Open Forum: December 8, 2012 at Catallaxy Files

Open Forum: December 8, 2012

1,099 comments

Written by Sinclair Davidson

December 8th, 2012 at 12:01 am

Posted in Open Forum

1,099 Responses to 'Open Forum: December 8, 2012'

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Splatacrobat

8 Dec 12 at 12:03 am
Only because I hit the refresh button more time than an ebay bidder in the last 30 seconds

Splatacrobat

8 Dec 12 at 12:05 am
Simple Minds, Devo and the Church @ Sydney EntCent. #middleagewhiteguyscanstillrock. Brilliant night – thrilled we went. All three bands were terrific, but Jim Kerr really knows how to own a crowd.

Myrrdin Seren

8 Dec 12 at 12:08 am
Splat then jump?
Sposta be the other way round.

jumpnmcar

8 Dec 12 at 12:09 am
Surprise, surprise, surprise Egypt

Cue: Tanks

NYT: Morsi Defends Wide Authority as Turmoil Rises in Egypt

CAIRO — Egypt descended deeper into political turmoil on Thursday as the embattled president, Mohamed Morsi, blamed an outbreak of violence on a “fifth column” and vowed to proceed with a referendum on an Islamist-backed constitution that has prompted deadly street battles between his supporters and their opponents.

As the tanks and armored vehicles of the elite presidential guard ringed the palace, Mr. Morsi gave a nationally televised address offering only a hint of compromise, while standing firmly by his plan for a Dec. 15 constitutional referendum. His opponents quickly rejected, even mocked, his speech and called for new protests on Friday.

Gee whoda guessed Obumma throwing Mubarak overboard with cement shoes woulda lead to radical islamists running wild in da miggle east?

JamesK

8 Dec 12 at 12:12 am
O hai nu fred. Shiny.

No troll droppings yet, even.

/puts on sunnies, takes off shoes, slides on clean floor in stocking feet.

sdog

8 Dec 12 at 12:16 am
Krauthammer Wa-Po: It’s nothing but a power play

Let’s understand President Obama’s strategy in the “fiscal cliff” negotiations. It has nothing to do with economics or real fiscal reform. This is entirely about politics. It’s Phase 2 of the 2012 campaign. The election returned him to office. The fiscal cliff negotiations are designed to break the Republican opposition and grant him political supremacy, something he thinks he earned with his landslide 2.8-point victory margin on Election Day…….

What’s going on here? Having taken Boehner’s sword, and then his shirt, Obama sent Geithner to demand Boehner’s trousers. Perhaps this is what Obama means by a balanced approach.

He pretends that Boehner’s offer to raise revenue by eliminating deductions rather than by raising rates is fiscally impossible.

But on July 22, 2011, Obama had said that “$1.2 trillion in additional revenues . . . could be accomplished without hiking tax rates, but could simply be accomplished by eliminating loopholes, eliminating some deductions and engaging in a tax reform process.” Which is exactly what the Republicans are offering today.

You’ve heard of situational ethics. This is situational mathematics.

Short version: Krauthammer recommends they go over da cliff as the lesser of two evils.

I reckon that’s what’s gonna happen

JamesK

8 Dec 12 at 12:17 am
Californians will now pay 52% income taxes in addition to higher sales taxes:

High-income Californians may pay nation’s highest tax rate

Thanks to passage of Proposition 30 last month, high-income Californians would pay the nation’s highest marginal income tax rates — nearly 52 percent — if President Barack Obama and Congress fail to make a deal to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff,” according to a new study.

Without a fiscal cliff deal to the contrary, the Bush era tax cuts on high-income taxpayers would expire next year and rates would return to their previous levels.

Gerald Prante, an economics professor at Lynchburg College in Virginia, and Austin John, a Lynchburg economics student, calculated marginal tax rates — the highest rates on the highest levels of income — for all 50 states. They combined state, federal and, where applicable, local income taxes, plus payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare and included the deductibility of some taxes.

Proposition 30 added three percentage points to the marginal state income tax rate for California’s highest-income taxpayers, bringing it to 13.3 percent. That action raised California over other high-tax jurisdictions to a marginal rate of 51.9 percent, slightly higher than New York City’s level. Hawaii was the only other place with a calculated rate above 50 percent.

