it amusing that for the majority of Costello’s run he allowed bracket creep to fill the government’s coffers without lowering marginal tax rates much, then he finally does it towards the end of the life of the government… and suddenly it’s Swan’s fault that he’s doing a bit of what Costello did early in his reign.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 7:37 pm
Costello inherited a healthy tax base from Keating and added to it with the GST. Now Gillard has to clean up after he slashed 11-figure sums from the tax take. As in the US, there wouldn’t be any furore over surpluses in Australia if we were taxed at the same rate as during the Clinton/Howard era. The government would be be swimming in money.

Costello inherited a massive black hole from Labor, reversed it in two years, put it on a sustainable footing by taxing services uniformly, and made our income tax rates internationally competitive.

But thanks m0nty for confirming that you DID oppose the Costello tax cuts. According to m0nty, people should be paying 45% over $70,000 a year. What a clown.

Fisky

14 Feb 12 at 7:38 pm
Monty – that’s the statutory rate. It doesn’t prove your point.

It’s better than what you produced, which showed no change over Rudd’s term. You’re the one making the accusation that lowering the statutory rate hasn’t lowered the tax burden, the burden of proof is on you.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 7:39 pm
Well then, that’s alright. Clearly the government’s policy should have been to force real wages down so that people would pay less tax. You idiot.

No, the point is that you are trying to imply that actually existing top earners are paying less tax, when in fact they are paying more. The government’s policy, obviously, should be to cut their rates or to move thresholds faster.

When the government lowers marginal tax rates but people pay more tax due to real wages going up… I don’t see how you can criticise the government for that. Everybody wins as far as I can tell.

No, people pay a greater proportion of their money to the government. There is no justification for this.

Fisky

14 Feb 12 at 7:42 pm
No m0nty – my graph does not show the Rudd term of government. So not only don’t you understand what I’m doing, you don’t understand what you’re doing.

Sinclair Davidson

14 Feb 12 at 7:43 pm
I find it amusing that for the majority of Costello’s run he allowed bracket creep to fill the government’s coffers without lowering marginal tax rates much, then he finally does it towards the end of the life of the government… and suddenly it’s Swan’s fault that he’s doing a bit of what Costello did early in his reign.

Obviously, the big obstacle Costello had, which vanished in 2005, was an obstructive Senate. That would explain why the real progress was made from 2005-2008, despite the Labor Party’s negativity and carping.

Fisky

14 Feb 12 at 7:46 pm
…..you don’t understand what you’re doing.

Except when he’s trolling.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 7:48 pm
No m0nty – my graph does not show the Rudd term of government. So not only don’t you understand what I’m doing, you don’t understand what you’re doing.

The only year shown in the graph you linked that is relevant to the discussion is 2008/09, when Rudd was in power. Your graph showed no change.

If your argument holds any merit, please produce proof that those paying the top marginal tax rate have had the percentage of their income taken as tax increase under Rudd/Gillard.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 7:48 pm
Oh God, I’m having flashbacks to those arguments I had with economics lecturers at Melbourne Uni all those years ago. *shudder*

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 7:50 pm
Here mOnty, some nice graphs in this paper for you to take into the battle.

steve from brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 7:52 pm
Lotsa eye rolls but no shuddering in da audience as we watch you slowly rotisseried, m0nty

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 7:53 pm
Oh God, I’m having flashbacks to those arguments I had with economics lecturers at Melbourne Uni all those years ago. *shudder*

You once told me you went to Monash Monster.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 7:54 pm
Mrs Steve Stepford, the conservative, anti-abortion advocate and strong Catholic enters the argument to help Monster lose more.

How interesting.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 7:55 pm
You once told me you went to Monash Monster.

Nup. One year of Melbourne Economics/Commerce, then onto RMIT Journalism.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 7:56 pm
You once told me you went to Monash Monster.

LOL No wonder then he was arguing with lecturers at Melb Uni. He was lost.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 7:56 pm
Monster:

You did tell me you went to Monash. Stop lying.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 7:57 pm
JC – just remember Monty is a smart lefty

Sinclair Davidson

14 Feb 12 at 7:57 pm
Monster, Melbourne never had an economics/ commerce degree. It was just Commerce. B com. Everyone who went there knows that.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 7:58 pm
What makes for a smart lefty?

One you successfully lies unlike our PM?

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 7:59 pm
JC – just remember Monty is a smart lefty

Sorry Sinc. No such thing.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 7:59 pm
you= who

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 8:00 pm
If your argument holds any merit, please produce proof that those paying the top marginal tax rate have had the percentage of their income taken as tax increase under Rudd/Gillard.

Go to the RBA statistical tables and take average weekly earnings for all employees since the Costello tax cuts took effect in mid-2008. $1121.8 in June 2008 and the latest data from September 2011 is $1322.9. That’s an increase of 18%.

So, assuming uniformity, your 180k earners in 2008 are now getting $212,268, paying 69k in tax, or 32.5% average compared to 32.22% in 2008. But pay increases are probably higher than average at the top end, so the percentage would rise.

Top income earners are paying more tax under Labor. And they would be paying much more tax if Labor’s opposition to tax cuts had been successful.

Fisky

14 Feb 12 at 8:01 pm
What makes for a smart lefty?

One you successfully lies unlike our PM?

You reckon. She’s caught out in every single whopper. She’s a terrible liar.

The silly slapper will now be forced to lie because people will think she’s lying if she tried to tell the truth.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 8:02 pm
Monster:

You did tell me you went to Monash. Stop lying.

I did no such thing. Your memory is weak, old man.

Monster, Melbourne never had an economics/ commerce degree. It was just Commerce. B com. Everyone who went there knows that.

FFS dude, there is no conspiracy theory here. Tell you what, I’ll drag out my documents and take pictures of them. Not my birth certificate though, I don’t want you finding out my dark past in the wilds of Tajikistan.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 8:04 pm
I remember the Labor Party doing this dishonest dialectic back in the mid-2000s. They would start out by criticising Costello’s tax cuts for the rich, then they would say that Costello was a profligate high taxer and spender “the highest ever”, before finally saying that Australia doesn’t need tax cuts because we are a “low-taxing” nation compared to the OECD.

The dishonest little somersaults and backflips the Labor Party perform over this and nearly every other issue make your head spin. They really are a pack of lying c*nts.

Fisky

14 Feb 12 at 8:07 pm
FFS dude, there is no conspiracy theory here. Tell you what, I’ll drag out my documents and take pictures of them

Okay Please do. My memory is basically unfailing. I even recall trades I did in the 80′s for instance and the rate.

I wanna see the evidence Monster because you did tell me you went to Monash, which at the time I silently sniffed at and blew my nose after reading it.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 8:08 pm
The silly slapper will now be forced to lie because people will think she’s lying if she tried to tell the truth

It’s like a John le Carré double and triple-cross counter-espionage plot, JC.

Who said leftists were simple?

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 8:11 pm
I tried to warn you M0nty, stay away from accounting. All you do is prove how clueless you are. You need expert help.

Lucky for you, Stepford SoB has your back…

Token

14 Feb 12 at 8:11 pm
If only you hadn’t argued with lecturers and listened instead, m0nt, you may not have failed.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 8:12 pm
If only you hadn’t argued with lecturers and listened instead, m0nt, you may not have failed.

He didn’t leave Melb. If you fail first year you end up getting the boot and then have to grovel to be re-admitted. That’s what happened to him unless they changed the rules from my time… as even though Monster looks much older, he isn’t as old as me I don’t think.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 8:17 pm
Okay, so he got booted from Melb and then went to RMIT to “study” journalism. What’d he do at Monash? Loiter?

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 8:19 pm
he isn’t as old as me I don’t think.

He’s a chipper 39 yo.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 8:22 pm
h

e isn’t as old as me I don’t think.

He’s a chipper 39 yo.

Is he? He looks much, much older in his pics. Time seems to have ravaged him. hahahahaha

JC

14 Feb 12 at 8:24 pm
I remember visiting Monash once, to visit the Lot’s Wife offices for a meeting for the inter-uni student newspaper. The place was unremarkable.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 8:24 pm
Hey, I’m still only 38!

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 8:24 pm
Here he is.

http://twitter.com/#!/m0nty/media/slideshow?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2F91779052%40N00%2F4969784276%2F

JC is right on with the “fat-headed child” insult.

Fisky

14 Feb 12 at 8:25 pm
Time seems to have ravaged him.

S’what happens when you hang out with communists at uni.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 8:26 pm
Oh yea, they were really proud of that rag: Lots Wife.

That was a despicable uni in my time. It was basically a leftie hovel. However it turned around in the economics for a while in the 80′s and 90′s and became free market right wing, but reverted back to form…

JC

14 Feb 12 at 8:28 pm
I remember the Labor Party doing this dishonest dialectic back in the mid-2000s. They would start out by criticising Costello’s tax cuts for the rich, then they would say that Costello was a profligate high taxer and spender “the highest ever”, before finally saying that Australia doesn’t need tax cuts because we are a “low-taxing” nation compared to the OECD.

These were the tropes Ross Gittens and George Megloganis dined off for years.

Token

14 Feb 12 at 8:28 pm
I’m sure you blokes are all oil paintings.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 8:29 pm
Here he is.

Monster, you need to take off 40 kilos or you’ll suffocate under all the flab.

Go to a freaking gym and east better as you killing yourself.

Seriously, I’m actually trying to be kind to you here. Be grateful for my advice.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 8:30 pm
What an original thinker you are, JC. No one has ever told me that before.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 8:32 pm
I’m sure you blokes are all oil paintings.

I’m okay looks wise. I met Fisk and he’s a good looking young dude too.

It’s not about looks for men, Monster. Take off the flab, dress better and develop a little attitude and you’ll do fine with the ladies.

In fact seeing I’ve been so cruel to you I’ll offer you tips on the open forum whenever you ask. I’m obviously out of form, but it’s like riding a bike.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 8:33 pm
Oh yea, they were really proud of that rag: Lots Wife.

I worked for Lot’s Wife for a year and learned the many ways the repugnant Lefties were looting the Student Union contributions, to donate to the ALP and other parties to the further left to fight elections.

The Lefties of that day who were trying to use every legal mechanism to over turn every election they lost, are the top staffers to the Liars Party today.

Token

14 Feb 12 at 8:34 pm
What an original thinker you are, JC. No one has ever told me that before.

What exercise do you do?

(Pretend we’re on the Greatest Losers show and I’m the trainer of course).

JC

14 Feb 12 at 8:35 pm
These were the tropes Ross Gittens and George Megloganis dined off for years.

That’s who I had in mind. They couldn’t just come out and say that the top tax rate should kick in at 60K because they would be laughed out of the joint, so they did a Leftist Reversal and called Costello a “high-taxer”, even though they wanted taxes to be higher than the alleged “high-taxer” did.

Typical dishonest rubbish from the hacks.

Fisky

14 Feb 12 at 8:36 pm
Surely the ALP could provide a tax break on deposits in savings accounts (say for the first $5k earnt) to boost savings. As it is the bastards tax you twice, so not only do we have to fight inflation the whole exercise becomes futile.

sean

14 Feb 12 at 8:38 pm
I’m okay looks wise. I met Fisk and he’s a good looking young dude too.

Pics or GTFO.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 8:38 pm
What exercise do you do?

(Pretend we’re on the Greatest Losers show and I’m the trainer of course).

What are you, my Dad? No, no you’re not.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 8:40 pm
I worked for Lot’s Wife for a year and learned the many ways the repugnant Lefties were looting the Student Union contributions, to donate to the ALP and other parties to the further left to fight elections.

The Lefties of that day who were trying to use every legal mechanism to over turn every election they lost, are the top staffers to the Liars Party today.

Lol. Yea so true.

My kid had a funny story. One year before he was at Melbourne the Right took over the student’s union and it was a riot. The student leader- a rightie walked in on the first day and fired some of the people that worked there… just randomly. They complained to the administration and had to be re-instated.

The dude then took over the budget and started ordering drinks for himself and his mates spending the entire year in a drunken state. He get turfed the following year.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 8:40 pm
It’s not about looks for men, Monster. Take off the flab, dress better and develop a little attitude and you’ll do fine with the ladies.

He’s taking your advice already, JC.

http://twitter.com/#!/m0nty/media/slideshow?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftwitpic.com%2F2sqxde

Fisky

14 Feb 12 at 8:41 pm
What are you, my Dad? No, no you’re not.

I’m attempting to help you live a few more years, you idiot. Answer the question.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 8:41 pm
Good God. My wife called me over to look at the 730 report.

The 730 Report just aired new footage which taped Sattler telling the betented Aborigines that ‘Abbot said the embassy should be torn down, and he’s over there…’

So she’s revealed as a an apparent liar, and the 730 Report looks to be gunning for Juliar.

I feel like General Cornwallis!

Mk50 of Brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 8:43 pm
I’m attempting to help you live a few more years, you idiot. Answer the question.

No.

m0nty

14 Feb 12 at 8:46 pm
Their (the banks) cost of funds have gone up as a result of this government borrowing $100 million to fund their spending/deficit.

You appear to get stupider as the days go by JC.

There is no shortage of money, anyone even remotely familiar with the monetary system would be aware of that.

sdfc

14 Feb 12 at 8:46 pm
MK

I saw the segment. It didn’t appear to me they were getting stuck into the slapper. I got the impression that they had nee information on the ALP instigated race riot and just telling it to the viewers.

There was never any attempt to connect the dots to the slapper herself as we’ve done here.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 8:50 pm
There is no shortage of money, anyone even remotely familiar with the monetary system would be aware of that.

Cool… where can I get some?

Fleeced

14 Feb 12 at 8:52 pm
Borrow it.

sdfc

14 Feb 12 at 8:54 pm
There is no shortage of money, anyone even remotely familiar with the ~~monetary~~ welfare system would be aware of that.

There. Better.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 8:55 pm
Cool… where can I get some?

It’s burried in bottles in the ground so that you can dig it up and save the planet.

sean

14 Feb 12 at 8:55 pm
Wow , look who just parachuted in wearing a dinner suit and all…. even if the shirt is a little beer stained.. Les Patterson style.

You appear to get stupider as the days go by JC.

As I said in my earlier comment only Keynesian deadenders think money is limitless and of course SDFC fits the bill perfectly.

There is no shortage of money, anyone even remotely familiar with the monetary system would be aware of that.

Of course there is no shortage on money in a floating regime, you nimbus. The price determines the allocation and the banks are being forced to borrow at higher rates because the Alliance is squeezing them out of the domestic markets at the margin.

Now please don’t go into your MMT claptrap as I’m in no mood for you when you’re that way.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 8:55 pm
Good Lord.

What a blood-splattered field of battle it is today.

There are bits and pieces of Monty and Steve strewn all over the place. It’s like Custer Hill at Little Bighorn.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 8:58 pm
And SDFC, I never said there was a shortage of money you raving drunk. You made that up.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 8:58 pm
What a blood-splattered field of battle it is today.

body parts are everywhere. They should be left there as a lesson to any of the others.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 9:00 pm
The market can’t get enough CGS JC. Most of it is bought up by foreigners. Then again a guru like you would know that.

sdfc

14 Feb 12 at 9:01 pm
The 730 Report just aired new footage which taped Sattler telling the betented Aborigines that ‘Abbot said the embassy should be torn down, and he’s over there…’

Wow.

So Gillard confirmed as a liar.

Again.

I’m shocked.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 9:04 pm
mOnty and Steve: bloggings equivalent of the Maginot Line.

Infidel Tiger

14 Feb 12 at 9:07 pm
It would be a bigger shock to hear her tell the truth for once.

sean

14 Feb 12 at 9:08 pm
The market can’t get enough CGS JC. Most of it is bought up by foreigners. Then again a guru like you would know that.

So what? You think those foreigners have no country limits forcing the banks to bid for more marginal money?

You’re such an asshat at times, SDFC

JC

14 Feb 12 at 9:09 pm
What a blood-splattered field of battle it is today.

body parts are everywhere. They should be left there as a lesson to any of the others.

They’ll be back soon, bayonets fixed one more time, ready to charge the machine gun nests….

Token

14 Feb 12 at 9:12 pm
They’ll be back soon, bayonets fixed one more time, ready to charge the machine gun nests…

…but they trip over their own feet and fall face first. Splat!

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 9:15 pm
Borrow it.

sdfc… so, government borrowing $100m a day doesn’t effect the price of borrowing?

Fleeced

14 Feb 12 at 9:27 pm
The Ultimate Tazer Ball league is getting some press for its, um, inventive adaption of indoor soccer, football and self-defence gadgetry into a full-blown sport. It’s full-contact with four players a side, using a comically giant soccer ball on a 200-foot by 85-foot soccer field. The tazerin’ can only on the player holding the ball, and the shock has to be just a split second between the shoulders and the waist.

[H/T RWDB]

Token

14 Feb 12 at 9:27 pm
Talking about eating properly up thread, Instapundit on Gary Taubes, readers write about their results.

I could go on and on, and talk about the dietitian that explained the Food Pyramid to me and told me I should be eating carbohydrates and not fat. I followed her plan for a while to no avail. A year of following Gary Taube’s advice, and I’m 60 pounds lighter, my blood pressure is normal, my cholesterol levels are good, and I am no longer diabetic.

Oh, yeah, and BACON!

And a few more.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 9:35 pm
I’ve been reading over some of Gittins’ old articles on tax cuts. It is no exaggeration to say that he opposed every single reduction in PIT in the last 10 years, and if he had had his way, people on average weekly earnings would now be paying 47% MRT. Just read this rubbish:

And let me make a fearless prediction: before many years have passed and we’re in the full throes of skilled labour shortage following the retirement of the baby boomers, it will be commonplace to curse the Howard Government for its decade of inadequate spending on skill formation: public schooling, universities and technical training.

Yeah, people with skills are going to love paying nearly half their income in tax. They’ll just be migrating here in droves to pay us all that tax.

What a twit.

Fisky

14 Feb 12 at 9:39 pm
for some reason i feel disappointed Magda Szubanski has said she is “absolutely gay”. she’s the funniest commdienne I’ve ever seen in Australia, a lovely person too.

candy

14 Feb 12 at 9:40 pm
As the Craig Thomson investigation enters its fourth year - leaving Nuremberg (November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946), the Warren Commission (November 27, 1963 to September 24, 1964) and the Watergate Hearings (May 17, 1973 to June 27, 1974) in its wake…

Tonight on SBS, a doco on “one of the biggest court cases in Australia’s history.”

In February 2008, 12 Muslim men went on trial in Melbourne for terrorism offences. The trial ran for nine months, heard 482 secretly taped conversations and presented 66,000 pages of evidence.

Craig Thomson: more serious than the Third Reich, more solemn than Dealey Plaza, more complex than CREEP.

This is a complete and utter disgrace and farce.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 9:41 pm
Electric cars cause more pollution and are more harmful than gasoline powered cars. Yes, even the ones that don’t catch on fire.

KNOXVILLE—Electric cars have been heralded as environmentally friendly, but findings from University of Tennessee, Knoxville, researchers show that electric cars in China have an overall impact on pollution that could be more harmful to health than gasoline vehicles.

Chris Cherry, assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering, and graduate student Shuguang Ji, analyzed the emissions and environmental health impacts of five vehicle technologies in 34 major Chinese cities, focusing on dangerous fine particles. What Cherry and his team found defies conventional logic: electric cars cause much more overall harmful particulate matter pollution than gasoline cars.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 9:48 pm
F22 Raptor take-off and vertical climb…

Unbelievable:

http://viralfootage.com/?p=21785

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 9:51 pm
7.30 Transcript:

JULIA GILLARD, PRIME MINISTER: Mr Hodges had already offered his resignation to my chief of staff. He offered his resignation to me and I accepted it because Mr Hodges’ conduct was unauthorised and it was unacceptable.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Since then, the Coalition has pursued Julia Gillard for more detail of what went on that day.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE, MANAGER OF OPPOSITION BUSINESS: Does the Prime Minister stand by her statement on January 28 that, and I quote, “Mr Hodges was advised by the journalists at The Lobby restaurant that Mr Abbott that morning had made a statement in relation to the tent embassy in Canberra?”

CHRIS UHLMANN: Now for the first time, 7:30 can show footage of the words that sparked the confrontation.

KIM SATTLER, SECRETARY, UNIONS ACT: Barbara… Barbara… Do you want me to give you the details?

BARBARA SHAW, ABORIGINAL ACTIVIST: Yeah.

KIM SATTLER: They’re both in at reception at the Lobby Restaurant, which is just up the corner, and Abbott’s just made a statement to the press that the Tent Embassy should be pulled down. He’s over there.

BARBARA SHAW (to crowd): Our Deputy Prime Minister Tony Abbott is over there and he’s just made a statement to the press that the Tent Embassy should be pulled down. Over there! Come and say it here, Tony Abbott!

SPOKESMAN: I was asked to put the message across. Everybody over that way. Go and see Mr Abbott and Gillard.

CHRIS UHLMANN: The woman at the microphone is Aboriginal activist Barbara Shaw. 7.30 has confirmed that the woman out of shot is the Secretary of Unions ACT, Kim Sattler. The man behind it all is here, Tony Hodges, former media adviser to the Prime Minister.

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 9:51 pm
mOnty and Steve: bloggings equivalent of the Maginot Line.

Ummm…. no, IT. Unlike Monty and Steve the Maginot Line worked as designed. The Huns took one look at that sucker and said ‘holy crap, no way, too strong, let’s go around the end of it instead’

Monty and Steve are blogging’s equivalent of the French General Staff

Mk50 of Brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 9:51 pm
The really delicious aspect of all this is that it’s the ABC tearing her down.

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 9:55 pm
“deputy prime minister” ?

candy

14 Feb 12 at 9:58 pm
Give it a rest JC. CGS is in demand because it is one of a dwindling group of AAA rated sovereign credit. There is no evidence that purchases of CGS are causing financials to bump up against country limits.

If a bank, sovereign wealth fund or any other financial wants a bank credit they’ll buy bank paper not CGS.

The increase in credit spreads is a function of the crisis and has nothing to do with CGS issuance. The sharp increase in spreads over December / January occurred when the AOFM was largely absent from the market.

This thread takes too long to load.

sdfc

14 Feb 12 at 9:58 pm
ABC Online leading with the Gillard race riot latest:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-14/video-captures-sattler27s-words-to-australia-day-protesters/3830160

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 10:00 pm
I’ve been reading over some of Gittins’ old articles on tax cuts. It is no exaggeration to say that he opposed every single reduction in PIT in the last 10 years, and if he had had his way, people on average weekly earnings would now be paying 47% MRT

I found his blog and when you wade through the many turds you can find some interesting comments like this on Simon Crean:

Like his deputy, Jenny Macklin, Crean has an economics degree. But he’s no economist. The Canberra press gallery keeps marvelling at how ‘dry’ he’s become since he became shadow treasurer, but this doesn’t prove much. The gallery wouldn’t know a genuine dry if it saw one. One thing it means is that Crean saw no alternative but to wear the fiscal straitjacket that Peter Costello so cunningly fashioned for him with all his silly talk of perpetual surpluses…

John Howard is inordinately proud of his achievement in ‘bringing the budget back to surplus’. But Paul Keating used to be just as proud of his own, similar achievement. What Keating discovered, however – much to his disillusionment – is that ‘bringing the budget back to surplus’ isn’t a ‘reform’ – it isn’t something that needs to be fixed and then, once fixed, stays fixed. It’s a chore to be repeated once-a-cycle. By the time he realised that, despite his earlier labours, the budget had unfixed itself and needed to be ‘brought back to surplus’ a second time, Keating had little stomach for the task. His interests had moved on; been there, done that. It was his failure to re-apply his shoulder to the budgetary wheel that left such a damaging inheritance for Beazley as Labor’s next leader.