JamesK

8 Dec 12 at 12:21 am
and James, California will still go bankrupt. The only problem with their higher taxes is that it sends Californians across the border into other states and pollute the political process by voting demorat. There’s so much fucking wrong with that state and the people that they ought to be thrown out of the Union.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 12:26 am
Short version: Krauthammer recommends they go over da cliff as the lesser of two evils.

Super-short version: Let it burn.

That’s about where I’m at too.

sdog

8 Dec 12 at 12:26 am
Given that Pickering’s site is on the Blogroll and even he doesn’t pretend that all he posts can be substantiated, shouldn’t Michael Smith News (or his new site http://www.awuworkplacereformassociation.org ) be so honoured?

Cold-Hands

8 Dec 12 at 12:26 am
Fmr. Thatcher advisor Lord Monckton evicted from UN climate summit after challenging global warming — ‘Escorted from the hall and security officers stripped him of his UN credentials’

Monckton to UN: ‘In the 16 years we have been coming to these conferences, there has been no global warming’

Calls to ‘deport Monckton’ from UN conference in Qatar

[Reprint from E&E Greenwire - December 6, 2012 - subscription required]

After the news conference, and as diplomats gathered for the climate conference president’s assessment of how close countries are to agreement, Monckton quietly slipped into the seat reserved for the delegation of Myanmar and clicked the button to speak.

“In the 16 years we have been coming to these conferences, there has been no global warming,” Monckton said as confused murmurs filled the hall and then turned into a chorus of boos.

The stunt infuriated negotiators and activists here who gather every year to address what they believe is one of the world’s top threats, the steady rise of man-made global warming.

As Monckton was escorted from the hall and security officers stripped him of his U.N. credentials, several people noted that just a few hours earlier a group of young activists had been thrown out of the convention center and deported. Their crime: unfurling an unauthorized banner calling for the Qatari hosts to lead the negotiations to a strong conclusion.

By late today, several activists attending the conference had posted calls to “deport Monckton” on their Twitter feeds.

JamesK

8 Dec 12 at 12:29 am
Sanctimonious holy roller Simon Barnes says 21st century sports is appropriately becoming more and more gentle because that is what the audience wants:

This is not legislation, this is not health and safety gone mad. Instead, it is a clear demonstration of the clear preference of 21st-century sporting audiences and 21st-century athletes for less dangerous sport. We do not want to see footballers carried off with bones sticking through their socks, we do not want to see cricketers spitting teeth on to the pitch (as Botham did after facing Andy Roberts), we do not want to see rugby players paralysed, we do not want to see drivers burnt to death, and we do not, on the whole, want to see boxing at all…

Leaving aside the beta’s now customary slight against boxing, ‘we’ never did want those things, Simon, you nimrod. We wanted to watch supremely talented and courageous sportsmen doing what they did best – overcoming the danger and the fear. Simon says the new creampuff ‘sport’ shows how wonderful we are, morally.

So here is a really uncomfortable truth: it’s about compassion. We are in some ways, and at least in public, an increasingly compassionate society. We are not happy with the reckless waste of people and horses, but we are more than happy to applaud athletes in wheelchairs.

We are indeed going soft. Sport tells us about many things; here it tells us an important truth about our changing times. We are increasingly prepared to stand up and be soft.

I’d say the opposite. The decline in admiration for courage, perseverance, a sportsman’s unwillingness to flinch or show pain and – overarchingly, the manly virtues – bespeaks a society not morally rising but morally plummeting.

C.L.

8 Dec 12 at 12:31 am
Calfif. may be sanity’s last hope if it successfully self-immolates in leftism without Obumma rescuing them.

Any business that can up stumps is leaving.

JamesK

8 Dec 12 at 12:31 am
What was particularly interesting was that where is was in the US they pay 10c/MWH (I think that’s what he said). We pay more than double that.

Kae: I think I pay around 11c/kilowatthour for mine in NC. Different states have different prices, and even different areas within each state do, but here’s a chart showing the most recent EIA state averages.

Yes, it’s quite a bit less than what I pay in WA. As SfB & friends will point out, that’s proof that America NEEDZ MOAR CARBIN TACKS!!11!! Or something.

sdog

8 Dec 12 at 1:27 am
Can anyone actually determine the real number of people that want to rely on wind and solar energy?

NoFixedAddress

8 Dec 12 at 1:35 am
Burglar Calls 911 On Himself After Homeowner Holds Him At Gunpoint.

In a strange flip of events, a burglary suspect called 911 early Tuesday to report that he was being held at gunpoint by a Springtown homeowner and his son…

The incident happened around 12:30 a.m. when the homeowner and his wife woke up to find an intruder in the bedroom of their home in the 100 block of Lelon Lane.

The suspect, identified as 41-year-old Christopher Lance Moore of Bedford, left the home and sat in his GMC pickup, parked in the family’s driveway. The homeowner followed him with a pistol, took the suspect’s keys and blocked his getaway with his own vehicle, while his stepson trained a shotgun on Moore, Fox 4 News reports.

“If he gets out of the truck, shoot him in the legs,” James Gerow told his son. “You ain’t gotta kill him; just shoot him in the legs. … If he’d got out, I’d have expected him to shoot him.”

Naturally, in bedwetting Australia both Gerows would have been arrested.

C.L.

8 Dec 12 at 1:37 am
Can anyone actually determine the real number of people that want to rely on wind and solar energy?

Yes.

Eight.

C.L.

8 Dec 12 at 1:39 am
we do not want to see cricketers spitting teeth on to the pitch (as Botham did after facing Andy Roberts),

I sure do. The worst thing that has happened to cricket has been turning it into purely a batsman’s game.

They introduced the helmet and a myriad of other protective devices and then they limited the number of short balls allowed. Then they brought the boundaries in and allowed super sprung bats. On top of that you never see a green top pitch anymore.

Cricket has accurately reflected the demise of the western world. We are all poofters now.

Infidel Tiger

8 Dec 12 at 1:52 am
LOL, comment of the week.

I hate how cricket has swung in favour of batsmen. Growing up I had the privilege of watching the greatest era of fast bowling the game has ever seen and the batsmen who faced them were of an equally high calibre. That’s why I rate Chappell, Richards, Miandad and Gavaskar over any modern day player.

There is nothing more exciting than seeing an angry quick bowler versus a good top order batsman in an even contest, but the laws of the game and the match conditions make it a less common occurance.

tbh

8 Dec 12 at 2:07 am
@C.L. 8 Dec 12 at 1:39 am

Yes.

Eight.

so why is there not one politician that will tell them to fuck off when they start bleating.

NoFixedAddress

8 Dec 12 at 2:36 am
Can anyone actually determine the real number of people that want to rely on wind and solar energy?

I happen to know the truth, and the aswer is No. But it is truly wonderous that we contemplate such intricacies. It was once argued, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

Jannie

8 Dec 12 at 4:07 am
Potemkin’s Village

Stupid as a man, say the women… here

Grigory Potemkin

8 Dec 12 at 5:02 am
Nurse in UK fooled by radio hosts in Oz dead in apparent suicide.

dover_beach

8 Dec 12 at 5:05 am
Q. Should there be better screening for all candidates wanting to be elected as either MPs or Senators to our Parliament?

Was thinking of:

Must be in the possession of a blue card.

Must be personality tested/personality profiled, and the results publically available.

No criminal history.

History of volunteering/hands-on charitable work/active membership in an organisation like the Liona, Rotary, CWA, Surf Lifesavers etc.

Must have had at least ten years work experience outside of the public service/unions – or failing that, agree to do one day a week voluntary work in a small business in their electorate outside the times Parliament is sitting.

What do you think? Too restrictive, or not restrictive enough.

A Lurker

8 Dec 12 at 6:07 am
Born in Australia ?

jumpnmcar

8 Dec 12 at 6:10 am
I hope those radio “personalities” feel some remorse for the mindless trick that has so embarrassed a nurse in that London hospital that suicide was the way out. As reported by the BBC overnight.

Blogstrop

8 Dec 12 at 6:30 am
Born in Australia ?

Possibly, definately must renounce any other citizenship. There cannot be a divided loyalty.

I hope those radio “personalities” feel some remorse for the mindless trick that has so embarrassed a nurse in that London hospital that suicide was the way out. As reported by the BBC overnight.