Token

14 Feb 12 at 10:01 pm
Sounds like backing Barry and getting close to Gill-LARD the jinx, poor Oprah has been reduced to begging…

It gets sad — pathetically so — at the end. Billionaire Oprah Winfrey is reduced to begging for people to watch her network. From TV Guide:

Oprah Winfrey issued an apology on Monday for asking viewers with a Nielsen box to tune into OWN.

Token

14 Feb 12 at 10:06 pm
Why do they say cutting entitlements is the only way to fix the US fiscal deficit?

Token

14 Feb 12 at 10:09 pm
I remember reading a Gittins column in the early noughties where he wrote that his family had just bought their first TV.

What a strange man.

Infidel Tiger

14 Feb 12 at 10:09 pm
KIM SATTLER: They’re both in at reception at the Lobby Restaurant, which is just up the corner, and Abbott’s just made a statement to the press that the Tent Embassy should be pulled down. He’s over there.

BARBARA SHAW (to crowd): Our Deputy Prime Minister Tony Abbott is over there and he’s just made a statement to the press that the Tent Embassy should be pulled down. Over there! Come and say it here, Tony Abbott!

I just cannot believe that nobody has been charged for incitement.

It’s a fucking text book case.

twostix

14 Feb 12 at 10:13 pm
….for some reason i feel disappointed Magda Szubanski has said she is “absolutely gay”. she’s the funniest commdienne I’ve ever seen in Australia, a lovely person too.

Why? Some poor bastard could have ended up with her.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 10:14 pm
SDFC

Yes, you’re right. Foreign institutions don’t have country limits. Dumphy.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 10:15 pm
What a strange man

He was a beachball on legs in the early eighties when as a stunned copyboy I would observe the git in his office smoking cigars and drinking a cup of gravy from the canteen.

ar

14 Feb 12 at 10:16 pm
I just cannot believe that nobody has been charged for incitement.

It’s a fucking text book case.

Who knows?

Maybe tomorrow?

CHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: The images of the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader fleeing in the face of an angry mob on Australia Day left many people shocked and angry – as shocking was the news that a member of Julia Gillard’s own staff had a hand in sparking the confrontation. He resigned, but since 26 January there have been many questions about who was responsible for stirring the anger of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy protesters. But the protesters shot their own video of the day, and tonight for the first time, 7.30 can show how events got out of hand. It is new evidence now being evaluated by police.

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 10:21 pm
I just cannot believe that nobody has been charged for incitement.

I’m glad they haven’t. Incitement is a load of bullshit.

Infidel Tiger

14 Feb 12 at 10:23 pm
I’m glad they haven’t. Incitement is a load of bullshit.

Agreed. The whole idea that a mob can absolve themselves of responsibility for their actions, on the basis that “someone told us a fib” is absurd.

Fleeced

14 Feb 12 at 10:28 pm
I’m really not sure there’s anything new here. We know Betaboy Hodges called Sattler and told her about Abbott.

She certainly did discolor his comments, but that isn’t illegal, i don’t reckon. The problem also is that the cops will likely arrive at the conclusion there wasn’t a crime committed and the story will be allowed to die.

However this is what it’s about. It’s a political story with three parts. The Slapper, her senior office schleps and the ABC interviewer.

The real story here is relating this back to the slapper, as we all know she was in on it.

It would be interesting to know who the ABC journalist’s cell phone and text messages to see who he was speaking to or texting before he asked the question, because this looks like a set up, going right back to the Slapper, her office and the ABC journalist that questioned Abbott

JC

14 Feb 12 at 10:29 pm
oops… to see..

JC

14 Feb 12 at 10:31 pm
That question to me seems to have come out of nowhere. Do we know if Abbott was told he was going to be asked the question beforehand so he could prepared a sound bit answer.

How was the interview organized and why?

JC

14 Feb 12 at 10:32 pm
I’m glad they haven’t. Incitement is a load of bullshit.

Fueling an already agitated mob with lies and slander for the specific purpose of getting them to act is reasonably a crime.

twostix

14 Feb 12 at 10:34 pm
Perhaps there is some way to get to Hodges to fess up and admit his error. Perhaps through a threat of a civil suit.

My bet is that Hodges appears in a union office in a little while. He’s the fall guy. He took the fall for the rest of them because he got caught.

It will be hard to break the story because the wagons are circling, but there is some way.

Maybe threaten Hodges that a Liberal government will have an inquiry and that he better lawyer up. The cost of that ought to frighten the shit out of him.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 10:36 pm
Agreed. The whole idea that a mob can absolve themselves of responsibility for their actions, on the basis that “someone told us a fib” is absurd.

Who said anything about that?

Why can’t the person who incited them be charged with one offence and the people who actually acted be charged for various other offenses?

twostix

14 Feb 12 at 10:38 pm
Fueling an already agitated mob with lies and slander for the specific purpose of getting them to act is reasonably a crime.

I don’t think so, Stix. the cops won’t touch it. There’s no restriction of embellishing a story and your charge would be too difficult to prove, especially since one of the news wires embellished too.

There’s got to be a way of getting to betaboy and he spills the beans.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 10:39 pm
Bit of the back story from today’s brilliant <A href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/labor-mps-furious-at-bishops-linking-leadership-woes-to-maldives-coup/story-fn59niix-1226270955366Maldives question by Julie Bishop:

THE Coalition has infuriated Labor MPs after an attempt to link the bloody Maldives coup to the government’s leadership woes.

Kevin Rudd lashed Julie Bishop after the Deputy Opposition Leader asked the Foreign Minister a pointed question about the removal of Maldives’ president Mohamed Nasheed by his deputy.

Ms Bishop asked: “Does the Foreign Minister agree that the new leader should tell the full truth about his involvement in the coup?”

The opposition benches howled with laughter, as Labor MPs interjected in anger.

Now, get this from Emerson the turd:

Trade Minister Craig Emerson said: “They think it’s hilarious. When boats go down they think it is funny.”

Dr Emerson later refused to withdraw the remark.

Emerson should be forced to withdraw tomorrow (if possible) by Pyne.

This is from the government that has killed 1000 asylum seekers because they hate John Howard.

——————————

Another point: when Rudd answered he displayed all those traits that made him such a disaster. He went on and on about how he was on the blower to the Maldives etc etc. This is the same moron that backed a new Al Qaeda government in Libya.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 10:39 pm
Why can’t the person who incited them be charged with one offence and the people who actually acted be charged for various other offenses?

What incitement? The cops didn’t arrest any of the lunatics. It was rough, but there was no riot in a legal sense if no one was arrested. Of course the cops didn’t arrest any of the original owners and their white wannabe’s hangers on because they are a protected species.

FFS, one of those fucking lunatics was brandishing a spear and they didn’t arrest the fucking idiot.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 10:42 pm
Breaking (?) at Bolt’s: something afoot in Canberra tonight?

Also: Gillard caught in a new lie by – WTF? – Laurie Oakes.

C.L.

14 Feb 12 at 10:42 pm
Another point: when Rudd answered he displayed all those traits that made him such a disaster. He went on and on about how he was on the blower to the Maldives etc etc. This is the same moron that backed a new Al Qaeda government in Libya.

Can you imagine the reaction when a foreign minister is told the little turd is on the blower wanting to talk.

” My excellency, Foreign Minister Rudd is on the phone wanting to speak to you”

” tell him I’m in Paris at the OECD meeting and get rid him”.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 10:45 pm
She certainly did discolor his comments, but that isn’t illegal, i don’t reckon. The problem also is that the cops will likely arrive at the conclusion there wasn’t a crime committed and the story will be allowed to die.

Sattlers a non-entity – it’s Hodges and perhaps others from the PMO who was / were the agitators running around slandering and defaming abbott behind the scenes with the specific intention of getting the mob enraged to get them to “liven things up a bit”.

twostix

14 Feb 12 at 10:48 pm
(Upthread)

I don’t believe Dover set out to deliberately humiliate you, Steve. He just gave coherent and rational statements based on fact. You humiliate yourself all on your very own.

This.

spot

14 Feb 12 at 10:50 pm
What incitement? The cops didn’t arrest any of the lunatics. It was rough, but there was no riot in a legal sense if no one was arrested.

In NSW (I assume the ACT is the same) a riot is:

(1) Where 12 or more persons who are present together use or threaten unlawful violence for a common purpose and the conduct of them (taken together) is such as would cause a person of reasonable firmness present at the scene to fear for his or her personal safety, each of the persons using unlawful violence for the common purpose is guilty of riot and liable to imprisonment for 15 years.

Violence is defined as:
violence means any violent conduct, so that:

(a) except for the purposes of section 93C, it includes violent conduct towards property as well as violent conduct towards persons, and

Anyway I don’t actually expect the AFP hierarchy to go arresting anybody, leftists can break the law with impunity, that’s a given now.

twostix

14 Feb 12 at 11:00 pm
Stix:

I can’t see a criminal charge here as the charge of inciting a riot isn’t there for the reasons I suggested.

Betaboy can be got at because by now, if he didn’t act alone and was in fact part of a team, he must be really pissed he’s the fall guy even if he’s promised a job at a union rort.

This is what happened if my hunch is right.

The morons concocted the sting with the ABC interviewer and the Slapper’s media people fanned out and began to feed what Abbott “said”. We know they did this because we keep getting reports that’s what happened in that the press gallery was getting phones calls from these morons.

He got caught. His name came out. The department heavies leaned on him telling him what a moron he was to get caught, he took it all because he was scared. They promised him a job in union and the rest is history.

He isn’t talking because it imperils his future job obviously.

But I bet he’s pissed by now.

The coalition should make it known to him that they will be investigating this thing and he should expect to be in canberra with a lawyer for several weeks. He then works out the cost at $2,000 bucks a day for a lawyer and he’s in deep shit.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 11:00 pm
Look, the PMO’s o0ffice is impregnable. They can’t be got at, but Beta boy Hodges can. There is a way to crack him open.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 11:04 pm
Valentines Day *hugs* for Monty & Steve. If they didn’t exist, I’d suggest the administrators of this blog would do well to invent them.

This blog’s rebuttals to them, both the lengthy & considered ones and the fun one-liners, are things of real beauty.

Love youse, S and M – and hope you manage to get some before this V Day is out

spot

14 Feb 12 at 11:13 pm
Valentines Day *hugs* for Monty & Steve.

Fuck’em. No hugs and kisses for those two muffin brains.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 11:14 pm
Valentines Day *hugs* for Monty & Steve.

Fuck’em.

If it’s all the same to you all, I’d prefer not to.

Even mongrel dogs like me have standards.

spot

14 Feb 12 at 11:25 pm
I can’t see a criminal charge here..

Much better chance over the Heiner affair. Go check out the cat thread on this now..

Lazlo

14 Feb 12 at 11:26 pm
Fuck’em.

Plus, with no Free Condoms from teh Gubbamint….

Well, I mean, y’know…

spot

14 Feb 12 at 11:27 pm
What a strange form of love you display, spot. It should be illegal.

Steve from brisbane

14 Feb 12 at 11:31 pm
JC

SDFC

Yes, you’re right. Foreign institutions don’t have country limits. Dumphy.

That’s not what I said Moronicus the Magnificent.

sdfc

14 Feb 12 at 11:33 pm
Look the slapper said Hodges didn’t tell Sattler that Tony Abott wanted to tear the tent embassy down.

Whaddya mean there’ nothing new here?

He was there as the mob was being riled up.

The lying slapper has been caught out yet again.

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 11:34 pm
Look the slapper said Hodges didn’t tell Sattler that Tony Abott wanted to tear the tent embassy down.

She’ll turn around and say that is what she was told. No one should believe her of course, but that’s what she would say.

Trust me, I just don’t want to see beataboy Hodges in the dock answering charges, I want to see the entire PMO and the slapper herself and betaboy answering to the charges.

However I’m not sure we can get them without betaboy spilling the beans. He’s the weakest link because he’s been left out dangling in the wind and he would be as pissed as hell by now as he’s the only one copping the rap.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 11:42 pm
Sattler is in the poo.

She’s changed her story to fit in with the slapper’s version of events and changed back again.

She could face criminal charges after that video.

She may sing like the ptoverbial canary

Hodges will have to be brought in for questioning.

He might have to tell the truth to save his ass.

The lying slapper might have more than simply losing the prime ministership to worry about.

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 11:46 pm
Is the Lying Slapper still the PM? What’s Bolt on about? JC you have contacts, called ‘em?

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 11:47 pm
Chris Uhlmann is a hero for simply doing his job unlike pratically every other journalist in Canberra.

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 11:48 pm
I hope you’re right, but they’re circling the wagons and you could see them all tightening up on the story as more time went on. It’s clear that the slapper’s office began to dictate to Sattler what exactly she had to say.

I dunno how you can break them apart. I just don’t think the softcock constabulary will do anything.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 11:50 pm
Good news.

THE Transport Workers Union (TWU) may have to cough up more than $750,000 in compensation to Qantas after losing an appeal over illegal strikes at four Australian airports.

The judgment, handed down by the Federal Court in Sydney today, upheld that four-hour work stoppages in 2009 contravened the Workplace Relations Act 1996 and that the union may have to pay compensation.

Two words, both begin with ‘s’, you union thugs.

Gab

14 Feb 12 at 11:50 pm
It should be illegal.

Steve’s endorsement: VOTE 1 FAMILY FIRST!

spot

14 Feb 12 at 11:52 pm
I just don’t think the softcock constabulary will do anything.

i susprect that’s right.

But she’s gone either way.

Labor don’t have any more time.

Who will the anti-Rudd camp turn to?

JamesK

14 Feb 12 at 11:53 pm
Two words, both begin with ‘s’, you union thugs.

“Fuck you” has no “s” Gab.

JC

14 Feb 12 at 11:55 pm
However I’m not sure we can get them without betaboy spilling the beans. He’s the weakest link because he’s been left out dangling in the wind and he would be as pissed as hell by now as he’s the only one copping the rap.

Nah look at him, he’s a true believer and will simply move on to some taxpayer funded green activist outfit for 200k+ a year.

He’ll never turn on Labor.

twostix

14 Feb 12 at 11:58 pm
What on earth is it with “men” sporting a faux 3′o’clock shadow? No one would ever believe Hodges had that much testosterone. He looks like a clown.

Gab

15 Feb 12 at 12:02 am
But she’s gone either way.

Yea, but it ought to be a hard landing with her fat arse in the dock awaiting sentencing to commit an conspiracy. That won’t happen and at some stage she’ll resurface as a luvvy darling.

Labor don’t have any more time.

Who cares. Lol

Who will the anti-Rudd camp turn to?

They’ll turn to Rudd as they’re panicked about their seats, looking at the polls and thinking that’s the only way they can hold them.

It’s a poison chalice though because he’s a lunatic and Abbott will screw with his head again.

If you look at little forward, the next thing talked about, if the little turd gets the nod, is how he destroyed her premiership by continually undermining her all the way and that he also cannot be trusted.

Ya gotta love labor. Their implosions are a fabulous show to watch.

JC

15 Feb 12 at 12:02 am
I wonder if Rudd will be simply happy to agree to not run if the slapper and shane are removed from the ministry whilst he promises and acts like a committed team player?

He might just be simply more vindictive than ambitious

JamesK

15 Feb 12 at 12:02 am
Kudelka in good form.

Gab

15 Feb 12 at 12:05 am
Nah look at him, he’s a true believer and will simply move on to some taxpayer funded green activist outfit for 200k+ a year.

He’ll never turn on Labor.

True, which is why if they can the coalition should threaten to ground into the dirt. It only has to be an implicit gentlemanly threat.

I wonder if Rudd will be simply happy to agree to not run if the slapper and shane are removed from the ministry whilst he promises and acts like a committed team player?

He might just be simply more vindictive than ambitious

He could, but I doubt it as he wants his old job back again. He’ll undermine the other guy too because that’s what he does.

JC

15 Feb 12 at 12:06 am
The libs are truly a gutless bunch. They always leave prisoners. However the dirty tricks and the attempts to undermine the opposition media are showing the left has escalated the war. If the Libs don’t fight back they deserve a serious bruising.

JC

15 Feb 12 at 12:09 am
If the libs win a strong victory they should immediately legislate that firms will not be picking up union dues and sending them on. Make it a crime and if the law is ever changed back, make the government pick up the tab of having to administrate it. Every law should have a poison pill exit.

They should also destroy the public sector unions once and for all.

JC

15 Feb 12 at 12:13 am
Love that CO2 tax.

MINING giant Alcoa has shelved a $3 billion expansion of its Wagerup alumina refinery in Western Australia for up to five years, in the latest sign of the group’s struggle against the strong Australian dollar and the Gillard government’s carbon tax.

Not even introduced and already reducing emissions.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/alcoa-defers-3bn-refinery-plan-over-carbon-tax-fears/story-fn59niix-1226271152354

Gab

15 Feb 12 at 12:17 am
Gab – I can’t work out what the second s word is.

Sinclair Davidson

15 Feb 12 at 12:26 am
Then you have no imagination

Gab

15 Feb 12 at 12:34 am
It helps if you read it in your bogan voice.

wreckage

15 Feb 12 at 12:35 am
lol

You gotta freaking laugh.

EVERY set-top box delivered under Labor’s digital TV rollout could be costing the taxpayer an average of $698 — almost double the government’s original estimate, more than 30 times the cost of a box bought at a department store and far more expensive than a new 106cm flatscreen TV

.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/as-seen-on-tv-the-700-set-top-box-from-labor/story-fn59niix-1226271235752

JC

15 Feb 12 at 12:49 am
FFS – a $29.95 set-top box.

Every single member of this government must never ever ever be allowed to be in government ever again for as long as they all shall live.

How do they get a 32% primary vote?

That’s what I find deeply depressing

JamesK

15 Feb 12 at 1:00 am
How do they get a 32% primary vote?

32% of voters know for sure that people only vote any further right than the ALP out of a seething, mindless hatred for all life. It’s the ALP or blood-sucking undead monsters.

Although if you look in the teen fiction of your local bookstore, being an eternally damned living corpse whose unholy mockery of life is fuelled by guzzling blood from the gaping wounds of the innocent is very attractive.

wreckage

15 Feb 12 at 1:08 am
He’ll never turn on Labor.

He won’t have a choice if he’s interviewed by the police. Not unless he wants to do jail time.

———————————–

EVERY set-top box delivered under Labor’s digital TV rollout could be costing the taxpayer an average of $698 — almost double the government’s original estimate, more than 30 times the cost of a box bought at a department store and far more expensive than a new 106cm flatscreen TV.

Ahahahahahahahahahaha.

C.L.

15 Feb 12 at 1:34 am
They can’t even buy set top boxes without fucking it up.

JC

15 Feb 12 at 1:46 am
$700 for a set-top box. $500,000 for a “green job”. Social democracy is such a smart ideology, isn’t it?

Fisky

15 Feb 12 at 2:51 am
Social democracy is such a smart ideology, isn’t it?

Well as George told Jerry, “just remember, it’s not a lie if you believe it.”

dover_beach

15 Feb 12 at 2:57 am
Page reloading slooooow….

Time for a Midweek Open Forum, O Blog Führer?

spot

15 Feb 12 at 3:08 am
Today in Islam:

Ahahahahahahahaha.

C.L.

15 Feb 12 at 3:19 am
Robert Faurisson, Holocaust Denier, receives award at Iranian film festival.

Fisky

15 Feb 12 at 3:48 am
<a href="“>Oops.

dover_beach

15 Feb 12 at 3:49 am
<a href="Oops.

dover_beach

15 Feb 12 at 3:52 am
Since it seems the knives are finally out for Gillard, how will this play?

Nothing in her character suggests she would be prepared to step down quietly. Most likely she will hang on and dare the factions to remove her.

Should the factions move against her, might she try to call a snap election? Her ego is such that I wouldn’t put it past her but she seems to genuinely despise Abbott and as such would probably try to deny him a chance at Government for as long as possible.

Or will other players such as the Greens or Independents be quietly called upon to withdraw their support for the Government to save Labor from the embarrassment of having to execute another leader?

Lloyd

15 Feb 12 at 3:53 am
Labour’s Ken Livingstone now reduced to tedious gay-baiting in his efforts to win jihadist votes in London.

It has often been predicted that, for electoral and demographic reasons, homophobia and anti-semitism will soon be mainstream positions on the Left while the main opposition to these prejudices will be concentrated in the bourgeois parties of capital.* We are now seeing this manifest for the first time ever.

Fisky

15 Feb 12 at 4:01 am
Boom! (good job, CL)

spot

15 Feb 12 at 4:03 am
That’s correct Gab. Carbohydrates are the enemy.
I recently took the Cardiac Dietitian to task about the current regimen of reducing carbs and salt. When I asked her for a physiological reason for salt reduction, all she could do was point me at the literature. There was no answer the recent push for more carbohydrates, which is now in disfavour.
“Food experts” jump from one fad to the next and don’t realise that this is the problem.
All in all, the AGW scam has made very wide inroads into professional integrity.

Winston Smith

15 Feb 12 at 6:33 am
I would also blame local cabotage rules for the lack of viability for aluminium production as well as the dollar and the carbon tax. We produce a fair slab of the world’s bauxite, and you would think that local refining would be a competitive advantage.

Entropy

15 Feb 12 at 7:26 am
So far, according to plan, as predicted…

Rabz

15 Feb 12 at 8:47 am
Fromm today’s Herald Sun:

KEVNI Ruff’s supporters say Juliar Dullard is just one more mistake away from facing a possible leadership showdown.

But they concede that Mr Ruff does not have enough votes to win a ballot if it were held now.

Hmmm…

Rabz

15 Feb 12 at 8:55 am
Looking at Fairfax the doyens of the left are all baying for Gillard’s blood. There are articles from Coorey & Hartcher, Grattan, Carney and Jessica Wright x2 on the leadership and how Gillard is in trouble.

Now Gillard’s base in the ABC & Fairfax have turned against her, the sharks are now looking to eat their own to survive.

Gillard is like the blond on the lilo in the opening scene in Jaws, we can see it coming, we just do not know when.

Token

15 Feb 12 at 9:03 am
What is Slipper’s wardrobe bill going to be like after a month in the speakers chari?

Mr Slipper, celebrating his 62nd birthday, was in high good form.

Only hours before, he had placed his majestic dignity on display during his revival of an arcane procession to the House in robe and frock coat, barrister’s tabs fluttering from his throat and escorted by the serjeant-at-arms bearing a golden mace. The ceremony, one fancied, would have been nicely complete if only there’d been a sedan chair and oiled Nubian slaves handy.

Was Slipper meeting his master tailor when he used taxis to at Taylors Square, St Kilda & Fortitude Valley?

Token

15 Feb 12 at 9:11 am
With the increasing crossover between Bolt, Blair and this blog, it does indeed seem that Blair’s Law is true.

steve from brisbane

15 Feb 12 at 9:17 am
I note that sdfc missed the question posed by fleeced. Doesn’t borrowing 100 mln a day affect the cost of borrowing – sdfc says that foreigners cannot get enough CGS.

So clearly there is crowding out, which sdfc denies actually exists.

What do they do? Print money to borrow ours? It all makes sense in the MMT model.

Which bank do you work for sdfc? Weren’t they bought out during the GFC because they were tits up?

.

15 Feb 12 at 9:28 am
I would also blame local cabotage rules for the lack of viability for aluminium production as well as the dollar and the carbon tax. We produce a fair slab of the world’s bauxite, and you would think that local refining would be a competitive advantage

Good point entropy.

Do you realise however the amount of wind and solar the SA, VIC, TAS and Federal Governments have mandated over the last few years?