Personally I think they should be sacked, and then pay some kind of restitution to the family of the nurse. Hopefully what they did will give them many sleepless nights ahead of them in life.

A Lurker

8 Dec 12 at 6:36 am
I’m sympathetic to Lurker’s suggestions, but hoping for that sort of change is like hoping for the Labor Party to reform itself in a meaningful way rather than do the odd bit of handwringing a la Faulkner for window dessing purposes.
What has happened to ALP politics in recent years is a warning to the voters that a boring old conservative government is so much better that we should hope for another 23 year run with them. That has been, in the past, the measure of persistent unworthiness to govern, and may be again.

Blogstrop

8 Dec 12 at 6:37 am
I’m starting to appreciate the foreign concept of “blood money”. If you kill an on duty policeman, perhaps your assets should be liquidated and given to his wife and three children. Why should murderers retain a house while the family left behind have to depend on a whip around to try and keep their life on the rails after such a disaster?

Blogstrop

8 Dec 12 at 6:41 am
We definately need the quality of those supposedly representing us in Parliament lifted. It’s not just Labor, although they are the worst offenders, that screening should be across all candidates, across all parties, and include Independents as well.

I don’t know how such a change could happen, or whether or not it requires a Constitutional change, or changes to the Australian Electoral Commission, or something else entirely. However we can’t contiue with these ratbags with dodgy histories and borderline personality disorders in our Parliament.

A Lurker

8 Dec 12 at 6:53 am
CL @ 12.31 am, I’ll take your Simon Barnes and raise you a Bill Whittle, who sprang to mind immediately I read your post.

I have zero interest in going to watch a game where grown men are afraid to look sideways at each other lest they get in trouble.

If I want to watch children compete, I’ll put my own offspring into Little Aths.

nilk

8 Dec 12 at 7:20 am
How to destroy a newspaper:

1. Plaster the Saturday edition with evidence-free hysteria presented as fact that human civilisation is doomed. Add a call by a well-known communist to destroy capitalism as a solution.
2. Have the political editor devote a major commentary to an attempt to belittle and lampoon the opposition leader than most Australians intend to vote for next year.
3. Have the economics editor write a commentary that says that, even though the non-mining economy is in recession, people who think they’re doing it tough are stupid.

smh.com.au.

Tom

8 Dec 12 at 7:40 am
#SMH

sdog

8 Dec 12 at 7:49 am
Quick question, anyone know any decent libertarian organisations I can donate my limited spare time too? I have reached a point, where knowing and bitching about is not enough anymore, want to do my part…

Adam Diver

8 Dec 12 at 8:27 am
You could get involved with the Liberal Democratic Party.

Or join the Institute of Public Affairs or Centre for Independent Studies.

If you’re a bit anarcho-capitalist you could have a look at Sukrit’s mob: Liberty Australia: http://www.la.org.au

John Mc

8 Dec 12 at 8:33 am
I have reached a point, where knowing and bitching about is not enough anymore, want to do my part…

Yes but keep up the moaning and bitching.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 8:40 am
Another MSM newspaper fades to black.

Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland closes after huge losses

The Silly and The Phage must be counting the days. Certainly Mr Cubby and his colleagues were feeling very apocalyptic this morning. Perhaps a black cat walked across his grave or something?

Bruce

8 Dec 12 at 8:59 am
Adam, don’t forget the Taxpayers Alliance, especially if you want to do something at the local level, https://www.taxpayers.org.au/

Rafe

8 Dec 12 at 9:27 am
Warning to M0nty, Steve(s), Numbers.

You white guys will always lose in a Lefty game of victims poker, look how they are coming for your hero Flannery now.

It’s only matter of time and you’ll be on the list too.

Token

8 Dec 12 at 9:31 am
Jump, your suggestion would allow Maddog Milne, Alien-phone Brown and many others, but would bar great people like Mattias Corman.

I’m not sure I agree.

Token

8 Dec 12 at 9:35 am
This is not argument but name-calling.

This from Bolt, who today on his blog also called academics he disagrees with “bigots”.

m0nty

8 Dec 12 at 9:37 am
Quick question, anyone know any decent libertarian organisations I can donate my limited spare time too? I have reached a point, where knowing and bitching about is not enough anymore, want to do my part…

Any of the above are fine.

I suggest

http://www.ldp.org.au/

(The Liberal Democratic Party of Australia)

http://blog.libertarian.org.au/

(The Australian Libertarian Society)

.

8 Dec 12 at 9:41 am
Those academics are bigots.

Sinclair Davidson

8 Dec 12 at 9:46 am
The Taxpayers Alliance, hey? Didn’t “The Tea Party Downunder” pass the focus group test held in someone’s living room?

steve from brisbane

8 Dec 12 at 9:47 am
Those academics are bigots.

This is not argument but name-calling.

m0nty

8 Dec 12 at 9:54 am
After the news conference, and as diplomats gathered for the climate conference president’s assessment of how close countries are to agreement, Monckton quietly slipped into the seat reserved for the delegation of Myanmar and clicked the button to speak.

What a maroon.

m0nty

8 Dec 12 at 9:57 am
What a maroon.

This is not argument but name-calling. I denounce this poster!

m0nty

8 Dec 12 at 9:58 am
I don’t argue with bigots – I condemn them.

Sinclair Davidson

8 Dec 12 at 9:59 am
Those academics ARE bigots monty.

Taxpayer’s Alliance?

Catchy name and well presented material. We never had a Tea Party and the racist, bludging, thuggish, communist shits in the BLF have co-opted Eureka.

Apparently self employed miners of various ethnicities paying taxes unfairly and without justification and getting a short shrift in the judicial system equates to whinging union princesses setting up the White Australia Policy and beating up Grocon owners, and being paid $130k p.a to boil a fucking kettle.

.

8 Dec 12 at 10:02 am
This is not argument but name-calling.

This should be the new slogan for the Cat. Sums it up far better than the laughable “centre-right” claim.

m0nty

8 Dec 12 at 10:05 am
Peter Schiff being a boss, as usual.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324705104578151601554982808.html

Democratic Party leaders, President Obama in particular, are forever telling the country that wealthy Americans are taxed at too low a rate and pay too little in taxes. The need to correct this seeming injustice is framed not simply in terms of fairness. Higher tax rates on the wealthy, we’re told, would help balance the budget, allow for more “investment” in America’s future and foster better economic growth for all. In support of this claim, like-minded liberal pundits point out that in the 1950s, when America’s economic might was at its zenith, the rich faced tax rates as high as 91%….

….The tax code of the 1950s allowed upper-income Americans to take exemptions and deductions that are unheard of today. Tax shelters were widespread, and not just for the superrich. The working wealthy—including doctors, lawyers, business owners and executives—were versed in the art of creating losses to lower their tax exposure.

For instance, a doctor who earned $50,000 through his medical practice could reduce his taxable income to zero with $50,000 in paper losses or depreciation from property he owned through a real-estate investment partnership. Huge numbers of professionals signed up for all kinds of money-losing schemes. Today, a corresponding doctor earning $500,000 can deduct a maximum of $3,000 from his taxable income, no matter how large the loss.

Those 1950s gambits lowered tax liabilities but dissuaded individuals from engaging in the more beneficial activities of increasing their incomes and expanding their businesses. As a result, they were a net drag on the economy. When Ronald Reagan finally lowered rates in the 1980s, he did so in exchange for scrapping uneconomical deductions. When business owners stopped trying to figure out how to lose money, the economy boomed.

.

8 Dec 12 at 10:08 am
What a maroon.

This is not argument but name-calling. I denounce this poster!

This is not argument but name-calling.

This should be the new slogan for the Cat. Sums it up far better than the laughable “centre-right” claim.

You’re not a serious person, monty.

.

8 Dec 12 at 10:10 am
Possibly, definately must renounce any other citizenship. There cannot be a divided loyalty.

I’m pretty sure that’s already true. On Kitchen Cabinet the other night a LNP shadow minister was talking about having a last minute flight to London and back to renounce his UK citizenship in order to qualify as a senate candidate.

As for the others, the voters can request that sort of information and decline to vote for candidates if they refuse to supply it.