This alone could make it uncompetitive.

If the Greenies want their way, why not see if the sugar industry can be competitive in supplying biofuel to aluminium – after all a lot of the bauxite is in the same region. Cut subsidies to both industries and the environmental impacts will vasnish.

.

15 Feb 12 at 9:33 am
With the increasing crossover between Bolt, Blair and this blog, it does indeed seem that Blair’s Law is true.

I agree steve.

On the other hand some clowns on this site still believe the lying slapper will lead laybore to the 2013 election

JamesK

15 Feb 12 at 9:35 am
Why some of those clowns actually believe that the slapper might win, steve.

That view doesn’t appear to be coalescing into one giant wave of stupidity

JamesK

15 Feb 12 at 9:52 am
Gillard caught out lying. Again. Le shock!

IN THE days before challenging Kevin Rudd for the prime ministership, Julia Gillard personally handed to her Labor colleagues copies of secret internal polling designed to undermine his leadership.
Labor MPs told Fairfax that Ms Gillard used the polling as part of an effort to persuade them to support her for the prime ministership…

The MPs are now prepared to speak on a background basis because they are disenchanted with her leadership, angry at her level of candour in her public comments this week, and no longer prepared to support her in any party ballot for the leadership.

“This stuff of Gillard’s that ‘I only tumbled into it on the day of the challenge’ is patently untrue,” said a caucus member she had lobbied before the coup.

I knew the “on the day” mantra was fiction.

Gab

15 Feb 12 at 10:31 am
As a personal favor to an old Air Force friend, could any of y’all who are on Facebook/Twitter or who have their own blogs see fit to pass this on?

“Say ‘Yes,’ Tim!”

spot

15 Feb 12 at 10:53 am
Rudd is now favourite at Centrebet.

Rudd: 2.15
Gillard: 2.32

The next favourite odds are “Any other candidate not listed” at 7.00

Fleeced

15 Feb 12 at 10:57 am
Sorry – that should be next favourite payout rather than odds (eg, a payout of 7.00 implies odds of 6:1 – ie, the bookie bets $6 to your $1, and the winner of the bet takes the $7)

Fleeced

15 Feb 12 at 10:59 am
Do you realise however the amount of wind and solar the SA, VIC, TAS and Federal Governments have mandated over the last few years?

What I don’t understand (well actually I do but bear with me) is if there’s no Aluminium, then what the FUCK do these idiots think they’re going to make all these millions of wind turbines and solar panels out of?

Wood?

The hardcore greens don’t care because the don’t actually care about wind turbines, they just want a no energy future. But inner city greens supporters who have utopian dreams of a land full of hundreds of thousands of turbines and solar installations? Hello?? Where are you going to get the aluminium to make them all from??

Holy shit this is just insane.

twostix

15 Feb 12 at 11:25 am
Tent stimulus:

America’s homeless resort to tent cities.

Heckuva job, Barack.

C.L.

15 Feb 12 at 11:35 am
Lefties for Mohammed:

Oliver Stone’s son converts to Islam.

C.L.

15 Feb 12 at 11:39 am
Oliver Stone’s son converts to Islam.

I guess it’s the trendy thing now.

“The conversion to Islam is not abandoning Christianity or Judaism, which I was born with.”

lol… Good one, “Ali”

Fleeced

15 Feb 12 at 11:44 am
On Green Supremacicts:

* Adolf Hitler to Heinrich Himmler, 1942; – “The discovery of the Jewish virus is one of the greatest revolutions that have taken place in the world.”
* Petra Döll, German climate scientist, February 2012 – “Klimaskeptiker sind wie Viren”. {Climate Sceptics are like Viruses]

Gab

15 Feb 12 at 11:45 am
Held to ransom:

A top Muslim Brotherhood official has warned that any cuts in U.S. aid to Egypt could affect Cairo’s peace treaty with Israel – the latest sign that Egypt’s emerging political forces intend to call Washington’s bluff over the diplomatic dispute triggered by a crackdown on non-governmental organizations.

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/02/14/muslim-brotherhood-to-obama-youll-have-to-keep-buying-peace/

Gab

15 Feb 12 at 11:57 am
I’m sure Israel is quaking in its boots about a country that doesn’t even have any food.

C.L.

15 Feb 12 at 12:21 pm
True. I’m not so sure Obama cares if the peace treaty is threatened.

Gab

15 Feb 12 at 12:25 pm
Bullshit. Every good lefty I know likes plonk WAAAY too much to be a proper Muslim.

Anglos and Irish aren’t cut out for that level of piety.

.

15 Feb 12 at 12:25 pm
Anglos and Irish aren’t cut out for that level of piety.

hahahahahhahahahahahahahaha

The words pious Irishman or pious Brit just sounds so, so wrong.

JC

15 Feb 12 at 12:27 pm
Nice to know that the “moderate” Muslim Brotherhood is busy engaging in extortion by shaking down the US.

“Israel’s a nice little country isn’t it? Pity if something should happen to it”.

Capone was an amateur.

Pedro the Ignorant

15 Feb 12 at 12:28 pm
What makes you think Muslims are pious, Dot?

The existence of dedicated police states to enforce Sharia suggests they’re actually not.

C.L.

15 Feb 12 at 12:49 pm
Pious Irishmen, Mannix or St Pat.

Few and fair between. Don’t complain, it builds character!

Well your right. Let’s see Stone Jnr not drink etc. It’s like tribal sleeves etc. It’s bit of a fad for hipsters.

.

15 Feb 12 at 12:56 pm
Hmm, St Pat was a Roman, wasn’t he?

.

15 Feb 12 at 1:01 pm
your –> you’re

very droll

.

15 Feb 12 at 1:02 pm
Regret an obvious juxtapose, but – what the heck, it’s hump day.

As CL pointed out upthread – overnight we got:

Iranian Bomber Blasts Off Legs After Grenade Bounced Off Tree

Counterpointed nicely against this one in Cut&Paste:

Who bombed Israeli embassies? The Israelis! ABC radio’s The World Today yesterday:

ELEANOR Hall: Iran’s leadership says it’s sheer lies that it’s behind the attacks and that the Israelis have planted the bombs themselves to discredit Iran?

Geneive Abdo: Well I think that’s entirely possible. I mean, if you consider what the Israelis did for many years in Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East, that theory is not so farfetched . . . you have an American president trying to be re-elected with a Jewish lobby in the United States that’s extremely powerful.

++

Sorry Geneive but based on the evidence of my lying eyes – I don’t think this is a black-flag Israeli operation in Bangkok; I am pretty sure Mossad is not this freaking’ incompetent.

Geneive’s bio – must be something in there that explains her transition from journalist into airport novel fiction conspiracy stories about the omnipresent Israeli spies masquarading as Iranian bomb test dummies ??

Myrrdin Seren

15 Feb 12 at 1:22 pm
Bush did 9/11, Israel bombs settlers, nothing as it seems, sideshow game involves throwing ducks at balloons…

A typical UN staffer.

.

15 Feb 12 at 1:39 pm
Gillard lying her arse off in Parliament.

News at 11.

C.L.

15 Feb 12 at 2:55 pm
Via Steve Sailer:

Oliver Stone’s son converts to Islam in Iran

http://news.yahoo.com/oliver-stones-son-converts-islam-iran-140347160.html;_ylc=X3oDMTNuYm9qNTN0BF9TAzIxNDU4NjgyNzQEYWN0A21haWxfY2IEY3QDYQRpbnRsA3VzBGxhbmcDZW4tVVMEcGtnAzk3YzdmMTBlLTQ1NjAtMzc0MS04M2M0LTY1MDc2MGVlZTU4OARzZWMDbWl0X3NoYXJlBHNsawNtYWlsBHRlc3QD;_ylv=3

jtfsoon

15 Feb 12 at 3:11 pm
Ugh… Dorothy Dixers are bad enough – now they allow them in supplementary questions. And then calls time – what a shocker.

Fleeced

15 Feb 12 at 3:12 pm
I’m sure Israel is quaking in its boots about a country that doesn’t even have any food.

Didn’t it take a four years of naval blockade during WWI for starvation to break out in Germany? Egypt’s home front will buckle in about four days if they try this on with Israel. But bring it on. They obviously want to tear up the treaty and start a war. Let them have what they want.

Fisky

15 Feb 12 at 3:18 pm
A top Muslim Brotherhood official has warned that any cuts in U.S. aid to Egypt could affect Cairo’s peace treaty with Israel – the latest sign that Egypt’s emerging political forces intend to call Washington’s bluff over the diplomatic dispute triggered by a crackdown on non-governmental organizations.

The US should escalate this to the point of cutting off aid. The people might be all tough and confrontational now, but let’s see how sturdy their religious fanaticism is without any food. My bet is, the mass hysteria caused by food shortages will quickly turn into resentment towards the Muslim Brotherhood.

Fisky

15 Feb 12 at 3:22 pm
My bet is, the mass hysteria caused by food shortages will quickly turn into resentment towards the Muslim Brotherhood.

I doubt it would be anything resembling rationality. More likely, the Islamists will blame the US for starving Egypt.

Gab

15 Feb 12 at 3:25 pm
Nerdy kid playing “call of duty” and gets hit with a visit from the SWAT team.

What a freaking mess.

LEWISVILLE (CBSDFW.COM) – A gun battle on a video game turned into guns drawn in a Lewisville neighborhood Monday.

A family had to face down a police swat team for what police say was a hoax, delivered through a video game system.

The incident happened just after 5 p.m. Monday.

The teenage boy, whose parents asked he not be named, was playing Call of Duty: Black Ops. He had joined friends playing online on the Xbox 360.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/02/13/call-of-duty-game-leads-to-prank-lewisville-911-call/

JC

15 Feb 12 at 3:46 pm
The CSIRO will review its new climate change education program for schools following claims made in Senate estimates today that the material is biased and frightens children by offering ‘‘an apocalyptic scenario.’’

No mention of course that it was all utter BS.

Still, baby steps.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/national/national/general/climate-change-kit-for-kids-apocalyptic/2456699.aspx

Gab

15 Feb 12 at 3:58 pm
Hey I like this new Speaker of the House despite the history. He is really pulling them into line throwing those who deserve it on both sides out. Julie Bishop also referred to him as sir not Mr Speaker. So myself not being one to hold a grudge forgives him for dealing with the enemy so long as if one of the independants pull there support (Wilkie) he will go with them by resigning.

kelly liddle

15 Feb 12 at 3:59 pm
Kelly, Slipper threw out someone from Labor? Who?

Gab

15 Feb 12 at 4:02 pm
And my extremely pessimistic view on:

‘My bet is, the mass hysteria caused by food shortages will quickly turn into’:

a vast progrom against the Copts, with enough of them kept alive afterwards, but effectively hostages, to incentivise cash and food to keep rolling into Egypt – or expect a recommencement of slaughter.

Myrrdin Seren

15 Feb 12 at 4:02 pm
Fisky
“My bet is, the mass hysteria caused by food shortages will quickly turn into resentment towards the Muslim Brotherhood.”

I think that is a good idea and should include Israel/Palestine as they both recieve large amounts of aid and I do think all the parties would think about peace for their own survival.

kelly liddle

15 Feb 12 at 4:06 pm
Gab
Don’t know who and is just for hour each but looks like both sides take him quite seriously. In total there were about 4 or 5 thrown out today.

kelly liddle

15 Feb 12 at 4:09 pm
Thanks Kelly. I thought he was just tossing out the Libs. Good to hear he is bipartisan on this. I did try to watch/listen to QT today but quite frankly after Gillard’s first response, I just couldn’t take any more. That voice. It hurt the ears and jangled the nerves.

Gab

15 Feb 12 at 4:12 pm
Just recalled it was Member for Moreton which is Graham Perrett. Sorry on the beers again not so quick to work my thinking out.

kelly liddle

15 Feb 12 at 4:14 pm
MS, there is that view too. They need to either get out fast or concentrate in one part of the country so that they can be defended from the air.

Fisky

15 Feb 12 at 4:15 pm
Insanity defined.

Taking the family on hols, one of the holiday parks posts this on their website:

Through a renewed commitment to consult with the Worimi Local
Aboriginal Land Council and the Worimi Traditional Owners, the Soldiers
Point Holiday Park maintains a ‘Plan of Management’ to ensure that key
areas contained within the park are preserved and satisfactorily isolated from activities deemed hazardous and detrimental to this very significant landscape.

Due to the sensitivity of the area, details on the nature of significant sites have been withheld; however the Worimi Community and the Soldiers Point Holiday Park Management request your commitment towards maintaining
the integrity of the area and providing a valuable contribution towards
protecting a culture known as one of the oldest throughout the world.

So there are areas in this very commercial family camping ground in a seaside town that are “off limits” due to their sensitivity, but we’re not allowed to know which areas they are nor why exactly they are “special”, just that we have to “respect” and avoid them…

W.T.F.

twostix

15 Feb 12 at 4:31 pm
Fisky

I share the sentiment that the ancient Copts, whose presence pre-dates the current dominent group in Egypt, should not suffer for the mere fact of their existence.

But some of them are the poorest stratum in Egyptian society – and 9/10 million making a fast exit just seems impossible.

And if they all attempted to slide to a defenceable semi-bastion like Alexandria before the boom dropped …. ?

I doubt the Yanks have enough carrier battle groups in the Med to provide air cover on that scale, even if BHO was of a mind to express disapproval to the Brotherhood, which I doubt he is.

Myrrdin Seren

15 Feb 12 at 4:32 pm
This is a pretty good example of the extraordinary egotistical narcissism that plagues much of the luvvie left in this country: where they think Australia is a major player.

When Copenhagen didn’t go the way he wanted, I think he thought he was going to go to the Chinese – ‘cause he speaks Mandarin – and say, “You have to do this,” and they were going to say, “Oh yes, Kevin”. Well, when they said no … they didn’t even say no, they sent a minion to say no – a very low-ranking minion – he couldn’t see the the chiefs. I think he came back in a sort of funk, and he sulked for a long time – and I think that made him even more isolated, because he was just sitting in his office sucking his thumb.

Notice to the left: We are to China as Tahiti, or PNG are to us, nobody in the world even knows we have a “carbon tax”, let alone cares enough to be influenced by it.

twostix

15 Feb 12 at 4:44 pm
twostix
We are nothing to China on many issues but on some issues we are of national security interest as stated by the Chinese regarding iron ore. So maybe a better analogy is US relationship to Saudi Arabia.

kelly liddle

15 Feb 12 at 4:52 pm
Two million millionaires in Australia.

“Because the private health insurance industry is in a strong financial position, it is not appropriate for lower and middle income Australians to be subsidising the health insurance of millionaires,” said Ms Plibersek.

The Government says about 2 million people will lose some or all of their health insurance rebate under the means test

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/no_one_is_subsidising_the_rich_theyre_paying_their_way_minister/

Gab

15 Feb 12 at 5:39 pm
Gab
Being a millionaire is only the ability on average to earn less than average income. While it is true that if capital gains are there it is much more if they are not like in the last couple of years being a millionaire doesn’t mean much. So assuming the means test is about income not assets then many millionaires will still get the rebate.

kelly liddle

15 Feb 12 at 5:44 pm
They are subsidising jack shit!

Look at the quintiles of income tax paid and the MLS!

What a fucking crock. If anything the rebate should be offered across the board – or a general tax cut for all and getting rid of most if not all rebates.

.

15 Feb 12 at 5:44 pm
A top Muslim Brotherhood official has warned that any cuts in U.S. aid to Egypt could affect Cairo’s peace treaty with Israel

Death to America! Now, give us your money or we will hate Israel, well, hate them even more! Y’allah.

Nic

15 Feb 12 at 5:48 pm
All in the name of obtaining the Holy Grail: The budget surplus.

Expect to see more shenanigans like this.

Gab

15 Feb 12 at 5:49 pm
Hmm, St Pat was a Roman, wasn’t he?

Welsh, actually. (well, Brython)

Quentin George

15 Feb 12 at 5:50 pm
lol… Good one, “Ali”

Sean is Irish for John, which makes me wonder if he wanted an Arabic name, why didn’t he go with…Yahya.

Quentin George

15 Feb 12 at 5:51 pm
All in the name of obtaining the Holy Grail: The budget surplus.

Expect to see more shenanigans like this.

It will only be a surplus on budget night, by the time of the Mid Year Economic Review the financials will be in defecit again. How do I know that?

1. Pink Batts
2. School Halls
3. Solar Panels
4. Green Car
5. Illegal boat arrivals / Malaysia deal
etc.

This lot have no idea about fiscal prudence, no amount of gaming the financials will overcome the fact they will find black holes.

Token

15 Feb 12 at 6:16 pm
AN endangered frog species that has not been seen in 40 years in some areas has been discovered in an newly expanded section of a southeast Queensland national park.

I’m sick to death of these “endangered” species making a come back. Stop fooling the Green Terrorists and stay endangered.

Gab

15 Feb 12 at 6:43 pm
I suspect that the frogs know we are in a wet phase of the IDO and are breeding up in the good times.

Interestingly, I am seeing less cane toads this year. Maybe the snakes (also plentiful) have worked out how to eat ‘em.

Entropy

15 Feb 12 at 10:06 pm
Gillard hires new staff.

Gab

15 Feb 12 at 11:46 pm
C&P:

Previously unreleased submission! Page 3, The Australian Financial Review yesterday.

ALUMINIUM producer Alcoa asked the federal government four months ago to bolster its industry assistance under the clean energy scheme until China had a comparable carbon price, warning that present arrangements “will impact the future economic viability” of its Victorian smelters. While the company has denied the carbon tax is related to a review of its Point Henry smelter in Victoria, or that it has asked for assistance, it claimed in October in a previously unreleased submission to the federal government that its Victorian operations would be “extremely exposed” to future carbon cost impacts. “This situation will impact the future economic viability of these two smelters and is exacerbated by low aluminium prices, the historically high value of the Australian dollar and higher key input prices,” Alcoa said.

Previously unreleased except in The Australian last week. Page 1, February 10.

IN a submission to the Climate Change Department in October, before the post-Christmas spike in the value of the Australian dollar, Alcoa warned that its Victorian smelters would be “extremely exposed to carbon costs in the future”. “This situation will impact the future viability of these two smelters and is exacerbated by low aluminium prices, the historically high value of the Australian dollar and higher key input prices,” the Alcoa submission reads.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 12:11 am
ABC TV’s Four Corners program specifically told Julia Gillard it would interview her about the Labor leadership despite the Prime Minister’s declaration the program had sought an interview on “the government’s progress since 2007″.

The lying slapper just lies and lies

Tiny Dancer

16 Feb 12 at 12:29 am
If you missed it, Anna Bligh – uniquely, a premier whose incompetence almost led to the destruction of the state capital – had a mental breakdown in Parliament today, claiming the FBI would eventually jail Campbell Newman.

Ms Bligh also detailed into Hansard company documents that included the address of his family home.

The immoral animal thus becomes the second Labor leader to deliberately set about to facilitate violence against a political rival.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 1:06 am
The idiocy keeps on coming from Labor:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/cargo-costs-latest-blow-to-industry-as-fears-grow-that-shipping-rates-will-soar/story-fn59niix-1226272237076

Has there ever been a bigger bunch of economic vandals in our history?

tbh

16 Feb 12 at 1:17 am
The immoral animal thus becomes the second Labor leader to deliberately set about to facilitate violence against a political rival.

Aren’t they so vindictive.

Part of the problem is the right’s softcockery in Australia. They never really go after their opponents in the same way and escalate.

They should learn a little ruthlessness as it will instill fear in these bastards in knowing their actions will be repaid twofold.

Bligh has installed her worthless husband in a job with Queensland Rail. Get him fired and thrown out of there making it known this is payback and there’s more to come.

Run a Royal commission and force her to pay legal fees for representation. The left only understand pain and loss of power.

JC

16 Feb 12 at 1:17 am
I reckon there will be a bloodbath in QLD if the LNP wins government. A *lot* of people will go jail after this is all done. Or at least they should.

tbh

16 Feb 12 at 1:21 am
Has there ever been a bigger bunch of economic vandals in our history?

This is slash and burn tactics, as they know they’ll lose the next election big time and hope some of these acts of vandalism will be too hard to remove. If a few stick they’ve won.

It will get progressively worse this year and the next. This is just the start of their vandalism policy. Watch. Especially if the slapper is still the appointed leader.

JC

16 Feb 12 at 1:22 am
I reckon there will be a bloodbath in QLD if the LNP wins government. A *lot* of people will go jail after this is all done. Or at least they should.

I still still the libs are softcocks. They won’t do a thing.

If they really had balls they ought to put the fucking fear of God in the public service by sending a few to jail, particularly those that ignored the operational guidelines for the dam.

Send them to jail as well bankrupt them.

These sorts of lessons wont be lost of the rest if they attempt to play politics again.

JC

16 Feb 12 at 1:25 am
Ms Bligh also detailed into Hansard company documents that included the address of his family home.

This could have no other purpose than to incite people to threaten, harrass or do violence to Mr Newman, his wife and children.

This is exactly what Gillard and her staff arranged for Abbott at that Canberra restaurant.

The two women are moral whores and scum.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 1:43 am
I will say this for Santorum: he’s got some very clever ad and message crafters on staff. His latest ad takes a different approach to Romney than Gingrich.

He makes fun of him (and it is funny): ROMBO.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 2:03 am
A Blair’s Law classic:

Oliver Stone’s Son Sean Urges Occupy Protesters to Turn to Islam.

Sean Stone, son of American Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone, said on Wednesday that Islam is the religion of justice and equality.

All he has to do now is condemn ‘climate change’ and he’ll be the biggest lefty pin-up boy since child torturer Che Guevara.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 2:55 am
I love the Bunyip’s turn of phrase:

IN CASE you haven’t seen it, here is the inside dope (no, not Tim) via Wikileaks on what the US Embassy knew to be going on Canberra in June, 2010, even as our for-the-moment PM insists — swears on her love for Tim, even — that she did not.

spot

16 Feb 12 at 3:11 am
…where the ‘S’ stands for ‘sleazy’:

Mrs Terrell was told she had a ‘cute’ figure by a TSA employee before being repeatedly scanned

After being made to stand in the machine, which uses radiaton, for a third time, Mrs Terrell heard the female employee say into her microphone: ‘Guys, it is not blurry, I’m letting her go.’

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 5:08 am
Re health non-rebate.
Good interview this morning, Sinclair.
Love the numbers you quoted, which gave a very clear picture about Labor’s tax grab from us millionaires.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 8:37 am
One to add to the quotable quotes

http://www.harryrclarke.com/2012/02/16/paid-to-deceive-on-climate/

The anti-climate science nonsense being promulgated by ratbag groups such as Quadrant, the IPA and the utterly degenerate Catallaxy blog depend on the rantings of a handful of so-called ‘sceptics’.

jtfsoon

16 Feb 12 at 9:36 am
“… the utterly degenerate Catallaxy blog depend on the rantings of a handful of so-called ‘sceptics’.”

Soony,

So where do we sign up for our monthly retainer?

Rabz

16 Feb 12 at 9:40 am
the utterly degenerate Catallaxy blog

Where can I get my “Utterly Degenerate” t-shirt?

spot

16 Feb 12 at 9:55 am
the utterly degenerate Catallaxy blog

Can we get this on coffee mugs too?

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 10:48 am
ALP Governments display a natural inclination to add to the regulation of how Australians lead their lives and go about their business. This inclination is nowhere more apparent than in workplace relations.

From the IPA’s submission on the review of the Fair Work Act.

Dynamite stuff and highly recommended reading.

Rabz

16 Feb 12 at 11:10 am
Cannot link to that Harry Clarke article.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 11:11 am
Seems to have gone, Gab.

Someone/some body the target of the post upset?

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 11:14 am
Stop being an idiot Steve.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 11:15 am
Stop being an idiot Steve.

Stop rising in the East, sun.

spot

16 Feb 12 at 11:27 am
Hilarious article by Chris Bowen, attacking the credibility of Liberals and blaming Abbott for…well…not steering the country in the right direction…or something.

Perhaps Bowen was attempting an Alene Composta.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/coalition-loses-all-credibility/story-e6frgd0x-1226272140800

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 11:51 am
No one willing to comment on Bob Carter’s turn around on money and climate research (now that we know he makes handy pocket money from the Heartland Institute)? As Graham Readfearn writes:

“Professional scientists cannot have their opinion bought,” he said, adding it was not important who funded research, but whether or not it was correct.

This is an odd assertion for Professor Carter to make, given that he has regularly over the years attempted to suggest that mainstream climate scientists are motivated by research dollars.

Rafe, Gab, and every other person over the years who have talked about climate scientists following the money, you have been told. By your own side.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 11:58 am
That’s a real gotch, Stevie boy. I’m just devastated.

Pity you don’t read much.

http://joannenova.com.au/2012/02/logic-gate-the-smog-blog-exposes-irrational-rage-innumeracy-and-heartlands-efficient-success/

and

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/age_horrified_sceptic_paid_10_per_cent_of_flannerys_salary/

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 12:03 pm
Ah Harry. A brilliant economist, when he wants to be.

.

16 Feb 12 at 12:06 pm
I notice that for the first time the Oz editorial fails to repeat the mantra along the lines of “we support a market based mechanism for combating climate change” when mentioning the carbon tax. Maybe all those job losses in manufacturing has finally been a wake up call.

Viva

16 Feb 12 at 12:14 pm
Man has heart attack while eating ‘Triple Bypass Burger’

A restaurant called “The Heart Attack Grilled” finally earned its name on Saturday when a customer eating one of their Triple Bypass Burgers had a cardiac arrest.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/15/man-has-heart-attack-while-eating-triple-bypass-burger/

It’s little things like that made America great.

JC

16 Feb 12 at 12:15 pm
Was my comment about the amount of money Carter receives, Gab?

No, it was not.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 12:16 pm
So what was your comment about, Steve?

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 12:17 pm
why can’t we have these wonderful burger places in Australia?

no thanks to steve and his ilk.

jtfsoon

16 Feb 12 at 12:18 pm
H-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y

Some of the fish you aren’t descended from could have worked that one out, Gab.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 12:19 pm
Cannot link to that Harry Clarke article.

I’m saddened and chagrined at the same time.

He hasn’t shown up here for a while now, late at night after the 3rd bottle of plonk wanting to mud wrestle.

JC

16 Feb 12 at 12:20 pm
Hypocrisy? In what way? Please explain.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 12:20 pm
Steve thinks only those who receive alms may have an unbiased opinion.

That or Government money is never corrupting, only ever private money (who pay for the Government money, BTW).

.

16 Feb 12 at 12:23 pm
no thanks to steve and his ilk.

I don’t recall ever supporting the regulation of healthy menus in fast food shops or restaurants.

On the contrary, I have suggested that anti tobacco restrictions ninnies are silly for suggesting that plain packaging for tobacco logically means sugar should be regulated.

I have praised MacDonalds for making healthier options available, off their own bat.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 12:24 pm
Gab, I manage to impart knowledge to my goldfish faster than to you, some days.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 12:26 pm
I don’t recall ever supporting the regulation of healthy menus in fast food shops or restaurants.

You could not even bring yourself to agree to the abolition of Government taste testers.

anti tobacco restrictions ninnies

Complete and utter nonsense. You and Roxon ought to get counselling for whomever died in your family from lung cancer and fuck off and leave us alone.

.

16 Feb 12 at 12:26 pm
Gab, I manage to impart knowledge to my goldfish faster than to you, some days.

Steve has taught his goldfish that street beggers are better opinionated on climate change than Pilmer, Carter or Linzden.

Hey fuckwit, have you explained the European cold snap to goldie yet?

.

16 Feb 12 at 12:28 pm
Just get rid of this stupid agency or allow private security to do it.

TSA says woman has ‘cute figure,’ asks for three body scans

The Transportation and Security Administration (TSA) is coming under fire for allegedly doing “peep show” naked body scans of women who agents think are attractive.

Ellen Terrell told CBS 11 in Dallas that agents at DFW International Airport asked her to go through the invasive scanner three times because “[t]hey wanted a nice good look.”

A female agent at the checkpoint surprised Terrell by asking, “Do you play tennis?”

“And I said, ‘Why?’ She said, ‘You just have such a cute figure,’” the Texan recalled.

Everything the US government touches turns to shit. Everything.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/15/tsa-says-woman-has-cute-figure-asks-for-three-body-scans/

JC

16 Feb 12 at 12:28 pm
Oh, I see, Steve. You cannot explain. You don’t understand the topic hence you revert to the subterfuge of ad hom. Typical. I expect no less from you, and your ilk.

You are really weak.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 12:29 pm
Quick off the mark on the Carter thing today sfb, along with all your gleeful alarmist mates.

Problem is the story looks like it is based on fakery and other criminal acts

Lazlo

16 Feb 12 at 12:31 pm
Nice work Steve, you find a few thousands or tens of thousands going one way, never mind the tens of billions going the other way.

Of course it is the quality that counts, so check out the operating principles of the IPCC and our own Academy of Science re the review of the Garnaut report.

Check out the growing number of well documented cases where leading researchers have been disadvantaged for deviating from climate alarmism.

Rafe

16 Feb 12 at 12:31 pm
“Just get rid of this stupid agency or allow private security to do it.”

So who is the candidate that will do this, Ron Paul of course the one JC thinks is the worst candidate.

kelly liddle

16 Feb 12 at 12:32 pm
Paranoid fruitloop Julia Gillard bans note-taking:

LABOR frontbencher Stephen Conroy says a crackdown by Julia Gillard on ministers taking notes in cabinet meetings came after some colleagues began feeling uneasy about the practice.

The Australian revealed today that the Prime Minister told ministers at a cabinet meeting on October 17 last year that they could no longer take notes of proceedings and instead needed to rely on official note takers.

At a cabinet meeting after the ban was imposed, Environment Minister Tony Burke pulled up then cabinet minister Kim Carr after he noticed Senator Carr taking notes.

One government source said Mr Burke was addressing cabinet when he stopped and said: “I see notes are being taken”.

“Gillard said, `That’s right, there’s no need for taking notes’,” the source said.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 12:32 pm
dot: you don’t have good comprehension. That and the simultaneous inability for you to walk through doorways in a straight line because of the immense size of the magnificent brain of yours is a real bugger of a combination.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 12:32 pm
Gillard sounds as controlling and egotistical and paranoid as she accused Rudd of being. Guess it really does ‘take one to know one’.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 12:35 pm
Gab
If you want to find out who a thief is look for the person who appears to take security very very seriously. Same would apply to those scared of a coup d’etat they think about what they would be doing (already did) if they were in the cabinet and not the leader.

kelly liddle

16 Feb 12 at 12:39 pm
You really do fucken sicken me, Stepford Steve.

Your accusation about Carter is fantastical rubbish. You won’t explain the context of your point. When we challenge you for the smugness of your slurs, you just get worked up more and more. The Carter accusations are based on fraud and deception.

Anyone besting you has to put up with whiney schoolyeard crap e.g. “you think you know everything” whilst you pontificate on crap in other countries – where hard evidence and the experience of those living overseas contradicts you. The extent of your “reading” is frigging time magazine – basically a glossy newspaper.

You myopic, simple minded, blaggardly braggart.

.

16 Feb 12 at 12:43 pm
Man has heart attack while eating ‘Triple Bypass Burger’

Is that one of those picture tests. I’ve looked at the link 5 times but still haven’t noticed a story.

sean

16 Feb 12 at 12:45 pm
You won’t explain the context of your point.

Steve knows by now that when I ask him to explain, he’s in trouble. That’s why he then hides behind dumb and patronising ad homs.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 12:46 pm
Nice work Steve, you find a few thousands or tens of thousands going one way, never mind the tens of billions going the other way.

This is how much money Big Government & Greensliming Agencies spend to cook up the crap the Stepford Trollbot links to.

Entity USD
Greenpeace $300m 2010 Annual Report
WWF $700m ” ($524m Euro)
Pew Charitable Trust $360m 2010 Annual Report
Sierra Club $56m 2010 Annual Report
NSW climate change fund (one random state gov) $750m NSW Gov (A$700m)
Heartland Institute $6.4m
US gov funding for climate science and technology $7,000m “Climate Money” 2009
US government funding for “climate related appropriations” $1,300m USAID 2010
Annual turnover in global carbon markets $120,000m 2010 Point Carbon
Annual investment in renewable energy $243,000m 2010 BNEF

US government funding for skeptical scientists $ 0

Rafe, don’t waste your logic as he just enjoys being a fool.

Token

16 Feb 12 at 1:13 pm
Is that one of those picture tests. I’ve looked at the link 5 times but still haven’t noticed a story.

Confused me too. I wasn’t sure which burgers they were talking about either. They all looked good to me.

JC

16 Feb 12 at 1:14 pm
Paranoid fruitloop Julia Gillard bans note-taking:

I actually thought Tony Burke was one of the few not-totally-hopeless ministers before I read how he was dobbing Kim Il Carr to the boss.

Seriously, this is the way they hold cabinet meetings? What board in the country meets under such inept rules?

No wonder the culture in the place is so rotten and junior staffers on $200k feel it is ok to organise race riots.

Token

16 Feb 12 at 1:17 pm
Miss Miss! Kim’s taking notes!

Cabinet members: “Oooh-wahhh. Kim’s taking noh-otes, Kim’s taking noh-otes.”

The country’s in the very best of hands.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 1:23 pm
Seriously, this is the way they hold cabinet meetings? What board in the country meets under such inept rules?

Lol… Well yea, this is how union clerks would run a board.

JC

16 Feb 12 at 1:26 pm
Deranged whore Anna Bligh refuses to apologise for yesterday’s mental breakdown.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 1:28 pm
Given the billions in public funds wasted on this green-mania, this is the killer strategy the Green-slimers at Crikey have come up with to win the battle:

Believers in man-made-catastrophe can’t win over skeptics with evidence and reason. Instead the peak “believers” intellectual strategy is to hope the oldies might die off in time to save the planet: Death isn’t an option: climate change activists aren’t waiting for deniers to die.

I guess they are going to push out the warmy armageddon clock again…

Token

16 Feb 12 at 1:39 pm
Bligh is in trouble and if the LNP shows some guts here she could be in serious trouble over the dam and other stuff too from what I’ve heard. This is why she’s gone hysterical.

JC

16 Feb 12 at 1:44 pm
Deranged whore

CL and Catallaxy’s famous respect for women to the fore again!

Slappers, whores and sluts: is there any political blog in which such misogynistic terms appear so frequently, and often used simply for disagreeing with their politics.

Oh, and yesterday, on the contraception thread, there were heaps of people saying poor American women should just be happy to rely on cheap condoms – that’s enough control of fertility for any woman.

And to anticipate a crticism: I did not call Mrs Santorum a slut.

In fact, my comment on how young people would perceive her current strong conservatism on matters sexual as being hypocritical argued explicitly that they would say she was doing exactly the same thing they see no harm in – try out a relationship by living with your partner in your 20′s – there is no harm in it.

I do not suggest that young people living in de facto relationships are “sluts”. Mistaken for thinking it a good idea, yes; but not “sluts”.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 1:52 pm
CL and Catallaxy’s famous respect for women to the fore again!

Oh yes steve leave the poor ALP women alone.

Bastard boys, ratty Howard, gutless Costello…blah blah blah.

Equity policies of the ALP have fucked women over. Wong, Bligh and other affirmative action kids are what the public see as female politicians who make it.

Women’s lib has been sent back 30 years by these 1970s throwbacks.

.

16 Feb 12 at 1:57 pm
Stepford.

The abuse the left has heaped on rightwingers is unpardonable. My rough rule of thumb is that one should always escalate by a factor of 2.34 times the abuse (yes science is in on this one) the left heaps on people as that way it offers an instructive lesson and you’re always ahead.

In any event you’re a fine one to be preaching morals to anyone.

Afternoon chores, Stepford. Now please.

JC

16 Feb 12 at 1:58 pm
I did not call Mrs Santorum a slut.

You said all but otherwise. You have no class.

.

16 Feb 12 at 1:59 pm
You, of all people, Steve, should not be casting the first stone when it comes to berating people for being abusive towards women.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 2:00 pm
I do not suggest that young people living in de facto relationships are “sluts”. Mistaken for thinking it a good idea, yes; but not “sluts”.

Remember Steve, as a result of your habitual dishonesty and cowardice you are “fair game”.

.

16 Feb 12 at 2:00 pm
You, of all people, Steve, should not be casting the first stone when it comes to berating people for being abusive towards women.

Steve doesn’t even think kids should be able to stand up for themselves, what does he think about wives and partners?

.

16 Feb 12 at 2:01 pm
And Stepford, you’re only upset because the Alliance seem lost and the ALP is going down hard in QLD.

JC

16 Feb 12 at 2:01 pm
Gillard accuses Abbott of lying.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 2:01 pm
Yes I really sully the “classy” discourse that happens at Catallaxy, dot.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 2:02 pm
Misogyny would help Abbot.

“Is this stupid bitch serious?”

He’d go up 5 points in any poll.

.

16 Feb 12 at 2:03 pm
Ha! Gab got in before I could predict her “but you’re so mean to me” act.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 2:03 pm
Yes it is classy, Stepford. There’s a lot of good discussions that take place, people are passionate about their views and it’s very funny a lot of the time.

There is always the out for you. You could like, fuck off and not come back. Ever thought of the, you passive aggressive turd?

JC

16 Feb 12 at 2:04 pm
Yes I really sully the “classy” discourse that happens at Catallaxy, dot.

No Steve.

You ruin every thread you join with your relentless stupidity, lowbrow referencing and pathological lying.

Because of this, you are “fair game”.

I blame the “mad monk” Tony Abbot and his relentless negativity for this.

.

16 Feb 12 at 2:05 pm
You’re not only mean, but demeaning, patronising, and threatening towards me, Steve. That’s been your pattern since the first day here when I commented that CL writes exceptionally well.

You’ve been jealous of me ever since.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 2:06 pm
Ha! Gab got in before I could predict her “but you’re so mean to me” act.

No Steve.

This is what the ALP front bench female Ministers have done since they ever got there.

Now show me one instance where you’ve made a substantive argument towards Gab….

GO!!!

Because of this, you are “fair game”.

I blame the “mad monk” Tony Abbot and his relentless negativity for this.

[Edited. Sinc]

.

16 Feb 12 at 2:07 pm
Steve: defender of women.*

* Except that skanky slut, Mrs Santorum.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 2:08 pm
Steve: defender of women.*

* Except that skanky slut, Mrs Santorum.

Because of this, Steve, you are “fair game”.

I blame the “mad monk” Tony Abbot and his relentless negativity for this.

.

16 Feb 12 at 2:09 pm
ALP’s natural rate of unemployment higher than Coalitions:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-16/unemployment-rate-january/3833664

“Unemployment’s pretty much near full employment,” Mr Shorten told Macquarie Radio.

ELECTION NOW

.

16 Feb 12 at 2:11 pm
ALP’s natural rate of unemployment higher than Coalitions

I blame the “mad monk” Tony Abbot and his relentless negativity for this.

.

16 Feb 12 at 2:12 pm
And no, I don’t retract the word whore to describe a woman who yesterday deliberately published the home address of the Opposition Leader and his young family.

WHORE

4. ( often foll by after ) to seek that which is immoral, idolatrous, etc

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 2:15 pm
And no, I don’t retract the word whore to describe a woman who yesterday deliberately published the home address of the Opposition Leader and his young family.

What a nasty bitch.

The ALP are going to get reamed for criminal offences once they lose office.

They have to lose. For the country, and for the sake of their own damned party.

.

16 Feb 12 at 2:17 pm
Gab, who thinks CL “writes exceptionally well”, has no problem with the CL-ian use of “whore” for a female politician being criticised for nothing at all to do with sex or relationships.

Huh.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 2:18 pm
Gillard just claimed the carbon dioxide tax will save the Barrier Reef.

She seems to be in psychological trouble.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 2:18 pm
LOL. Steve, you really ought to improve your comprehension.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 2:20 pm
Ha! CL again using the old standby: “no, no, of course no one should associate sexuality with the insult when I say a woman is a ‘whore’ or a ‘slut’. Look at my dictionary here….”

CL, you’re a pathetic misogynistic throwback to the 1950′s.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 2:21 pm
Gab, I remember that.

Didn’t Steve ‘joke’ about physically beating you?

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 2:22 pm
Keep up the comedy routine, Steve. You’re hilarious, and the very definition of misogynist.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 2:22 pm
And as for everyone else’s favourite insult “slapper”:

Urban dictionary: 1. an ugly girl whose main priority in life is to get f*cked!

2. an english term for a real slut

Stay classy, Catallaxy.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 2:25 pm
Yes, CL. “slapping” is in Steve’s arsenal. And sometimes he even means it as a physical smack towards women.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 2:26 pm
Stepford Steve, anything to say about Anna Bligh revealing Newman’s home address in Parliament? Is this typical of the thuggish ALP or is it because of the “mad monk” Tony Abbot’s relentless negativity?

Of course, saying anything about this bitch’s character deflates any criticism of her, and in fact reinforces the fact that the ALP are born, nay anointed to rule.

.

16 Feb 12 at 2:41 pm
And as for everyone else’s favourite insult “slapper”:

Urban dictionary

Care to translate Skanky Ho as well? Or should that be Skan Kee Hao?

.

16 Feb 12 at 2:42 pm
Steve the pillock “educating” us and “raising the level of debate”:

1. Daily Kos

2. Colbert

3. USA Today

4. TIME magazine

5. Urban dictionary

6. Dip Arts QLD Regional TAFE

7. ALP and EMILY’s list talking points.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

.

16 Feb 12 at 2:44 pm
And as for everyone else’s favourite insult “slapper”:

Urban dictionary: 1. an ugly girl whose main priority in life is to get f*cked!

2. an english term for a real slut

Well, isn’t she?

Fisky

16 Feb 12 at 2:45 pm
Yes I really sully the “classy” discourse that happens at Catallaxy, dot.

This from the guy who spent weeks making off coloured penis jokes in every post he made, driving away half the females here at the time.

And then in your typical “fair game” way “called out” a presidential candidates wife because of a relationship she had thirty years ago.

Your faux outrage rings as hollow as your head.

I’ll say again, I thought you said you were

twostix

16 Feb 12 at 2:46 pm
Steve on trashing people and their spouses:

d-d – my comment was that politicians I dislike (and we all know what will put me off a politician) are fair game for me mentioning here that there is some rumour, potentially damaging, about him (or her.)

Big deal.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 2:48 pm
Steve famously wanted to catch Abbott with his pants down.

Fisky

16 Feb 12 at 2:49 pm
This from the guy who spent weeks making off coloured penis jokes in every post he made, driving away half the females here at the time.

You’re deluded.

You’re one of the nuttiest contributors here, stix, but it’s a wide and highly competitive field.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 2:49 pm
You’re deluded.

No, he’s telling the truth. You are obsessed with TA’s penis and destroy any non open thread you join. You’re an attention seeking freak.

You’re one of the nuttiest contributors here, stix, but it’s a wide and highly competitive field.

No no Steve, don’t be modest. Penises and abortions get you hot under the collar. You’re a normal conservative hetero guy…

.

16 Feb 12 at 2:52 pm
CL on trashing women politicians: ” “whore” “slapper”: what’s wrong with that? I’m not implying anything about their sex lives. By the way, hasn’t Gillard slept around.”

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 2:52 pm
Stepford,

I never conferred with the urban dictionary to find out eggsactly how people thought Slapper ought to be defined.

Here’s how I came to it.

I thought to myself what could trump an ALP opposition leader’s reference to a conservative journalist as a skanky ho. I think by now we know that Skanky ho is not referring to an Aisan Warlord’s wife.

I thought about all the other abuse the left has used against rightwingers. So after little thought I came up with Lying Slapper, which for her (an Emily’s lister) is more than suitable and gets us back to the scientifically proven 2.34 times escalation I referred to earlier on which the science is pretty well settled.

Step, can you provide evidence how you were horrified at the former opposition leader’s abuse?

JC

16 Feb 12 at 2:53 pm
Any comment about that bitch Anna Bligh Steve? Or do you condone ALP criminality? Or is she defensible since the ALP changed the rulebook and any criticism of women is sexist and therefore wrong?

You are such a sickening beta male.

.

16 Feb 12 at 2:54 pm
The topic of Tony Abbott’s penis gets raised here at a rate of 10 times a week by people telling me I am obsessed with it.

I have no idea when I actually last mentioned it, or if I ever actually did. Him and his speedos haven’t had a mention by me for probably at least 18 months.

Never mind! Create your own little reality Catallaxy. It’s what you do best.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 2:57 pm
Bligh spoke very unwisely, I think. Not a good look, and it may well rebound on her electorally.

I think therefore we should all start calling her a whore.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 2:59 pm
So Campbell Newman’s residential address gets deliberately published in Hansard because of fithy Bligh’ intention to cause potential risk and Steve has an issue with people calling her names.

What’s seriously unpardonable is that she tabled it in the heat of an election campaign too, obviously meant as a seriously vindictive act.

Get the bitch back LNP. Table her address and that of her taxeating blockhead husband’s office and show pay her back big time. Take none of this scum as prisoners.

JC

16 Feb 12 at 3:00 pm
By the way, seems to me your electoral role entry is not up to date, JC. (I was searching the role the other day, just checked on who I think you are on a whim.)

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 3:03 pm
roll… not role

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 3:04 pm
Bligh spoke very unwisely, I think.

Lol.. She didn’t speak unwisely you lying scum bag. She never mentioned his address. She tabled documents in the public domain which had his personal address in there.

Not a good look, and it may well rebound on her electorally.

It’s nothing to do with how she looks. The crudball knows she done like a roast turkey, so she’s being vindictive.

I think therefore we should all start calling her a whore.

Whores have some ethics. Not all of them are vindictive.

JC

16 Feb 12 at 3:05 pm
I have no idea when I actually last mentioned it, or if I ever actually did

The bolded words are direct lie

Bligh spoke very unwisely, I think. Not a good look, and it may well rebound on her electorally.

I think therefore we should all start calling her a whore.

“Criminal scumbag, corrupt as sin, lying incompetent bitch, made her career on her genitals, no talent hack, disgrace to the founding principles of the ALP, one rung above child abusers like Bill D’Arcy (ALP)” will do me fine.

.

16 Feb 12 at 3:05 pm
1. an ugly girl whose main priority in life is to get f*cked!

Actually, from reports I’ve heard, that does sound like Gillard

Fleeced

16 Feb 12 at 3:05 pm
By the way, seems to me your electoral role entry is not up to date, JC. (I was searching the role the other day, just checked on who I think you are on a whim.)

Penis obsessed, freak.

.

16 Feb 12 at 3:06 pm
You’re one of the nuttiest contributors here, stix, but it’s a wide and highly competitive field.

You keep saying that but never actually have a reason why.

By the way, hasn’t Gillard slept around.”

Umm she had an affair with Craig Emmerson you creepy old penis obsessed man.

twostix

16 Feb 12 at 3:08 pm
Steve on Mrs Santorum?

I think therefore we should all start calling her a whore.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 3:11 pm
By the way, seems to me your electoral role entry is not up to date, JC. (I was searching the role the other day, just checked on who I think you are on a whim.)

Veiled threats like that have as much impact as a fly buzzing around my office, Step.

It’s all been tried before and I simply don’t care as much as i enjoy the payback. Ask Shiny.

JC

16 Feb 12 at 3:12 pm
A fairer description for this blog would be: Australia’s leading blog for those obsessed with using “penis obsessed” as an insult.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 3:12 pm
Stay classy, Catallaxy.

Your a bit sniffy today SoB. You are not feeling taken for granted now?

Hey, did bread winner in your household forget to get you something special for Valentines day?

Token

16 Feb 12 at 3:13 pm
A fairer description for this blog would be: Australia’s leading blog for those obsessed with using “penis obsessed” as an insult.

This is your fault, you sexually confused, attention seeking troll.

.

16 Feb 12 at 3:17 pm
Not a veiled threat (or any threat at all) JC – but is relevant to the issue of how bad it is to reveal someone’s address in Parliament. Electoral role searches are free and easy – I have never done one before, and didn’t realise how simple they are until the other day when I had to do one for a non-Catallaxy related reason.

I see you can register as a “silent elector” though.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 3:17 pm
Anyway. Ignore this cock obsessed hen pecked fuckwit.

NSW Labor right shits itself:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/dont-dump-pm-union-bosses-tell-feuding-factions-20120215-1t6yc.html

Of course Coorey is an uninterested observer.

.

16 Feb 12 at 3:20 pm
Hey, Hanson-Young is quite hot.

Nice hippal/bottomal curvature.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 3:21 pm
No, it’s not a veiled threat stepford, other than the fact that you casually informed me you were hunting around for my address.

lol.

Keep going.

JC

16 Feb 12 at 3:21 pm
Thank God I’m not paying to read this tripe:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/low-expectations-not-necklines-to-blame-for-misogyny-20120214-1t42c.html

Only men sexually harass.

.

16 Feb 12 at 3:24 pm
Remember when the Currency Lad called a 17 year old girl who committed suicide a “slut”?

That was a low point for civilized debate. Shameful.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 3:25 pm
Not saying this to be mean; true story.

But when I first saw Bligh’s husband I thought she was a carer and he her special friend.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 3:26 pm
cock obsessed hen pecked fuckwit.

Which one? That describes most commenters at the Cat.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 3:28 pm
I knew you’d crack C.L., I’d say she needs to lose a few pounds and she’s smoking, she’s already very cute.

From that SMH article:

“Especially when it came to men and boys who felt entitled to leer or harass.”

Say men need to walk around with their heads bowed? Fucking Christ. Looking women in the eye or asking if they are taken doesn’t mean you’re Don frigging Draper.

“Arndt argued men, particularly unattractive ”beta” men, were living in ”a state of confusion”, baffled by the apparent contradiction in the way some women dressed – looking sexually available – and how they acted, not being sexually interested in some men.”

Confident men treat women as if they’re a gay dude? Um okay.

“The confusion between lust and not having the object of your lust should not be that great to any man who has grasped the concept that looking sexy doesn’t necessarily make you sexually available – that the woman’s body you’re looking at has a brain, a personality and desires of its own.”

Um yeah love but it is one way to signal. In fact it is completely normal. “No thanks but I’m taken”. Hurt feelings perhaps but no harm done.

These feminist chicks need a good fuck, and a huge paycut.

.

16 Feb 12 at 3:30 pm
Which one? That describes most commenters at the Cat.

Les not only is that lame that is an outright lie.

Try harder FFS.

.

16 Feb 12 at 3:31 pm
Qantas actually had a decent result other than industrial action.

Event: On Thursday, 16 February, Qantas management released the 1H12
results. Overall the result was stronger than expected with underlying PBT of
$202mn above the top end of guidance ($190mn) and Credit Suisse
forecasts of $176.9mn. As expected, no interim dividend was declared.

Net result after strikes.. 42 million.

JC

16 Feb 12 at 3:31 pm
Remember when the Currency Lad called a 17 year old girl who committed suicide a “slut”?

You mean Dzhennet Abdurakhmanova, the Moscow Metro bomber who murdered 40 people.

Sure we remember.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 3:34 pm
Dot:

Pay no attention to that feminist obsessed crap. Successful dating is purely a numbers game and gals dressing is sexy clothes want men to admire their looks. Period.

JC

16 Feb 12 at 3:36 pm
I would have thought “stupid bint” more appropriate, but whatever, she killed 40 innocent people.

You probably can’t accurately insult her. She was an unfortunate, detestable fool.

.

16 Feb 12 at 3:36 pm
JC

My new advice column is “advice for feminists: stop hating men and they might buy you dinner”

.

16 Feb 12 at 3:37 pm
NSW Labor right shits itself:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/dont-dump-pm-union-bosses-tell-feuding-factions-20120215-1t6yc.html

Of course Coorey is an uninterested observer.

lol… I like this bit (emphasis mine): “It’s clear that the people of Australia are not comfortable if the party gets rid of one elected leader and replaces that person with another…”

Slight problem with that logic: Gillard was never elected. She was selected by others… twice. She is yet to win an election in her own right.

Fleeced

16 Feb 12 at 3:38 pm
So anyways,

Iran and al Qaeda’s core leadership under Ayman al Zawahiri have established an “operational relationship” amid fears the terror group is planning a spectacular attack against the West.

There are concerns such an attack, possibly targeting Europe, would be in revenge for the killing of Osama bin Laden by the US last year.

Sky News’ intelligence sources have said Iran has been supplying al Qaeda with training in the use of advanced explosives, “some funding and a safe haven” as part of a deal first worked out in 2009 which has now led to “operational capacity.”

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 3:46 pm
Two seconds on google:

Yes: penis gourds are the appropriate attire for some of the regular Catallaxians.

CL goes for the gourd again.

Gaia is mighty, and clearly should not be provoked by burning her coal. (I thought gourd wearers would like it if I put it that way.)

IT, I’m sure a hollowed out okra would do for you.

I also want to formally note that I did not mention Abbott’s penis in any context at all in this thread!

- Steve from Brisbane, happy with himself.

twostix

16 Feb 12 at 3:47 pm
Fuck me dead that is bad news about the Tehran-AQ alliance.

Gentlemen,

Get fit and tell your women and children you love them. I genuinely fear a messy war over such a dangerous alliance.

When I watched 9/11, I thought “if Iran are behind this, my generation is fucked”.

Now that knucklehead Ahmadinejad has also announced successful uranium enrichment.

.

16 Feb 12 at 3:50 pm
My new advice column

Go video instead, Dot.

This guy, he’s a bit crass, but is hilarious yet seems genuine. Some of what he says is sage advice.

“This video’s specifically for ladies but guys, you can watch too…”

The yoof ov today.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 3:57 pm
Obama, you can bomb Iran now and I won’t criticise you. In fact I’ll back you all the way.

.

16 Feb 12 at 3:57 pm
Iran and al Qaeda’s core leadership under Ayman al Zawahiri have established an “operational relationship” amid fears the terror group is planning a spectacular attack against the West.

Heartache for Democrats and their Moron-In-Chief:

Flashback, March 2008:

McCain, Obama Clash Over Iran’s Al Qaeda Role.

Mr. McCain’s national security adviser, Randy Scheunemann, told The New York Sun, “There is ample documentation that Iran has provided many different forms of support to Sunni extremists, including Al Qaeda as well as Shi’ia extremists in Iraq. It would require a willing suspension of disbelief to deny Iran supports Al Qaeda in Iraq.”

Responding to Mr. Scheunemann’s remarks, a senior foreign policy adviser to Senator Obama, Susan Rice, yesterday told the Sun, “It’s very bizarre.” She noted that Mr. McCain had “made the same statement three times in as many days. Surely he must know, as Senator Lieberman reminded him, that Iran is not engaged with Al Qaeda in Iraq. I don’t know if he is confused, or is he cynically trying to conflate Al Qaeda and Iran as Cheney and Bush did Al Qaeda and Iraq in 2002 and 2003?”

Obama: dumbest president ever.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 4:00 pm
“Have established” as in “have recently”, unless you’re suggesting they built a time machine & went back to 2008.

badm0f0

16 Feb 12 at 4:08 pm
Yes, but why did you call her a “slut”, CL?

It would seem strange to call Mohamed Atta a “horndog” or Tim McVeigh a “stud” yet in seeking to denigrate this murderous woman the only insult you can think of relates to female sexual promiscuity.

Methinks it betrays a perverted, mysoginistic view of women and sexuality on your part.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 4:18 pm
In Cl’s view, sexually active women are as bad as Islamic terrorists.

Beat that in mind when you read his screeching about the evils of contraception.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 4:20 pm
Methinks it betrays a perverted, mysoginistic view of women and sexuality on your part.

…and I think every time the ALP uses “bastard” to describe the coalition, they want to bring back canon law for inheritance and racial segregation…

.

16 Feb 12 at 4:21 pm
Everybody watch out for JC tonight the market down 70 points he’ll be grumpy.

kelly liddle

16 Feb 12 at 4:24 pm
The Currency Lad also thinks US federal judges run show trials, and Winston Churchill was a war criminal.

He is also very disrespectful of the United States Marine Corps.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 4:24 pm
In Cl’s view, sexually active women are as bad as Islamic terrorists.

Beat that in mind when you read his screeching about the evils of contraception.

Tillman,

You’ve basically done the “have you stopped beating your wife” trick twice in a row.

.

16 Feb 12 at 4:24 pm
Dot

“if Iran are behind this, my generation is effed”.

December 23, 2011

A federal district court in Manhattan yesterday entered a historic ruling that reveals new facts about Iran’s support of al Qaeda in the 9/11 attacks.

U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels ruled yesterday that Iran and Hezbollah materially and directly supported al Qaeda in the September 11, 2001 attacks and are legally responsible for damages to hundreds of family members of 9/11 victims who are plaintiffs in the case.

http://iran911case.com/

Of course, unlike Libya, Iran has centrofuges spinning out a nuclear deterrent 24/7 – so, uhhh, yeah – not a lot the US can do about the mullahs, I guess is what they are saying inside the Beltway ?

But of course it gets yet more exciting because, the day the Shia Twelvers deploy nukes – the Wahhabi Saudis take a shopping expedition to Islamabad and load up with some of AQ Khan’s finest.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/saudi-arabia-to-acquire-nuclear-weapons-to-counter-iran/story-fnb64oi6-1226268171576

What could go wrong !

Myrrdin Seren

16 Feb 12 at 4:26 pm
Who is this “Tillman” of whom you speak?

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 4:26 pm
Damn climate change. Was up around 30 deg C and now it’s cold, raining cats, dogs and hailstones. Okay, so we’ve only had two seasons today but the day’s not over..

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 4:28 pm
In Cl’s view, sexually active women are as bad as Islamic terrorists.

And in dot’s hip view, as modern as 40 years ago when feminism was kicking in, feminists need a good hard you-know-what to fix them up.

And thanks to twostix for reminding me of the penis gourd thread: it was pretty witty, wasn’t it? The much missed Tillman made the funniest quip:

Yes: penis gourds are the appropriate attire for some of the regular Catallaxians

Provided they are worn as hats.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 4:33 pm
That Tillman sounds like a real funny guy. Too bad I missed him.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 4:35 pm
And in dot’s hip view, as modern as 40 years ago when feminism was kicking in, feminists need a good hard you-know-what to fix them up.

It is still true today. Most feminists are more socially inept than either the “babes” or “dorks” on Beauty and the Geek.

They talk utter shit and hate men. They’re fucking idiots.

Ah yes Steve, you’re really “swell”, going along with what feminists say. Do you also realise you’re probably a rapist?

Loser.

.

16 Feb 12 at 4:36 pm
Hey, Hanson-Young is quite hot.

Nice hippal/bottomal curvature.

meh, sporting with it the grin if the truly stupid.

Nic

16 Feb 12 at 4:43 pm
Strike a light. ABC types really can’t stand the IPA:

https://twitter.com/#!/ericcampbellfcp

Infidel Tiger

16 Feb 12 at 4:46 pm
Fair and balanced, rool journalism IT.

What are complaining about comrade?

.

16 Feb 12 at 4:55 pm
Journalists really shouldn’t tweet.

In fact, no one should.

Hard to disagree with many of his sentiments, though.

He did a good Foreign Correspondent on Bavaria and their successful economy this week.

FC is a great show, combining information and travelogue in readily digestible form.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 4:59 pm
I actually quite enjoy FC and Campbell is usually borderline sane. However, it appears that when not bound by the ABC he is a dead set shit for brains.

A bit like when Steve’s wife goes off to work and can’t supervise his blogging.

Infidel Tiger

16 Feb 12 at 5:19 pm
There was I over at the Billabong trying to be fair and reasonable about Campbell, giving him the benefit of the doubt as someone capable of objective thought and discussion.

Naive. Seems he’s just another scientifically dumb-arsed lefty alarmist.

Lazlo

16 Feb 12 at 5:20 pm
The only thing I don’t like about the show is being made to feel inadequate by the journalists showing off a new language they’ve learnt since last year.

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 5:20 pm
Brilliant

Judge Napolitano fired after this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fOaCemmsnNk

.

16 Feb 12 at 5:25 pm
Steve
You would like Zoe Daniels when she reports from Bangkok as she gets the pronounciation of places names wrong more than half the time.

kelly liddle

16 Feb 12 at 5:27 pm
Brilliant

Judge Napolitano fired after this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fOaCemmsnNk

Fired? I’ve read that he still works at FOX. He’s just posted on Facebook to tell his fans to stop emailing FOX angry emails.

Alex Pundit

16 Feb 12 at 5:38 pm
Fired? I’ve read that he still works at FOX. He’s just posted on Facebook to tell his fans to stop emailing FOX angry emails.

True amd the pleading was in block capitals.

The loon paulite blogs doubled down exhorting their followers to send more emails as they like to believe Rog Ailes is an evil lord exerting pressure on Napolitano to say things he doesn’t want to on his Facebook page.

Why are paulites nutters?

JamesK

16 Feb 12 at 5:47 pm
Oh!… doh!.. I forgot ….. Ron Paul is a nutter.

JamesK

16 Feb 12 at 5:48 pm
Abbott’s chief of staff, Credlin, was warned for allegedly heckling Gillard while Gillard was lying about Tony Hodges in QT today.

Take a look at Credlin. See that steely determination in her eyes. It’s a look a lion has when a threat is near. I think it really is “game on”.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/capital-circle/tony-abbott-staffer-peta-credlin-warned-for-heckling-pm/story-fn59nqgy-1226272950751

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 5:57 pm
Ben Sandilands on the Qantas result:

No amount of third party apologies for this morning’s announcement of the dismal financial performance of Qantas for the half year to 31 December can change the force of the figures.

The statutory Qantas net profit after tax for the period has fallen to $42 million, a decline of 83% compared to the corresponding previous half year of $ 241 million, or down to a fraction more than eight times the soaring $5 million pay package of The Australian’s most influential CEO of the year, Alan Joyce.

Never in the 90 year history of the airline has the disparity between executive reward and performance been more at variance.

By its favored metric of underlying profit before tax, the corresponding fall was from $417 million to $202 million, a 52% decline.

For ordinary shareholders the disaster is compounded by a pathetic share price and an extension of the dividend drought into its third year.

Perhaps this disaster, papered over by an assortment of public apologists this afternoon as something essential for the future health of the carrier, (which is about as silly a statement as it is possible to make) explains why Joyce seemed subdued in comparison to some of his recent performances in defence of a five year plan to return it to profitability within as little as three years.

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2012/02/16/forget-the-apologists-this-is-a-terrible-qantas-result/

Bob Carter's bagman

16 Feb 12 at 5:58 pm
The Arrest of Vladimir Putin. Sadly fake; happily popular.

Adrien

16 Feb 12 at 6:03 pm
I have to say that one thing Gillard is good at is acting the parliamentary brawler. So much so that the opposition cant seem to lay a glove on her.

But they dont have to. Her behaviour is the opposite of primeministerial and brings out the worst in her character.

Viva

16 Feb 12 at 6:09 pm
Alex Pundit
I prefer the original
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s_IUwwGq-A

kelly liddle

16 Feb 12 at 6:16 pm
That napolitano clip shows there is zero difference between the chomskyite left and the paultard right.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 6:20 pm
Oh!… doh!.. I forgot ….. Ron Paul is a nutter.

No. Santorum is a shit eating grin socialist.

He will ruin America just as Obama and Bush have.

.

16 Feb 12 at 6:21 pm
That napolitano clip shows there is zero difference between the chomskyite left and the paultard right.

You’re a complete and utter fuckwit, Tillman.

.

16 Feb 12 at 6:22 pm
gals dressing in sexy clothes want men to admire their looks.

Works for me, JC.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

16 Feb 12 at 6:36 pm
Yes, but why did you call her a “slut”, CL?

Because it’s a terrible insult – appropriate for a mass murderer.

Why did you get yourself banned for attacking Jews?

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 6:44 pm
What is your information source, dot dash, the palm of your hand?

Does Tillman get dumber by the day?

Ron Paul got 21% for a primary. Has any loon like Chomsky ever gotten the same?

Give up the DNC talking points Tillman and find that brain you misplaced.

GO!!!

.

16 Feb 12 at 6:45 pm
Gentlemen may enjoy a trip over to Bunyip, where a classic example of fine couture, displaying a lass seeking admiration, is available in pic mode.

Be warned though that a new unwieldy system of submitting comments is in place. Doesn’t seem to be working too well.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

16 Feb 12 at 6:46 pm
Why did you get yourself banned for attacking Jews?

I knew this one would come back, even though you quietly dropped it after getting caught out the previous 20 times.

badm0f0

16 Feb 12 at 6:47 pm
Not all at once though guys, you don’t want to crash the site.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

16 Feb 12 at 6:48 pm
“What if Fox News stopped employing nutjobs to host shows?” (Repeat for 4 minutes).

steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 6:52 pm
Napolitano was a superior court judge at a very young age.

You clean the house when your wife works.

In better times, you would have been disenfranchised.

.

16 Feb 12 at 6:53 pm
The Currency Lad also thinks US federal judges run show trials, and Winston Churchill was a war criminal.

No, Mexican gun-runner Eric Holder tried to run a show trial in New Tork of KSM. He and Obama were humiliated, however, and eventually gave up on the idea, admitting that Bush was right.

It now seems they also admit Bush was right about Iran and Al Qaeda.

Certainly Churchill was a war criminal. That’s not even a controversial thesis.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 6:58 pm
CL

But when I first saw Bligh’s husband I thought she was a carer and he her special friend.

That would be Greg Withers.

And an arse covering, snout in trough, lefty scheming thief.

They do make a lovely couple.

Jumpnmcar

16 Feb 12 at 6:58 pm
I knew this one would come back, even though you quietly dropped it after getting caught out the previous 20 times.

Caught out? In your dreams only.

He was banned by Sinclair for mocking Jews and/or blacks.

Do you want the link?

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 7:07 pm
Everybody watch out for JC tonight the market down 70 points he’ll be grumpy.

Hopefully his wife will swap his blood pressure meds for ecstasy tablets again.

Peter Patton

16 Feb 12 at 7:08 pm
Yes please.

badm0f0

16 Feb 12 at 7:09 pm
`That’s right, there’s no need for taking notes’

What a fool. Hasn’t the Lying Slapper realised how effective recording devices are?
So now people will bring in audio recorders and then there will be wma files floating around of the meetings.

God, what a strategist…

Winston Smith

16 Feb 12 at 7:15 pm
Gab
Iran and Al Qaeda are not associated they are of different religions. The Sunni’s and the Shia’ like to kill each other. How many bombs have gone of in Iraq where they call it sectarian violence. That is those 2 groups killing each other.

kelly liddle

16 Feb 12 at 7:26 pm
Bit old this one but,

Even Krugman thinks US economy is experiencing a dead cat bounce

Alex Pundit

16 Feb 12 at 7:50 pm
Kelly, all that rice whisky you drink is doing you no favours.

Infidel Tiger

16 Feb 12 at 8:06 pm
Oh dear. One of the ALP’s gaggle of paedophile pollies is in the news for all the wrong reasons again…

Oh come on

16 Feb 12 at 8:12 pm
Damned moderation. Let’s try to fool the bot…

oh dear. One of the ALP’s gaggle of kiddy-fiddling
pollies is in the news for all the wrong reasons again…

Oh come on

16 Feb 12 at 8:13 pm
Kelly

I’m no expert in this area but my understanding is both Sunni and Shia are different scts of the same religion, Islam. And within Sunni and Shia they also have their own divisions depending on the version of the Quran follwed.

As for al-Zawahiri and Ali Khamenei working together I don’t see it as such a surprise as some given they are working toward destroying common “enemies”,,,,you know the Imerial West, Israel yadda yadda.

From an article last year:

Ayman al-Zawahiri’s taking over of Al-Qaeda means that the partnership with Iran is likely to become closer than it was with Bin Laden at the helm. It has been reported that Ayman al-Zawahiri has a relationship with Iran’s Defense Minister, Ahmad Vahidi, that stretches back a decade. Former CIA case officer and terrorism expert with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Reuel Marc Gerecht, says Zawahiri “was Iran’s favorite Sunni jihadist poster boy, an honored guest in Iran in the 1980s. If Al-Qaeda again gains a global strike capacity, it will most likely be because of the aid that Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, and his Revolutionary Guards have given it.”

If Iran is willing to embrace Al-Qaeda before it gets a nuclear bomb, then it is frightening to think what the regime will do once it has the protection of a nuclear deterrent. Al-Qaeda is in a wounded state, making Iran’s support critical to its operations. If the U.S. wants to defeat Al-Qaeda, then it must also confront the Iranian regime.

http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/02/obama-confirms-iran-al-qaeda-secret-deal/

They’re all quite mad over there you know, so even if they’re all pally-pally now, who knows what the relationship will be in say a month, or a year..

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 8:22 pm
Gab
Ok I will put it another way then. Iraq has weapons of mass destruction and helped Al Qaeda do the attacks in New York. If you were one of those in the majority that believed that story I would suggest you should question whether this new story is probable. Yes they are both Islam but could also say the Jews and Arabs are both Semites and it does also seem a possibility that Israel was involved in the killing of nuclear scientists in Iran working with muslims. I do not have any strong opinion who killed those scientists and could have been Saudi Arabia who at least according to Wiki Leaks doesn’t really like Iran.

“They’re all quite mad over there you know” agree with that.

kelly liddle

16 Feb 12 at 8:33 pm
I’m no expert in this area but my understanding is both Sunni and Shia are different scts of the same religion, Islam.

Right. Al

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 8:41 pm
“defector testimony” and remember where the information came from about Iraq. Those would have to be the 2 key words in the link you gave me Gab.

kelly liddle

16 Feb 12 at 8:46 pm
I’m no expert in this area but my understanding is both Sunni and Shia are different scts of the same religion, Islam.

Right. Al Qaeda, bin Laden and the Saudi establishmentarians who back them are Sunnis. The Iranian regime is Shiite.

For this reason, when Bush, McCain and others spoke of the likely connections between Tehran and Al Qaeda (or Al Qaeda and the Shiite Hezbollah), they were mocked by the Democrats and various media pundits (BIRM). However, it always stood to reason that the fractious relationship between the two Islamic traditions could readily be put to one side for the greater goal of smiting the Great Satan.

It turns out that Bush and McCain were right and ‘Professor’ Obama and his foreign policy ‘experts’ were wrong.

But that’s not exactly a first. Obama has capitulated to every single doctrinal and practical strand in the Bush national security superstructure.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 8:49 pm
Kelly

I have no emotional stake in this. I read the intelligence and watch the news reports and currently it is pointing to a very dangerous situation (yeah like when isn’t it?) and it seems Bush was right. Obama even confirms it.

If you want a real argument, then take it up wwith Mk50 – or others here – as they have more precise knowledge on who said what, from which tribe, when and to whom.

The ME/Asia/Islam situation is all very much like a massive soap opera in terms of the relationships. I wish they’d just all get over themselves with the jihadi schtick and focus on raising the standard of living for their own peoples. For God’s sake, they get truckloads of money from the ROW.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 8:50 pm
Nothing going on in the Mid East is transperant or even necessarily capable of evaulation by western standards.

Michael Ledeen for instance on the Iranian scientist murders:

“I don’t know who did it, and neither does anybody else writing about it. The Iranian regime, which usually claims to know everything about everything, has so far accused the Brits, the Americans, the MEK, and the Israelis.

However, I think that I do know this: If the Israelis (or the Americans, or the Brits) are actually capable of operating at will in the midst of the virtual military occupation in Tehran, we do not have to worry about the Iranian nukes, because if the Israelis, the Brits or the Americans can do that, they can do anything they want to.”

Myrddin Seren

16 Feb 12 at 8:51 pm
The Iranian regime is Shite.

You can say that again!

Rabz

16 Feb 12 at 8:53 pm
I’m sure I read somewhere that the Twelver were co-operative with the Sunni (Qutbism)in the past.

Where’s Mk50 when he’s needed.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 8:53 pm
Gab

With all due respect to M-Five-0 in his absence

One thing we novices can be certain about in the Mid East is the ancient dictum “My enemy’s enemy is my friend”.

IF the Twelvers can get Al Qaeda to co-operate by limiting their Sunni-based insurgency to areas outside Iran’s perceived sphere of influence, then why wouldn’t they arm AQ to the teeth ? One thing the Iranians don’t seem to be short of is munitions.

Myrddin Seren

16 Feb 12 at 8:59 pm
Myrddin

Sorry, I don’t mean it to sound that people here other than Mk have little knowledge. I only referred to him as he has written rather a lot on the situation over there. I know you and Abu have a great deal of knowledge in this area.

One thing we novices can be certain about in the Mid East is the ancient dictum “My enemy’s enemy is my friend”.

IF the Twelvers can get Al Qaeda to co-operate by limiting their Sunni-based insurgency to areas outside Iran’s perceived sphere of influence, then why wouldn’t they arm AQ to the teeth ? One thing the Iranians don’t seem to be short of is munitions.

Yeah well, that’s what I said too only you say it much better!

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 9:04 pm
Certainly Churchill was a war criminal. That’s not even a controversial thesis.

What a total bunch of wank.

God, you irish catholics are stupid tossers.

Rococo Liberal

16 Feb 12 at 9:05 pm
Iran actually has a good rising middle class. If you have no emotional stake then is better to talk to you than Mk50. I don’t have any emotional stake either. I just look at evidence available and although Amedinajad talks like our ex PM that is about all it is for the most part. Remember Rudd did say he would put a blow torch under OPEC which is very provocotive just no one listened to him. If you say that Iran has some support for Hezbollah they quite likely do. It does not mean much. As much aid is given to the Palestinian territories by western and middle eastern countries it wouldn’t be that hard to find that we support them too although in a smaller capacity. The US definately supports Hezbollah http://www.usaid.gov/lb/programs/people.html

kelly liddle

16 Feb 12 at 9:09 pm
Hey Gab

Total novice and merely a student keen to learn from the insights of well-read folk like M-Five-0 and Abu C.

Bt I think we can safely hang our hats on a few trueisms.

Love your new Gravatar btw

Myrddin Seren

16 Feb 12 at 9:11 pm
God, you irish catholics are stupid tossers

You might want to be a little more selective with your targets there RL, we don’t all share CL’s unique sense of moral superiority.. Though to be fair, I don’t really qualify for the Catholic part given the lifelong lack of faith.

badm0f0

16 Feb 12 at 9:15 pm
Thanks, Myrddin.

Piett is another one who has intimate knowledge on the subject, IIRC.
—-

LOL Kelly you’re saying Rudd is as dangerous as Amedinajad or that A is as ineffective as R?

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 9:16 pm
I see HC has edited his earlier blogpost from ‘utterly degenerate’ to ‘utterly degenerate and despicable’. Sheesh, I know there are some annoying people on here but for his cardiac health he should stop reading blogs …

jtfsoon

16 Feb 12 at 9:19 pm
lol Saying in both cases is just talk. Although Amedinajad can balance a budget and he is a civil engineer by trade so he is good at infrastructure.

kelly liddle

16 Feb 12 at 9:19 pm
Gab:

I’m no expert in this area but my understanding is both Sunni and Shia are different scts of the same religion, Islam.

Yes. Think Catholics and Protestants before the Treaty of Westphalia ended Christian religious wars (and in fact ended most Christian sectarian violence in Europe)

Kelly:

Iraq has weapons of mass destruction and helped Al Qaeda do the attacks in New York.

Yes, and a bit. yes, Iraq had WMD and ample evidence has emerged that they retained significant amounts of it well after they had supposedly gotten rid of it. Much more relevant was that they retained the capability to reconstitute production of basic nerve (VX, Sarin) and blister gases very quickly. Did they help AQ in those attacks, again yes, via funding and training of AQ.

If you were one of those in the majority that believed that story I would suggest you should question whether this new story is probable.

Well… the issue here is that too many of the real players are very quiet. Sure, certain people involved with the Iranian nuclear weapons program are being knocked. It’s probable that external agencies (my wild guess is German, British, French, Israeli and Turkish with US funding – but not directly. There’s a guerilla war going on inside Iran that the spavined retards of thw MSM have not even noticed.
Seriously, does anyone really think that the violent anger against the regime by the student-based movements Preshizzle Odumbugger the Incompetent let be slaughtered in the streets went away?

Please.

hell, were I looking to screw over the Mullahs I’d do exactly what’s being done. Train, support and equip the anti-regime forces inside Iran, and let them loose against mutual targets. Look at the target set FFS. Knock off the nuclear program folks to ‘buy’ the support to knock off the regime’s major figures.

Yes they are both Islam but could also say the Jews and Arabs are both Semites and it does also seem a possibility that Israel was involved in the killing of nuclear scientists in Iran working with muslims. I do not have any strong opinion who killed those scientists and could have been Saudi Arabia who at least according to Wiki Leaks doesn’t really like Iran.

Nobody does conspiracy like Middle easterners. So the more rumours the better, they actually help destabilise the regime and disperse the counter-insurgent effort.

The oil ticks don’t dislike the Persians, they loathe and despise them viscerally.

That’s why the oil ticks funded AQ Khan and the Pakistani nuclear program. That’s why the oil ticks purchased a bunch of Chinese MRBM away back in the early 90s IIRC, (based near KKMC somewhere and able to reach Tehran and Qom). Just happens to be a Chinese MRBM which takes the same Chinese-designed warhead as the Paks build.

What a coincidence, eh?

Anyone want to bet on whether or not the oil ticks also got the warhead bus?

Mk50 of Brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 9:27 pm
I don’t believe for Amedinajad it’s just talk. I wish I thought otherwise, there’s just far too much chatter and al-Zawahiri has to prove himself by avenging bin Laden. If anything is going to happen – and I think it will – it will be this year.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 9:28 pm
Heh. Wish I could conjure up $1mil like I can conjure up Mk50.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 9:30 pm
“Amedinajad can balance a budget and he is a civil engineer by trade so he is good at infrastructure.”
No he can’t – the reason for most of the unrest in Iran is due to a totally stuffed economy, the corruption, and the direction the Twelvers appear to be taking the country.

Winston Smith

16 Feb 12 at 9:38 pm
The oil ticks don’t dislike the Persians, they loathe and despise them viscerally.

Yes. Consider that Saddam Hussein’s last words weren’t expended castigating the Great Satan, despite the fact they were responsible for his removal from power, the deaths of his sons, and ultimately him being strung up. No, he warned of the Persians just before the trapdoor fell.

Oh come on

16 Feb 12 at 9:39 pm
What a total bunch of wank.

God, you irish catholics are stupid tossers.

We take a dim view of men who cheerfully incinerate women and children, yes.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 9:39 pm
Mk50 while I think you are sincere but I think you believe all the stories too much. I do unfortunately agree with Gab that something will happen (reasonably likely) and I am guessing it will be actions against Iran by US maybe blocking there oil which by the way will send the oil price skyrocketing in our area and if they do actually cut them off then Iran will retaliate and cut the Strait. If Iran retaliates then the US will say it was their fault look they are terrorists and possibly start bombing Iran which is crazy in my opinion. Not like Iraq or Afghanistan this is a developed country with 77 million people.

kelly liddle

16 Feb 12 at 9:40 pm
What about Russia, Mk50? You’ve left her out of the play. Isn’t Russia backing Iran?

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 9:41 pm
heh. me too…

Forgot what they got – it was Dong Feng 3A! Lousy CEP but well able to englassify Tehran, you’d just use a small salvo.

See here for an excellent analysis of the Saudi MRBM force (lots of satellite IMINT of their bases – pretty cool)

Mk50 of Brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 9:42 pm
“Anyone want to bet on whether or not the oil ticks also got the warhead bus?”
I’d have to be betting than another country got them, one that’s plausibly not connected to China, but can be a safe middleman.

I’m looking at you, Venezuela.

Winston Smith

16 Feb 12 at 9:42 pm
Iran is a developed country?

I think you might be the one who “believes the ~~propaganda~~ stories” too much.

Oh come on

16 Feb 12 at 9:42 pm
I really wish I were more than a cultural catholic as I would know that Obummer would roast in the eternal fires of damnation for his shameless kow-towing to the thugocracy in Iran during the Green Revolution when millions took to the streets throughout many large cities in Iran to radio silence from our heroes in the 4th estate.

It was a disgrace on so many levels.

I guess thugs are happy to back their ilk

JamesK

16 Feb 12 at 9:43 pm
Winston are you one of these tin hat people who won’t even accept the CIA opinion about very basic facts.

Budget surplus (+) or deficit (-):
Field info displayed for all countries in alpha order.
8% of GDP (2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 8

kelly liddle

16 Feb 12 at 9:45 pm
Yes, please.

Baddy, the Tillman banning thread is here.

Sinclair preferred the phrase “tight leash” (heavily moderated) but Tillman himself whined like an impaled cat about being banned.

—————

It would seem strange to call Mohamed Atta a “horndog” or Tim McVeigh a “stud” yet in seeking to denigrate this murderous woman the only insult you can think of relates to female sexual promiscuity.

Sexual promiscuity? What a prude you are.

But yeah. Right. That’s because it’s a compliment to refer to a man’s real or imagined sexual conquests.

We might refer to both men as ‘dogs,’ though – even though neither was, literally, a dog.

…this murderous woman…

You said she was “a 17 year old girl who committed suicide.”

Glad I shook you into facing some semblance of reality.

I use heavy insults sparingly (not sharing your affection for c—, for example – a word I don’t use) – when I think the infraction warrants it.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 9:46 pm
Sinclair

What happened to the midweek Open thread?
You know, this current thread takes , like, forever to refresh.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 9:48 pm
Baddy, the Tillman banning thread is here.

Sicnlair preferred the phrase “tight leash” (heavily moderated) but Tillman himself whined like an impaled cat about being banned.

———————————

It would seem strange to call Mohamed Atta a “horndog” or Tim McVeigh a “stud” yet in seeking to denigrate this murderous woman the only insult you can think of relates to female sexual promiscuity.

Sexual promiscuity? What a prude you are.

But yeah. Right. That’s because it’s a compliment to refer to a man’s real or imagined sexual conquests. Why would we compliment Timothy McVeigh?

We might refer to both men as ‘dogs’ – even though neither was, literally, a dog.

…this murderous woman…

You said she was “a 17 year old girl who committed suicide.”

Glad I shook you into facing some semblance of reality.

I use heavy insults sparingly (never using your much loved c—, for example) but will do so if the infractions warrant it.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 9:56 pm
“Tin hat people?”

Winston Smith

16 Feb 12 at 9:58 pm
Kelly.

The region has been a professional concern for me (on and off) since the 80s. I have, in a previous career, had access to information you never will. That’s not an appeal to authority, it’s just fact.

The Iranians can interdict Hormuz, they have no chance of closing it. And if they do, sure, oil prices will soar, but so what? Only 20% of our oil comes from there, and less than that (IIRC) of the USA. The bulk of ME oil goes to Europe.

People think that the US will invade Iran. Such people can’t read a map. Iran is all mountains, perfect defensive terrain (that’s why they historically invade others – to obtain access to fertile land). With airpower, that perfect defensive terrain can be unkeyed. because mountainous nations have grave strategic problems in the face of superior airpower. it’s fast, easy and cheap to cut their internal transport system to pieces. Do enough, and you can simply starve them until they collapse.

That makes the Iranian regime very, very vulnerable to decapitation and to isolation. Cut them off, then cut deals with the peripheral regions.

Iran is not really a developed country anyway, that all stopped when the mullahs took over (it’s a corrupt kleptocracy – look at their declining hydrocarbons production). So chop it’s transport system into chunks, isolate the centre, slaughter the Basij and the Republican Guard to free local forces and do deals with the periphery.

Plain as a pikestaff, really.

Mk50 of Brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 10:01 pm
I really wish I were more than a cultural catholic as I would know that Obummer would roast in the eternal fires of damnation…

If you were a serious practising Catholic, James, you would never say you knew the spiritual fate of any other person.

It’s extremely wrong. It’s one reason we oppose the death penalty; for anyone – up to and including Hitler or Saddam Hussein. Nobody is beyond redemption.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 10:04 pm
Nobody is beyond redemption.

I can think of a few people at the top of my head.

JC

16 Feb 12 at 10:07 pm
never say you knew the spiritual fate of any other person.

Yes, that bit always makes me uneasy but it seems so unjust, to us here on earth. But so it is.

Nobody is beyond redemption.

True and it;s not up to us anyway. They are given the opportunity and then it’s up to them. Although the swimming lesson bin Laden got was a little satisfying.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 10:11 pm
Iran during the Green Revolution when millions took to the streets throughout many large cities in Iran to radio silence from our heroes in the 4th estate.

Utter bullshit, most major media outlets with any sort of significant foreign bureau have reported extensively on the divisions & protests in Iran, including NYT, the ABC, BBC, Fox, CNN, etc.

There are deep fractures in Iran, not merely between the government and the political elite but also within the political elite. Amedinajad & his backers are at serious risk of being forced from power & facing retribution from their enemies. In this context it’s quite possible they’d use any means, including a tactical alliance with Al Qaeda, to generate a direct confrontation with the West in the hope that it would shore up their popular position and ward off their opposing factions for a while. The current situation doesn’t offer them much domestic traction as measures such as sanctions simply feed into the existing poor state of the economy, for which they’re wearing most of the blame.

badm0f0

16 Feb 12 at 10:11 pm
…because it seems unjust…

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 10:12 pm
It’s extremely wrong. It’s one reason we oppose the death penalty; for anyone – up to and including Hitler or Saddam Hussein. Nobody is beyond redemption.

I’m sick of you bullshitting about this C.L.

It is fine as long as there is no doubt and they are beyond the pale.

You know what is in the catechism, stop intentionally reading it down and missing the other important phrase.

Their spiritual fate is beyond us.

.

16 Feb 12 at 10:15 pm
Your link is dead but no need to fix it, I remember the thread; no anti-Semitism & no actual ban. But why quibble over details; it’s the vibe you know.

badm0f0

16 Feb 12 at 10:15 pm
I would support the death penalty for one crime only; treason.

Peter Patton

16 Feb 12 at 10:16 pm
Obummer turning to God with genuine repentance and faith…..

LOL

JamesK

16 Feb 12 at 10:22 pm
Also, I have never used the c-word here. So that’s another thing the Currency Lad is lying about.

Shameful.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 10:23 pm
Some crimes are beyond redemption, CL.
I can think of several people languishing in gaol at the moment who need to be sent off to God to explain their actions personally.

Winston Smith

16 Feb 12 at 10:25 pm
I wish he’d stop this selectively purposivist crap about capital punishment in canon law.

.

16 Feb 12 at 10:26 pm
With airpower, that perfect defensive terrain can be unkeyed. because mountainous nations have grave strategic problems in the face of superior airpower. it’s fast, easy and cheap to cut their internal transport system to pieces. Do enough, and you can simply starve them until they collapse.

What a surprise. IQ49 is a fan of airpower.

Too bad that during all the time IQ49 had access to all that top secret info they never bothered to teach him that airpower can’t win wars.

Everyone, please ignore this pompous git’s glib and facile analysis of strategic situations beyond his understanding.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 10:29 pm
I’m sick of you bullshitting about this

I don’t think it’s fair to describe it as bullshitting. Opposing the death penalty because you believe nobody is beyond redemption is a reasonable articulation of an article of faith and observance of humility before God.

badm0f0

16 Feb 12 at 10:29 pm
How did using B-52s to starve North Vietnam until it collapsed work out?

Moron.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 10:31 pm
Too bad he is a former military officer and you are an anorak.

Pape! Pape!

You famously misread Pape the way an obsessed lover misreads a restraining order.

.

16 Feb 12 at 10:31 pm
I don’t think it’s fair to describe it as bullshitting. Opposing the death penalty because you believe nobody is beyond redemption is a reasonable articulation of an article of faith and observance of humility before God.

READ THE SOURCE DOCUMENT IN FULL

.

16 Feb 12 at 10:32 pm
because mountainous nations have grave strategic problems in the face of superior airpower. it’s fast, easy and cheap to cut their internal transport system to pieces. Do enough, and you can simply starve them until they collapse.

Just like the Sovs used the airpower to starve the mujahideen until they collapsed in Afghanistan?

Fuck you are dumb.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 10:32 pm
You famously misread Pape the way an obsessed lover misreads a restraining order.

When did I misread Pape?

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 10:33 pm
You might want to be a little more selective with your targets there RL, we don’t all share CL’s unique sense of moral superiority.

I don’t claim any moral superiority, though the idea that there’s room for moral argumentation regarding the actions of a man who cheerfully burned hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians alive for no reason is a novel one.

I know what I believe, can explain why and I don’t sugar-coat it to impress the barbarians.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 10:33 pm
How did using B-52s to starve North Vietnam until it collapsed work out?

Moron.

Are you a fucking child Tillman?

Do you realise what Nixon achieved through the strategic airpower campaigns?

My respect for you has fallen through the shitter and into the spetic tank.

.

16 Feb 12 at 10:33 pm
Winston

Some crimes are beyond redemption, CL

Didn’t some dude die on a cross to prove the opposite?

Peter Patton

16 Feb 12 at 10:33 pm
What’s it like being a consistent proponent of fuvkwittery badm0f0?

The Green Revolution: The Second Wave What the Press Failed to Report

“We in the West may find it difficult to understand what is now going on in Iran. We depend on the press to keep us informed and, even more than usual, the press let us down. As the streets of Iran filled with opposition Green demonstrators and the government forces who would try to beat them back, the world media barely reported anything out of the ordinary. What they did report, largely toed the government line. They played down the demonstrations, later calling them a “disappointing turnout” and a failure.”

“On the 31st anniversary of the coming to power of the current Iranian regime, Khamenei and Ahmadinejad have successfully used unprecedented measures to make some Western media outlets lose faith in the opposition’s fight for freedom and democracy.

TIME Magazine asks, “Where was the opposition?” The Daily Mail has run a report quoting a protestor declaring February 11 a day of victory for the regime and detailing the failure of the Green Movement to mobilize. The Los Angeles Times says the pro-regime rally “overshadow[ed]” the opposition that “failed to derail” the regime’s agenda for the day.

From these articles, you’d think that the Green Revolution had fizzled and was on its way out. Reports from Iranians, though, paint a more hopeful picture of continued resistance in the face of security measures nearly insurmountable without active Western support.
“

JamesK

16 Feb 12 at 10:33 pm
C’mon Mark.

Tell me when airpower has been used to starve an opponent into submission.

Afghanistan in the 80s?

North Vietnam in the 60s/70s?

Hezbollah five years ago?

Would it have worked in Japan 1945 if we didn’t use nukes? The Japs were starving but they weren’t about to collapse.

Iraq in 1991?

C’mon. Tell me when IQ49′s strategy once worked.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 10:36 pm
Just like the Sovs used the airpower to starve the mujahideen until they collapsed in Afghanistan?

What a rort Tillman.

Why don’t you just say the British failed in their objectives in the (otherwise successful) Peninsular Wars thus land power is ineffective for strategic aims?

Denmark and Iraq were shattered by airpower. Game over dude.

.

16 Feb 12 at 10:37 pm
Do you realise what Nixon achieved through the strategic airpower campaigns?

A humiliating retreat?

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 10:37 pm
“(that’s why they historically invade others – to obtain access to fertile land)”

What in Mohameds time? All the recent invasions were from the US into Iran in one form or another.

kelly liddle

16 Feb 12 at 10:38 pm
A humiliating retreat?

Christ you’re an idiot when you let your sinister side take over.

.

16 Feb 12 at 10:38 pm
A nihilistic culture of death. That’s what the ‘war on terror’ crowd support.

THR

16 Feb 12 at 10:39 pm
My respect for you has fallen through the shitter and into the spetic tank.

Tillman jumped the shark yonks ago.

He’s now a slightly smarter Steve of Brisbane, or a slightly less effete Monty.

Abu Chowdah

16 Feb 12 at 10:39 pm
Their spiritual fate is beyond us.

Thanks for furiously agreeing with me, Dot.

There is nothing in the catechism about the fate of named individuals.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 10:39 pm
Denmark and Iraq were shattered by airpower.

I presume you mean Denmark 1940 and Iraq 1991 or 2003?

Air power would have been useless unless it was followed by infantry and armour.

Same applies to Iran. Air power can fuck up the Iranians but it will ultimately strengthen, rather than annihilate, the regime unless ground troops go in (or some domestic insurgency which doesn’t presently exist does the job for them). But the more likely result is rallying around the regime in the case of air attack, plus the regime using the war environment to destroy the opposition.

IQ49 has no idea of the strategic risks involved in an all air campaign against Iraq.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 10:41 pm
Go on Mark.

Tell us what Nixon achieved by bombing the North.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 10:42 pm
READ THE SOURCE DOCUMENT IN FULL

You mean this part:

2267 Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.

Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm – without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself – the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity “are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.

badm0f0

16 Feb 12 at 10:42 pm
I don’t claim any moral superiority, though the idea that there’s room for moral argumentation regarding the actions of a man who cheerfully burned hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians alive for no reason is a novel one.

I agree. Nixon and Kissinger should have been prosecuted for war crimes for their useless yet murderous air campaign against North Vietnam.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 10:42 pm
Send troops into 77 million population that has national service? Also Iran appears to have some decent missiles.

kelly liddle

16 Feb 12 at 10:43 pm
Les, if there is one thing the American military have turned into an art form, it’s Logistics, at both the operational and strategic level.

“How did using B-52s to starve North Vietnam until it collapsed work out?” The aim wasn’t to starve North Vietnam, it was to wreck the North Vietnamese transport infrastructure and its ability to support the VC and regular NVA units in South Vietnam.
It is telling though Les, that you see it as starving the civilian population.
Straight from the agitprop handouts and talking points.

Winston Smith

16 Feb 12 at 10:44 pm
The aim wasn’t to starve North Vietnam, it was to wreck the North Vietnamese transport infrastructure and its ability to support the VC and regular NVA units in South Vietnam.

Yeah, and how did that work out? Ended up in a humiliating withdrawal and a communist victory, if I recall.

And this is the model we should pursue in Iran?

You are actually using Vietnam as an example of the military approach we should pursue?

Unfuckingbelievable.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 10:47 pm
I presume you mean Denmark 1940 and Iraq 1991 or 2003?

Air power would have been useless unless it was followed by infantry and armour.

Fuck me you are useless.

The infantry in Denmark were paratroopers initially (AIRPOWER). They were surrendered to. The Danes fought so weakly it is considered a “bloodless” surrender. Coalition land forces in Iraq would have copped a beating without a hammering from above in 2003.

Iraqi soldiers were surrendering to Apache helicopters and even Chinooks in 1991.

.

16 Feb 12 at 10:47 pm
Yes baddie, the church doesn’t say all executions are wrong, just a lot of them without cases of aggravated murder, treason, crimes against humanity etc, plus all of the unjust show trials in 3rd world shitholes.

C.L thinks otherwise because he selectively reads the last clause.

.

16 Feb 12 at 10:50 pm
The infantry in Denmark were paratroopers initially (AIRPOWER).

They are fucking airborne infantry, you moron.

Coalition land forces in Iraq would have copped a beating without a hammering from above in 2003.

Yes, and similarly air power couldn’t win the war alone.

You need both. Air power and ground troops. I have never said anything different.

IQ49 outlined his top secret strategy for winning in Iran. It involved air power only.

And now Winston Smith says Vietnam provides our model for winning future wars.

This is dumber than the creationist drivel in the Santorum thread.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 10:50 pm
Yeah, and how did that work out? Ended up in a humiliating withdrawal and a communist victory, if I recall.

Their enemy gave them three years to withdraw and “Vietnamise” the war.

Nixon could have won if Kennedy and Johnson hadn’t boned America financially with muddle headed operational directives.

.

16 Feb 12 at 10:52 pm
Les, if there is one thing the American military have turned into an art form, it’s Logistics, at both the operational and strategic level.

WTF does that have to do with anything appearing in the preceding 1,300 comments?

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 10:52 pm
Nixon could have won if….

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA Good to see you’ve kept your sense of humour.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 10:53 pm
My apologies, Baddy.

The link is here.

Sinclair preferred the phrase “tight leash” (heavily moderated) but Tillman himself whined like an impaled cat about being banned.

So you were wrong when you said this had been debunked “20 times.”

It hasn’t been debunked once for the simple reason that it actually happened.

—————————————–

Also, I have never used the c-word here.

Tillman means that he only uses it at Bird’s.

LOL.

—————————————–

Some crimes are beyond redemption, CL.

No. None are beyond Christ’s forgiveness. NONE.

—————————————–

New multi-topic post strategy to avoid loading the slowest web page on the internet.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 10:54 pm
They are fucking airborne infantry, you moron.

Ah yes, quite feasible without air superiority and something to jump out of?

Jesus Christ you’re an asshat when you wanna be.

Yes, and similarly air power couldn’t win the war alone.

NO. That depends on the objectives. If you merely want to destroy the infrastructure, armed forces and dcapitate etc then it can work.

Liberating Kuwait and capturing Saddam are not compatible with that.

.

16 Feb 12 at 10:55 pm
If only Iran had enough trees to Agent Orange: that would be the key to victory.

Steve from brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 10:56 pm
NO. That depends on the objectives. If you merely want to destroy the infrastructure, armed forces and dcapitate etc then it can work.

Oh right. You are talking about putting on a sound and light show that achieves nothing.

I thought we were talking about winning a war.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 10:57 pm
You’re such an idiot, Steve.

Stop interrupting the adults.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 10:57 pm
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA Good to see you’ve kept your sense of humour.

You’re a communist fucking stooge Tillman. Hanoi only knew it could win on the perception of the US public. A concerted drive to invade the North and destroy their infrastructure would have finished them.

Is your last name Broinowski by any chance?

.

16 Feb 12 at 10:57 pm
If only Iran had enough trees to Agent Orange: that would be the key to victory.

That’s quite witty, Steve. Nice one.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 10:58 pm
Oh right. You are talking about putting on a sound and light show that achieves nothing.

Fuck me you are a tool sometimes Tillman.

You found ONE academic study by an armchair general and you are applying it to every war that ever existed.

It’s premise is that you cannot win by airpower alone, your proof is that you ignore airpower.

.

16 Feb 12 at 11:00 pm
A concerted drive to invade the North and destroy their infrastructure would have finished them.

Maybe. But instead Nixon and Kissinger TRIED TO DO IT WITH AIR POWER WHICH WAS A FIASCO WHICH WAS MY ORIGINAL FUCKING POINT YOU DRIBBLE-MOUTHED BRAINTARD.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 11:00 pm
*REQUEST*

My American brother in law is asking me to suggest a book which would give a good overview of Australian history, preferably not polluted by “revisionist history”.

Suggestions, please?

spot

16 Feb 12 at 11:00 pm
James, quoting the dregs of the Internet whining about the lack of coverage is pretty dumb. You can go through the coverage of Iran in 2009 & 2010 site by site, month by month and year by year. Major news outlets covered the protests in detail, including locally filmed video of the clashes and crackdown. Virtually none of the coverage originated at the Whackjob Society of Newfoundland or whoever the fuck you linked to.

badm0f0

16 Feb 12 at 11:00 pm
Tell me which war was won by air power alone, Mark.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 11:01 pm
If only Iran had enough trees to Agent Orange: that would be the key to victory.

That isn’t witty at all, it doesn’t even make sense. This was instituted during the facile, insane and wasteful Kennedy-Johnson years.

Dumbarses.

.

16 Feb 12 at 11:01 pm
Serbia is the example you are looking for, Mark, but it’s the exception that proves the rule.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 11:02 pm
Suggestions, please?

The Club by David Williamson.

badm0f0

16 Feb 12 at 11:03 pm
My American brother in law is asking me to suggest a book which would give a good overview of Australian history, preferably not polluted by “revisionist history”.

Fatal Shore will let him understand CL’s name.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 11:03 pm
Gab
Leave steve alone the funniest comment all night

kelly liddle

16 Feb 12 at 11:04 pm
Here you go OCO

http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Australia-Manning-Clark/dp/0140097228

(yes, trolling)

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 11:05 pm
Tell me which war was won by air power alone, Mark.

I’ve quoted two if you exclude the liberation of Kuwait. But also Kosovo. Bill Clinton was never going to invade so stop pulling that chestnut. There is no way Congress would have approved that anyway.

A NATO land invasion without the US who were the muscle behind the sea and air based air war? Yeah right.

.

16 Feb 12 at 11:05 pm
Les contradicting himself has been funny, Kelly.

Steve, not so much.

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 11:05 pm
Lezz:
May I refer you to the aerial campaign against the Japanese home islands 1944-45 by the 21st Bomber Command? A general coverage is below.

Operation Starvation

Note that the 1,250,000GRT of Japanese shipping destroyed were kihansen (vice kisen)the USN submarine force had not been able to interdict.

Operation Starvation was part of a comprehensive plan (see the United States Strategic Bombing Survey report entitled ‘The War Against Japanese Transportation 1941-1945, Transport Division, May 1947) involving an all-arms effort to wreck the Japanese transport system and starve the population. Close study of Japanese records relating to railroad car loadings Sep44 to June 45 shows the depth of Allied success.

The other examples you mention are invalid (your usual strawman nonsense). No effort was made to ‘starve the enemy into submission in Afghanistan, North Korea or Iraq.

Mk50 of Brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 11:05 pm
The Fatal Shore is a good read, but mainly fiction. too much of that Irish Rock Chopper shtick that was all the rage before 1970. Tell him to read Geoffrey Blainey’s Tyranny of Distance

Peter Patton

16 Feb 12 at 11:07 pm
May I refer you to the aerial campaign against the Japanese home islands 1944-45 by the 21st Bomber Command? A general coverage is below.

And did this campaign put the US in a position to abandon its plan to put marines on the beaches?

Nope. Proves my point. Short of nuking Iran into a parking lot, we need ground troops to win.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 11:08 pm
Kelly: re Persian expansions. Start with the Persian Empire of Darius. When I say ‘historically’, I don’t mean just yesterday like the 7th century. I mean ‘starting in the Bronze Age and working forward.’

Mk50 of Brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 11:08 pm
Kuwait is about 8 times the size of the ACT if the might of the US military machine can’t take that then what use would they be.

kelly liddle

16 Feb 12 at 11:10 pm
And then to bring him up to the early 20th century, Keith Windschuttle’s White Australia Policy would probably be efficient, as it covers the whole historiographic spectrum, critically, yet still accessible.

Peter Patton

16 Feb 12 at 11:10 pm
TRIED TO DO IT WITH AIR POWER WHICH WAS A FIASCO…

Shut up. No it wasn’t. It was extremely successful.

I don’t even know why you bother lying about this you dribbling retard.

.

16 Feb 12 at 11:11 pm
Yes, I presume Dot does mean that part of the catechism. It shows that he is, of course, wrong.

————————-

Nixon and Kissinger should have been prosecuted for war crimes for their useless yet murderous air campaign against North Vietnam.

The northern heavy-bombing policy began with Operation Rolling Thunder, which was implemented between 1965 and 1968.

Nixon wasn’t president at the time.

You can only mean Operation Linebacker (and Linebacker II) – which had many fewer casualties than Rolling Thunder.

Bone head.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 11:11 pm
Yes, I presume Dot does mean that part of the catechism. It shows that he is, of course, wrong.

No I’m not. I know you can read, this is beyond a joke.

.

16 Feb 12 at 11:12 pm
Yes, good point CL. They should have prosecuted McNamara as well.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 11:14 pm
And then to bring him up to the early 20th century, Keith Windschuttle’s White Australia Policy would probably be efficient, as it covers the whole historiographic spectrum, critically, yet still accessible.

Sorry but that qualifies as revisionist shit. Recommend if you want a grounding in facile dross.

badm0f0

16 Feb 12 at 11:14 pm
No it wasn’t. It was extremely successful.

Yes, and Bush won in Iraq.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 11:14 pm
And for you Les Iran is about the size of QLD and would take quite a few nukes to turn it into a parking lot.

kelly liddle

16 Feb 12 at 11:15 pm
Well now Les let’s turn the tables.

Tell us what supplementary land power was required to make Linebacker I and II successful and othewrwise how it failed in it’s objectives, tactical and strategic?

.

16 Feb 12 at 11:16 pm
Tell us what supplementary land power was required to make Linebacker I and II successful and othewrwise how it failed in it’s objectives, tactical and strategic?

They lost the fucking war for fuck’s sake.

Les Majesty

16 Feb 12 at 11:17 pm
Sorry but that qualifies as revisionist shit. Recommend if you want a grounding in facile dross.

On what basis do you say this? Windschuttle challenged the references of others, which were flawed.

Be more specific.

.

16 Feb 12 at 11:17 pm
badmofo

All good history is revisionist; by definition.

Peter Patton

16 Feb 12 at 11:18 pm
They lost the fucking war for fuck’s sake.

…and they would have won if Nixon simply wanted to. Nixon chose to withdraw because of popular and financial pressure which accumulated BEFORE he was President.

You dullard Tillman.

.

16 Feb 12 at 11:18 pm
Spot,

I concur with Les re Fatal Shore.

For the love of God, make sure you keep him away from Manning Clark (the revolting communist).

Also: throw in a couple by Australia’s greatest historian, Geoffrey Blainey. Say, Tyranny of Distance and A Shorter History of Australia.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 11:21 pm
And did this campaign put the US in a position to abandon its plan to put marines on the beaches?

yes.

AFter the Japanese stopped the USN in its tracks at Okinawa via kikusei attacks Olympic and Coronet were abandoned except as contingency plans.

Operation Starvation was just the start. Japan as to be mined in and subject to famine. Destroying the railway system was NOT really under way (see the 10th and 21st’s war diaries) as the US wanted a Japanese surrender before they did that. They had a distaste for the task, as the Japanese had no highway net – so destroying the railroad net meant that food could not reach the cities. That meant that destroying the railroad system was irrevocable and would have crashed their population by 50-80%. Their ports were down to 1-3% of prewar tonnage and total Japanese rice imports were down to 151,200t for 1945 compared to 1,694,000t for a comparable period in 1940.

That is the choice Truman faced, nukes and fewer combined dead than the September 1944 Tokyo fire raid, or 50-80% of the population and not being able to stop that population crash even is japan surrendered.

You know very little history, eh Lez?

Mk50 of Brisbane

16 Feb 12 at 11:21 pm
I made myself read Manning Clark and it has interesting parts but it is simply a disgusting book from 1945 onwards. The ALP can do no wrong and Menzies is worse than Hitler. We’re bound for socialism or bust and every hep cat knows that.

.

16 Feb 12 at 11:22 pm
Yes, good point CL. They should have prosecuted McNamara as well.

What the fuck for? Fighting against an undeclared Soviet incursion in Sth Vietnam or interdicting North Vietnamese militias killing Sth Vietnamese civilians?

Really Tillman. Name the charges.

.

16 Feb 12 at 11:27 pm
“All good history is revisionist;” (official)

Of course all history is revisionist especially the official versions. In 50 years time if the Labor party still exists Julia will not be known for her bad policies and knifing a collegue, she will be the first women to become Prime Minister something that the Labor party is very proud of.

kelly liddle

16 Feb 12 at 11:28 pm
and he is a civil engineer by trade so he is good at infrastructure.

Operations analysis is more important to infrastructure, and has a fascinating history.

wreckage

16 Feb 12 at 11:29 pm
Windschuttle was the first historian since the 1960s to write about the White Australia Policy that actually focused on late 19th century. It was a welcome return to history writing as an adult activity, rather than the childish narcissism of the post 1970s Maoist and postmodernists, who used the White Australia Policy to justify their ill-informed and shrill moral tantrums about the late 20th century.

Peter Patton

16 Feb 12 at 11:31 pm
Windschuttle challenged the references of others, which were flawed.

In many cases he made a meal out of relatively minor errors, while refusing to address his own, often more serious ones. I never agreed with the conclusions that historians like Reynolds drew but their work was sufficiently scholarly that it allowed different conclusions to be drawn from the evidence they presented. Windschuttle doesn’t, his work is little more than overwrought pamphleteering. He may have lost the Maoist beliefs but he maintained the intellectual habits.

badm0f0

16 Feb 12 at 11:32 pm
Shorter badmofo: ‘I haven’t read any of these historians. I read Robert Manne in The Age instead.’

Peter Patton

16 Feb 12 at 11:37 pm
Mmm…history.

Now Israel’s national library, an unlikely owner of a vast trove of Newton’s writings, has digitised his theological collection – some 7500 pages in Newton’s own handwriting – and put it online.

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/library-uploads-sir-isaac-newtons-theological-texts/story-e6frfku0-1226273261291#ixzz1mY1z1Xul

Gab

16 Feb 12 at 11:39 pm
Shorter badmofo: ‘I haven’t read any of these historians. I read Robert Manne in The Age instead.’

Yes I have read them & unlike you I understood them. Nice try though when it’s quite clear that you actually haven’t read any of the history that Windschuttle claims to rebut. You don’t even have your own ideas on what its flaws are, only his.

badm0f0

16 Feb 12 at 11:42 pm
LOL. Queensland ALP candidates have removed all references to the LABOR PARTY in their campaign material.

———————————-

Having endorsed Bob Hughes, I will add that the truer, better measure of the man’s talent is American Visions – a work of sublime authority.

C.L.

16 Feb 12 at 11:44 pm
Bado

I believe what windy did was the set things straight in that there was no state based attempt to wipe out the Aboriginals, there was no Holocaust, which the inner cities luvvies dearly wanted to have and there was no concerted state effort to remove Aboriginal kids from their parents on a massive scale. What in fact occurred was what is happening right now in certain communities.

Of course there was settler attacks against Aboriginals, which Windy doesn’t doubt, however there was no large scale Holocaust, as was being suggested by those loons in the early to mid 90′s.

Now you suggest he made some errors. I’m sure he did make errors, but no more than other historians and it certainly didn’t change the thrust of his work.

Stop reading Robert Manne.

You’re in serious relapse young man. I think you need some electric shock treatment.

JC

16 Feb 12 at 11:45 pm
Windschuttle doesn’t, his work is little more than overwrought pamphleteering.

If that’s all you got out of it, and I agree that his tone is annoying at the best of times, then I feel we must be discussing a different Keith Windschuttle.

He labours some dud points from time to time and is inclined to grandstand, but his detailing of often vital references that have either been inadequate, misinterpreted or outright falsified makes reading at least some of his work pretty much compulsory.

wreckage

16 Feb 12 at 11:46 pm
Shorter badmofo: ‘I haven’t read any of these historians. I read Robert Manne in The Age instead.’

Yes I have read them & unlike you I understood them

Have you read the most recent exchanges? Windy turned Manne into his bitch. He was making him coffee in the mornings.

http://www.sydneyline.com/Stolen%20Gens%20Mind%20language%20Robert.htm

http://www.sydneyline.com/Stolen%20Gens%20Manne%20avoids%20debate.htm

Have a squizz. It’s not often you get to see a beating like Windy gave the Manne.

Wear a butcher’s apron though, as there’s still blood and body parts everywhere.

JC

16 Feb 12 at 11:50 pm
This is a beauty. It’s one of the best upper cuts I’ve seen.

In his article in February edition of The Monthly about my book on the Stolen Generations, Robert Manne accused me of being a racist for supposedly using terminology about the Aborigines that was equal in insult to the word “nigger”. Manne wrote:

He [Windschuttle] must be the only historian who is not repelled by the quasi-zoological terminology — “quadroons”, “octoroons”, “cross-breeds” — universally deployed. Almost all historians who use these words in their work place them in inverted commas, to distance themselves from their plainly racist meaning. Windschuttle does not. No doubt he would regard this as political correctness. It is as if in writing a revisionist history of the Jim Crow regime of the southern United States , a historian used the term “nigger” without inverted commas throughout.[1]

This accusation is completely false. Manne does not quote one example from my book to support his charge — for good reason, since I never used those words in the way he alleges.

In usage today, I agree they are demeaning, racist and insulting. However, no matter how strongly we disapprove of what people in the past said, we have an obligation to historical truth not to change their words, or even their punctuation. In our own writing in the present, however, we should avoid terminology that is gratuitously offensive.

One person whose use of language of this kind is a conspicuous feature of his own work is none other than Robert Manne. Without going to much trouble — I looked up one article he published in 2004 — I found within a space of just seven pages no less than seven separate cases of his unadulterated use of the word “quadroon”. Even more disgracefully, without quotation marks or any other distancing device, he called people of mixed Asian and Aboriginal descent “low-grade colored hybrids”. In two cases, he used “quadroon” without quotes twice in the same sentence, deploying it as both noun and adjective. All these examples come from his article, “Aboriginal Child Removal and the Question of Genocide”. They are reproduced here exactly as they appear in Manne’s text, where none of them were diluted, distanced or shielded by quotation marks. Manne wrote:

JC

16 Feb 12 at 11:53 pm
Now Israel’s national library, an unlikely owner of a vast trove of Newton’s writings, has digitised his theological collection – some 7500 pages in Newton’s own handwriting – and put it online.

But…. but… science and religion are opposed! It is simply not possible to think about eternal principles AND material facts with the same brain!

wreckage

16 Feb 12 at 11:54 pm
Stop reading Robert Manne.

I’ve never bothered with Manne as there are many more, and more knowledgeable, historians who’ve made significant and unanswered criticisms of Windschuttle’s treatment of sources. I’m always wary of polemicists with an axe to grind, especially when they claim to be revealing heretofore repressed truths; it’s a neat rhetorical ploy but rarely adds up.

badm0f0

16 Feb 12 at 11:57 pm
I don’t think Windy is a particularly great historian. As I said, I’d recommend Windy to Spot’s American brother-in-law because Windy covers the broadest spectrum of historiographic approaches. He will learn more from reading Windy than from Marilyn Lake, Ann Curthoys, Henry Reynolds, Andrew Markus, Humphrey McQueen, the rest of that sloppy hive-mind that dominated from 1970.

Peter Patton

16 Feb 12 at 11:59 pm
Of course all history is revisionist especially the official versions. In 50 years time if the Labor party still exists Julia will not be known for her bad policies and knifing a collegue, she will be the first women to become Prime Minister something that the Labor party is very proud of.

Gillard will be a Labor Party hero for sure, that is the party that lionised Gough and Doc Evert.

Token

17 Feb 12 at 12:02 am
Windy was good value with that Manne smack down.

Manne always reminds me of this idiot.

JC

17 Feb 12 at 12:02 am
I’m always wary of polemicists with an axe to grind, especially when they claim to be revealing heretofore repressed truths; it’s a neat rhetorical ploy but rarely adds up.

Like the Holocaust agitators weren’t polemic at all, right Bado? No siree. They were dispassionate historians according to you.

JC

17 Feb 12 at 12:06 am
Even more disgracefully, without quotation marks or any other distancing device, he called people of mixed Asian and Aboriginal descent “low-grade colored hybrids.”

Good Lord. Manne makes them sound like smouldering Chevy Volts.

C.L.

17 Feb 12 at 12:07 am
If I was this useless knowing the cost of products in my portfolio, I’d be shown the door.

Conroy on Radio National Breakfast yesterday:

WELL, we’ve now installed around Australia about 80,000 set-top boxes. . . Now, the figures in The Australian yesterday are just dishonest. Absolutely dishonest. There is no cost blow-out . . . The figures that were bandied around last year talked about $350. And suddenly it’s now $600 and a blow-out. Well, last year, the $350 averages, which were wrong last year, did not include the administration of the program by the department.

Press release, Conroy, May 13 last year:

FACT: the $350 figure is an average cost for the assistance package per household, not just for a set-top box. It also includes: administration costs for Centrelink to advise people if they are eligible, to set up appointments for installation, follow-up phone calls and checks.

And who needs these set-top boxes? Conroy again:

THERE are lots of Australians who need assistance to switch from the old technology to the new technology. Particularly those more vulnerable Australians, people with disabilities, people who are blind. Yep, let’s just make them go up on the roof and change their aerial. Yeah, no, that sounds like a great idea.

Huh?

Gab

17 Feb 12 at 12:16 am
What a lying imbecile.

C.L.

17 Feb 12 at 12:23 am
$600 is more than I have ever paid for a TV

kelly liddle

17 Feb 12 at 12:23 am
Like the Holocaust agitators weren’t polemic at all, right Bado? No siree. They were dispassionate historians according to you.

I said historians plural in regard to both Manne & Windschuttle, and as I said previously I don’t agree with the conclusions that historians like Reynolds drew about the nature of colonial conflict. That doesn’t mean I necessarily dismiss the entirety of any of their respective contributions, I don’t accept or reject it offhand just because it happens to coincide or conflict with my own preconceptions.

badm0f0

17 Feb 12 at 12:25 am
But wait, there’s more…

<blockquote>Tell me the old, old story . . . Lenore Taylor, Page 1, Sydney Morning Herald yesterday:

MINISTERIAL sources have told the Herald Julia Gillard made implied threats during Labor’s long and bitter internal arguments as she stridently advocated abandoning the ETS and opposed taking the policy to a double-dissolution election . . . Gillard insisted that “under no circumstances” could she or would she support retaining it as Labor policy, they said.

Peter Hartcher, SMH, April 9, 2011:

RUDD’S admission this week that he was wrong to have abandoned his emissions trading scheme was really about exactly the same problem. Rudd says he shelved the plan because Gillard and Wayne Swan demanded it.

Gab

17 Feb 12 at 12:27 am
You’re still on black and white , Kel?

JC

17 Feb 12 at 12:28 am
I don’t accept or reject it offhand just because it happens to coincide or conflict with my own preconceptions.

You’re being really silly. No one had any preconceptions before we were bombarded with accusations of a Holocaust on massive scale. Even Windy didn’t have a position before the agitators came out.

He basically looked at the evidence and more or less proved they were bullshit artists. Their position obviously became worse when Manne decided to enter the argument and began to systematically help dismantle his own side.

Please stop it with the preconceptions bullshit you’re trying to pull, because you were far more blatantly partisan earlier up the thread.

JC

17 Feb 12 at 12:35 am
You can get a 32″ LCD for less than $200 at JB Hi-Fi… admittedly, it’s only Soniq brand, but still.

Fleeced

17 Feb 12 at 12:36 am
You can get a 32″ LCD for less than $200 at JB Hi-Fi… admittedly, it’s only Soniq brand, but still.

Really, they’ve fallen that low? Wow!

JC

17 Feb 12 at 12:39 am
Ministerial sources have told the Herald Julia Gillard made implied threats during Labor’s long and bitter internal arguments as she stridently advocated abandoning the ETS and opposed taking the policy to a double dissolution election.

As the Rudd government’s inner cabinet agonised for months over what to do with the defeated scheme, Gillard insisted that ”under no circumstances” could she or would she support retaining it as Labor policy, they said. Her comments were interpreted by some as a threat to distance herself from the policy if the government decided to maintain it.

Gab, that’s gold.

Story link here.

Of course Rudd was the source.

C.L.

17 Feb 12 at 12:41 am
Manne. what a goat. If you are going to take the high road, its best not to be a hypocrite.

nic

17 Feb 12 at 12:43 am
Something very wrong with them. They all seem to have convenient memory issues or are not in the know. A very dysfunctional ALP.

“KEVIN Rudd never received a recommendation on who should run the Australia Network, before he was stripped of responsibility for the decision and a new tender was called, giving the ABC another opportunity to win the $223 million, 10-year contract.

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Dennis Richardson told Senate estimates yesterday a draft cabinet submission on the findings of the tender panel became “inoperative” before it was seen by the Foreign Minister. Mr Richardson said copies of the draft submission went to the Foreign Minister’s office and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet in late May last year, more than three weeks before Julia Gillard announced the amended tender and stripped Mr Rudd of responsibility for the decision over who would run the soft diplomacy television service, on June 24.

Both the original and amended tender process are understood to have recommended awarding the contract to Sky News Australia over the ABC.
…
Mr Richardson said the draft submission “never became operative”.

“It was overtaken by events within government,” he told estimates.

Mr Richardson could not recall when he was told the submission would not be going forward.

He said he was told of the decision by officers of his department, who he believed were informed of the decision by staff from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

He was “simply not aware” if PM&C had briefed Ms Gillard’s office on the contents of the draft submission.

yadda yadda opposition rightly upset etc…

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy announced that the Australia Network tender process had been terminated on November 7 last year, citing media leaks.

Responsibility for the service was handed days later to the ABC.

The Australian revealed on July 4 that the panel overseeing the original tender had recommended that the contract go to Sky.

Mr Richardson told estimates he had discussed a second report in The Australian on October 17 that the amended tender process had also found in favour of Sky.

He recommended that the Australian Federal Police investigate.

AFP Commissioner Tony Negus admitted on Tuesday no journalists had been investigated as part of their inquiries.”

Gillard’s intervention

Gab

17 Feb 12 at 12:44 am
…and the Cone of Silence swiftly descends to protect the guilty heading towards an election.

THE Queensland floods inquiry has drawn a veil of secrecy over its final legal submissions that will prevent any adverse references to key witnesses from being published unless commissioner Cate Holmes agrees with them in her final report.

Senior legal and government sources expressed astonishment at Justice Holmes’s ruling as four flood engineers have already faced accusations from the inquiry’s lead lawyer of concocting a “fiction” in an orchestrated cover-up of their alleged mismanagement of the Wivenhoe Dam before last year’s Brisbane floods. The engineers have strongly denied the claims.

Gab

17 Feb 12 at 12:58 am
Rudd is seriously leaking all this stuff and he isn’t going to stop until he destroys her.

You know, as much as I can stand him, he has a point about being bitter. The Slapper is absolutely disgraceful. She tells the Rudd he can’t move forward with the ETS and won’t back it.

She then stabs him in the back, pledges not to introduce a carbon tax and then does as soon as she’s appointed. She doesn’t possess and atom of integrity.

JC

17 Feb 12 at 12:58 am
Senior legal and government sources expressed astonishment at Justice Holmes’s ruling as four flood engineers have already faced accusations from the inquiry’s lead lawyer of concocting a “fiction” in an orchestrated cover-up of their alleged mismanagement of the Wivenhoe Dam before last year’s Brisbane floods. The engineers have strongly denied the claims.

This is going to end up seriously ugly in QLD. People are going to jail over this.

JC

17 Feb 12 at 1:00 am
IIRC, the luvvies and the lefties all defended Gillard’s broken promise on the carbin tax by saying she was always in favour of an ETS.

Gab

17 Feb 12 at 1:01 am
Fatty Jones’s Lateline describes Bligh’s behaviour – claiming Newman will be jailed (by the FBI?) and publishing his home address (to endanger his young family) – as “colourful” and “shenanigans.”

C.L.

17 Feb 12 at 1:13 am
Thanks, guys – appreciate the input. Starting him off with Blainey & Hughes.

spot

17 Feb 12 at 1:15 am
But…. but… science and religion are opposed! It is simply not possible to think about eternal principles AND material facts with the same brain!

Newton was an Arian, he denied the divinity of Christ and the Trinity because he thought the idea of “god in the flesh” is absurd. Now you were saying … .

A fundamental reason why religion and science are opposed is because religion sees reality as intrinsically teleological. Try Quine, “the non-intentional stance”

John H.

17 Feb 12 at 2:44 am
Was Newton actually an Arian? I know he was a non-Trinitarian Xian. I’d assumed he was a Unitarian? How much of Arianism actually outlasted late Antiquity?

Peter Patton

17 Feb 12 at 3:10 am
This sounds really sleazy, I reckon. The conflicts are enormous. No problem with a private firm running a prison, but you don’t contract out a minimum.

The nation’s largest private prison company is offering cash-strapped state governments to buy up their penitentiaries and manage convicted criminals at a cost-savings. But there’s a catch…the states must guarantee that are there are enough prisoners to ensure that the venture is profitable to the company.

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has reached out to 48 states as part of a $250 million plan to own existing prisons and manage their operations. But in return CCA wants a 20-year contract and assurances that the state will keep the prisons at least 90% full.

http://www.allgov.com/Top_Stories/ViewNews/Private_Prison_Company_to_Demand_90_Percent_Occupancy_120216

JC

17 Feb 12 at 3:11 am
Sources I read keep indicating that Peter, and there is evidence to suggest he may have been homosexual, even practising … his lifelong live in assistant from Oxford. So I don’t think the Church should be claiming him for their own because he is a heretic at least 3 times over.

John H.

17 Feb 12 at 3:32 am
Interesting. I took a course at uni on Late Antiquity/. My god, the political fireworks sparked by conflicts over Christ’s nature did my head in more than the Topology case I was also taking. It was the course most demanding of verbal skills I have taken. Trinitarians vs. Arians vs. Monophysites. Still, while I agree with you that the Church has no chance being able to legitimately claim Newtown, he was nevertheless, a deist of the Xian persuasion.

But all astronomy and natural philosophy up till Newton had never had any problem with accommodating God. For my money, Kepler’s Second Law was the most exciting integration of god, physics, and mathematics, I have ever been exposed to.

Peter Patton

17 Feb 12 at 3:47 am
A fundamental reason why religion and science are opposed is because religion sees reality as intrinsically teleological. Try Quine, “the non-intentional stance”

So, arguably, does evolutionary biology, for instance, in the sense of “bare directedness towards an end”, here presumably, fitness. But even if we set aside this objection, and simply agreed that science was intrinsically mechanistic, this would itself be a non-empirical claim presupposed by science that could never be scientifically validated.

dover_beach

17 Feb 12 at 4:10 am
So, arguably, does evolutionary biology, for instance, in the sense of “bare directedness towards an end”, here presumably, fitness.

Evolution does not aim at anything, it stumbles onto good fits. The strategies are remarkable though, like the adaptive capacity inherent in Hsp90 at the single cell level esp under signs of stress and amazing hsp90 must disassociate from the GR and MR (key receptors for gluco and minero – stress molecules, before these can translocate to the nucleus. Susan Lindquist has championed this for years but once again because it challenges those neodarwinians she had a hard time of it, yet the cellular data is outstanding.

John H.

17 Feb 12 at 4:17 am
Evolution does not aim at anything, it stumbles onto good fits.

This is contradictory. You say that evolution does not “aim at anything” only to say in the very same breath except “good fits”. If it did not “aim at anything” this would also include “good fits”. That it “stumbles” is neither here nor there. Your description of evolution is teleological.

dover_beach

17 Feb 12 at 4:55 am
This is contradictory. You say that evolution does not “aim at anything” only to say in the very same breath except “good fits”. If it did not “aim at anything” this would also include “good fits”. That it “stumbles” is neither here nor there. Your description of evolution is teleological.

If I am idly throwing rocks into a pond with no thought for their trajectory and some happen to hit a fish I was not aiming to hit that fish. Are you arguing that if I stumble and kick my toe I am being teleological? Evolution is like that, it is simply the execution of various physical processes that give rise to various biological realities. It is not trying to make a good fit anymore than the Game of Life(Conway) is trying to create patterns. This is one reason why the research of Linquist is so important, it highlights how a very simple natural selection process at the intra-cellular level can unleash huge adaptive potential. It is a chance game, out of the inherent potential within the genome there is sufficient intrinsic adaptive capacity without the need for new mutations.

John H.

17 Feb 12 at 5:07 am
Only posted because Gab has been slacking off lately on the job of posting dog videos:

“We never taught the dog this trick – He started doing this all on his own when he noticed that he could get a better view of the cats and squirrels that frequent some of the fences in the neighborhood.”

@s_dog

17 Feb 12 at 5:12 am
I don’t think Windy is a particularly great historian.

Why?

Abu Chowdah

17 Feb 12 at 6:14 am
From The Market Monetarist, a new TV series about Milton Friedman on PBS.

Sleetmute

17 Feb 12 at 6:55 am
The Queensland government has got to go.
Greg withers, Bligh’s husband, who has run the office of climate change for the last five years with a risk averse, politically on messge fist for five years, has had his contract extended five years. This contract renewal probably didn’t need to happen for a year or so, as during the last five years the position was upgraded to associate director general.

Entropy

17 Feb 12 at 7:12 am
Terrific news, Sleetmute – thanks for the heads-up.

spot

17 Feb 12 at 7:51 am
JohnH, you’re backpedaling here. You began by saying:
“Evolution does not aim at anything, it stumbles onto good fits”, now your saying that evolution is not aiming at “good fits”. Evolution can involve random mutations in which “good fits” are favoured, ceteris paribus, over less “good fits” and still be a teleological process. In fact, the concept ‘adaptation’ is incoherent outside of evolution being a teleological process.

dover_beach

17 Feb 12 at 7:59 am
Gab

…and the Cone of Silence swiftly descends to protect the ~~guilty~~ stupid…

Speaking of stupid people, what happened to Lez? I was enjoying that conversation.

I’d better start checking under the flat rocks, I guess.

Mk50 of Brisbane

17 Feb 12 at 8:29 am
Today’s good news story:

UNREPENTANT to the last, the Nigerian “underwear bomber” who tried to blow up a packed airliner on Christmas Day 2009 has been sentenced to life in prison by a US judge.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 25, declared he was “proud to kill in the name of God” before being handed a mandatory life sentence for attempting to murder 289 people on board Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines Flight 253.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/underwear-bomber-jailed-for-life-in-us/story-e6frg6so-1226273454111

Rabz

17 Feb 12 at 8:46 am
Evolution can involve random mutations in which “good fits” are favoured, ceteris paribus, over less “good fits” and still be a teleological process.

A thing does not have to know it has a purpose to have a purpose, just as it does not have to think to display emergent intelligence.

Natural selection is purposeful, even though it is not a consciousness. Life over time drives towards ever more complex systems.

wreckage

17 Feb 12 at 9:15 am
good stuff – Guatemala wants to legalise drugs, and no one can accuse the general of being a lefty

http://reason.com/blog/2012/02/16/guatemala-president-says-decriminalize

jtfsoon

17 Feb 12 at 9:18 am
Lets follow the climate money like Steve suggested.

http://joannenova.com.au/2012/02/logic-gate-the-smog-blog-exposes-irrational-rage-innumeracy-and-heartlands-efficient-success/

Rafe

17 Feb 12 at 9:25 am
Air Australia aka Strategic Airlines went bust overnight, leaving shitloads of people stranded in Phuket.

Yobbo

17 Feb 12 at 9:43 am
Air Australia aka Strategic Airlines went bust overnight, leaving shitloads of people stranded in Phuket.

A reminder as to why one should always buy travel insurance.

Even if (to Steve’s chagrin, no doubt) it doesn’t include free abortion pills.

spot

17 Feb 12 at 9:50 am
A thing does not have to know it has a purpose to have a purpose, just as it does not have to think to display emergent intelligence.

Directedness would be closer to the mark then purposefulness, wreckage. That is why the second law of thermodynamics is thoroughly teleological, even though it postulates a tendency to less order.

dover_beach

17 Feb 12 at 9:50 am
Most travel insurance doesn’t cover airline insolvency unfortunately.

Yobbo

17 Feb 12 at 10:15 am
Pull factors:

“WASHING machines, microwave ovens, DVDs and plasma TVs are among a 60-item welcome gift pack for asylum seekers offered rent-free homes in the community.

To fulfil a promise to move an influx of families out of detention, the Gillard Government is now fitting out each home with up to $10,000 worth of furnishings and electronics.

They are given food hampers upon arrival at rented homes where they wait for their claims to be processed…

Everything from beds, fridges, mattresses and lounges to an alarm clock radio, clothes hangers and containers for biscuits are being bought in a “household goods formation package” that contains more than 60 items.

It includes a television at a minimum size of 53cm.

An average family of five is eligible for $7100 worth of goods, while larger families of more than nine people can be provided with up to $9850 in furnishings, the Opposition has revealed after Senate estimates this week.

Special consideration is given to providing computers, internet access, mobile phones, bikes, skateboards, rollerblades, iPods, games consoles and sewing machines.”

Meanwhile, Homeless people in Australia was at 105,000 according to 2008 Census report.

Gab

17 Feb 12 at 10:22 am
Gab,

This is why I have ruthlessly minimised my income tax.

It’s about time these criminal vandals were forcibly removed, methinks.

They have no legitimacy as it is.

Rabz

17 Feb 12 at 10:29 am
Scott Morrison:

““Minister Bowen’s only response to further boat arrivals is to blame Tony Abbott, embrace the Greens, refuse to restore the Howard policies that worked and file a job application to be Treasurer,” Mr Morrison said.
…
The very prospect of Chris Bowen as Treasurer should alarm Australians. If Minister Bowen does to our nation’s finances what he has already done to our borders then heaven help us. ”

Like a rat deserting the sinking ship…

Gab

17 Feb 12 at 10:32 am
Hey I’ll stick for Minister Bowen on this one. Does anybody really think that someone could do a worse job than Swan?

kelly liddle

17 Feb 12 at 10:42 am
Rudd’s treasurer?

Gab

17 Feb 12 at 10:44 am
now fitting out each home with up to $10,000 worth of furnishings and electronics.

They are given food hampers upon arrival at rented homes where they wait for their claims to be processed…

Everything from beds, fridges, mattresses and lounges to an alarm clock radio, clothes hangers and containers for biscuits are being bought in a “household goods formation package” that contains more than 60 items.

It includes a television at a minimum size of 53cm.

It a mini stimulus. Harvey Norman will be pleased.

As for the $10,000 per home, we all know this will blowout to at least triple that, if set top boxes are included.

Gab

17 Feb 12 at 10:53 am
Word gets out fast.

Two asylum seeker boats intercepted
AUSTRALIA authorities have intercepted two asylum-seeker boats carrying more than 130 people.

And Bowen blames Abbott.

Gab

17 Feb 12 at 10:59 am
Maybe we should just supply the smugglers with better boats so we don’t need to do arial and naval surveylance and it would save some money. Just give directions to which detention centres aren’t full also saving on air fares.

kelly liddle

17 Feb 12 at 11:07 am
You guys realise any acceleration of our economic growth rate above that of Asia and Africa will see more immigrants and refugees come, even if we shoot them as they land?

People will literally risk dying to either work here or go on the dole.

We ought to encourage them to be richer. Then we might emigrate!

.

17 Feb 12 at 11:15 am
dot
that medieval shithole of Afghanistan has about as much chance of being much richer in the next 50 years as steve has of becoming a swinger.

jtfsoon

17 Feb 12 at 11:22 am
What about the rest that isn’t Pashto/Paki?

.

17 Feb 12 at 11:26 am
The ME? I’d give it the same prognosis.
Africa will do alright as an economic colony of China which it is becoming,

Are there a lot of boatpeople coming in from Asia still?

jtfsoon

17 Feb 12 at 11:30 am
Washington Post: Obama corrupt.

No kidding.

C.L.

17 Feb 12 at 11:30 am
I’ll check the stats SOON

.

17 Feb 12 at 11:34 am
Think we need the new census data, SOON.

.

17 Feb 12 at 11:35 am
Our lovely dear Senator Lee Rhiannons lovely “a little bit political” parents in action:

Cowra, 1948:

The Communist speaker, Mrs. Freda Brown, was subjected to some interruption, and when her speech ended Mr. Fred Hall said : “I will move that this meeting, called by the Communist party affirm its loyalty to the Throne and Constitution.”

Mr. B. J. Poignand asked Mrs. Brown if in the event of war with Russia the Communist Party would be on the side of Russia.

Mrs., Brown said the Communist ‘Party Would, support Russia’,'if Russia were fighting America.

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2740430

If Russia were fighting America, Australia would have been fighting Russia…

twostix

17 Feb 12 at 11:39 am
The Guardian makes horrifying suggestion: Rudd should take Obama and Xi on snorkelling expedition at the Great Barrier Reef.

Outcome.

C.L.

17 Feb 12 at 11:44 am
Evolution does not aim at anything, it stumbles onto good fits

Nothing could be further from the truth.

You are effectively saying that women “do not aim at anything” in their mate / partner choices.

RodClarke

17 Feb 12 at 12:04 pm
I see Tony Sheldon has his knickers in a twist about QANTAS job cuts.

http://www.news.com.au/business/breaking-news/trade-workers-union-says-qantas-should-be-prosecuted/story-e6frfkur-1226273780608

Hey Tony, piss off. Their problems are partly your fault you window licking dick head.

tbh

17 Feb 12 at 1:26 pm
Why he earns the big bucks:

Independent Rob Oakeshott believes Kevin Rudd wants PM job again.

C.L.

17 Feb 12 at 1:35 pm
You are effectively saying that women “do not aim at anything” in their mate / partner choices.

That’s (IIRC) sexual selection, not natural selection. But both inform species change over time, yes.

wreckage

17 Feb 12 at 2:17 pm
Climate change simplfied. h/t Tim Blair
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/cartoons_for_farmers/

Rafe

17 Feb 12 at 2:40 pm
Barry Cassify: the Rudd move on Gillard is real.

C.L.

17 Feb 12 at 2:46 pm
Climate change simplfied.

Because this government believes farmers have the IQ of 5 year olds.

Gab

17 Feb 12 at 2:47 pm
You’re a nobody until harry Clarke talks about you.

Gab

17 Feb 12 at 2:50 pm
Oops, wrong room.

Gab

17 Feb 12 at 2:51 pm
Barry Cassify: the Rudd move on Gillard is real.

As the ABC was so on top of the last coup in the ALP, did Cassidy get the news from the Oakeshott article?

Token

17 Feb 12 at 3:06 pm
Catallaxy now verging on unreadable. There’s some very dodgy script running the site these days.

Later, gators

C.L.

17 Feb 12 at 3:29 pm
Catallaxy is slower than a Fair Work Australia investigation.

Infidel Tiger

17 Feb 12 at 3:43 pm
For kelly Liddle

This is what teh EU’s ‘peace partners’ (the hamas terrorists) say to their own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYwXs10Yp54&feature=player_embedded

Mk50 of Brisbane

17 Feb 12 at 8:11 pm
Sinc

Loading this thing sucks big time.

That Midweek Open Thread worked a treat…

rinse and repeat?

Mk50 of Brisbane

17 Feb 12 at 9:08 pm
Those climate dogs are pretty cool. The one Tim links to is the overview one. It was made by Vic dpi back when we were going to have drought forever. Some of the other ones, eg ENSO and Ridgy explains things that affect the weather/seasons pretty well. No doubt cheap to make.

Entropy

17 Feb 12 at 9:18 pm
You know, you personalize the stuff that’s going on in Europe and it appears to be tragic.

“Portugal would save 3 billion euros a year if it restructured its debt,” said Pedro Lains, an economic historian and a blogger at the University of Lisbon.

Mr. Lains spoke not only as a theorist. He feels austerity firsthand. Because his salary at the government-run university has been slashed by 30 percent in the last year, his family has needed to dip into its savings.

He said that wage contraction throughout the country was prompting increasing numbers of Portuguese to leave the country, even as their government labors to prove it is worthy to remain part of the euro zone.

Why, Mr. Lains asks, should he and his fellow citizens suffer while the bondholders get their money back? “It’s not the fault of the Portuguese people,” he said. “The fault lies with the structure of the euro.”

That’s not to say Portugal doesn’t have real problems, but the ECB needlessly turned those real problems into a crisis.

http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=13140

JC

17 Feb 12 at 9:19 pm
Damn, we missed this coming out a few days ago.

The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition.

JC

17 Feb 12 at 10:25 pm
Hi JC how are you, which model do you think looks the most feminine and pretty, out of interest I would like to know your opinion.

candy

17 Feb 12 at 10:28 pm
I think it’s difficult out of these 3 candy.

kate

Isbel

Kirby

And Jessica just under these, while I’d put Adaora in a for a mentions because of her zany hair and she looks like she’d be fun to hang around with.

You realize the Swin suit edition is and always was about as important as the Time Man of the Year as an American Institution.

JC

17 Feb 12 at 10:40 pm
Hi Candy,

Crystal

and the two hottest girls I see when next strolling through the Pitt St Mess.

Rabz

17 Feb 12 at 10:50 pm
Yes, i think Jessica looks quite lovely.

I think it might be Time Person of the Year now? the protestor? how dull though. Steve Jobs would have been a good choice.

candy

17 Feb 12 at 10:55 pm
Steve Jobs was a pretty handsome bloke and smart as. I could envisage him in some sexy nice pics, a certain intelligence in his feaures that’s very attractive (was)

candy

17 Feb 12 at 10:58 pm
http://crookedtimber.org/2012/02/16/so-what-would-your-plan-for-greece-be/

Fun game for all. I quickly ended up at 53 – the Argentinian solution.

Mother Hubbard's Dog

17 Feb 12 at 11:04 pm
Ha! I ended up at 30, Dog. Apparently I’m getting a job with a Think Tank.

I’ve turned into such a nerd since reading the Cat.

Gab

17 Feb 12 at 11:18 pm
there’s no question that can be answered “I don’t give a damn about Greece. Let’s get some pizza.”

wreckage

18 Feb 12 at 12:15 am

Catallaxy Files

Open Forum: February 11, 2012

1,460 Responses to 'Open Forum: February 11, 2012'

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