Chris

8 Dec 12 at 10:13 am
m0nty – if you don’t like it here, just fuck off. We won’t miss you.

Sinclair Davidson

8 Dec 12 at 10:13 am
Monty, you’re just a cheap sleazebag who can’t stay away, so your condemnation is worthless.

blogstrop

8 Dec 12 at 10:14 am
snap

blogstrop

8 Dec 12 at 10:14 am
m0nty – if you don’t like it here, just fuck off. We won’t miss you.

Liberty quote.

Gab

8 Dec 12 at 10:25 am
You can’t stand for Federal government if you have dual-nationality, I do know that. I’ve been asked to stand in the past and one of the things that held me back was that my US citizenship.

The other was that I’m probably a bit too radical for most out there in voterland and I have no wish to expose my friends and family to the kind of harassment and abuse that they’d cop from lefty activists.

nilk

8 Dec 12 at 10:26 am
Taxpayer’s Alliance?

Catchy name and well presented material. We never had a Tea Party and the racist, bludging, thuggish, communist shits in the BLF have co-opted Eureka.

The name for your movement should be the Rum Rebellion. Gillard is a latter day Bligh, annoying the rich by redistributing wealth. Clive Palmer can play the role of Macarthur, with Abbott as Macquarie. Windsor as Joseph Banks, maybe?

Essentially it was the culmination of a long-running tussle for power between government and entrepreneurs, a fight over the future and the nature of the colony. The early governors wanted to keep NSW as a large-scale open prison, with a primitive economy based on yeomen ex-convicts and run by government fiat.

In contrast, a growing number of entrepreneurs wanted to build a vigorous economy, and sought political influence for themselves (as they would have had back in Britain). So the rebellion is important as the first major crisis in the fight between government and capital in Australia.

m0nty

8 Dec 12 at 10:26 am
That’s a bit out of character for you, Sinc. Go have a Bex and a good lie down.

m0nty

8 Dec 12 at 10:28 am
On the MP thing, I thinks it’s fine to have naturalised Australians able to stand for parliament.

I think Matthias (sp?) is a real asset to the Liberal party.

It’s a country of imports and mongrels, may as well keep the representation that way.

brc

8 Dec 12 at 10:29 am
If you don’t like it here, just fuck off. We won’t miss you.

To adapt an idea from m0nty, “This should be the new slogan for the Cat.”

sdog

8 Dec 12 at 10:31 am
Yay Val, great work.

Dr John Lourens FCPA and Val Majkus LLB (Hons) have been thoroughly researching The AWU Scandal.

In this first of a series of jointly-authored papers, John Lourens and Val Majkus apply their professional skills to explaining the AWU’s structure in Western Australia.

I commend this and the following two scholarly papers from John and Val to you.

http://www.awuworkplacereformassociation.org/

Rudiau

8 Dec 12 at 10:42 am
Gillard is a latter day Bligh, annoying the rich by redistributing wealth.

Gillard is a latter day Bligh, annoying the rich by redistributing wealth.

Keep talking, fuckwit. No wonder your comments about teaching history make no fucking sense at all.

.

8 Dec 12 at 10:46 am
I’m starting to appreciate the foreign concept of “blood money”. If you kill an on duty policeman, perhaps your assets should be liquidated and given to his wife and three children. Why should murderers retain a house while the family left behind have to depend on a whip around to try and keep their life on the rails after such a disaster?

I agree. Perhaps we could extend this principle to Gillard and Rudd’s gold-plated superannuation. Those monies could be distributed to the families of the 1000+ killed by their anti-Howard border policy.

C.L.

8 Dec 12 at 10:53 am
This is not argument but name-calling.

In a wacko spray here several months ago, Monty called for the sacking of all public officials suffering from depression.

I guess he thinks that UK nurse got we she deserved.

C.L.

8 Dec 12 at 10:57 am
I’m starting to appreciate the foreign concept of “blood money”. If you kill an on duty policeman, perhaps your assets should be liquidated and given to his wife and three children. Why should murderers retain a house while the family left behind have to depend on a whip around to try and keep their life on the rails after such a disaster?

It should also apply to people who rip off orphans and widows. Like Gillard, who the “institutionalist” monty is praising as a Governor Bligh-like “hero”.

.

8 Dec 12 at 10:58 am
The heat has turned you lot loopy again. Or maybe it’s the reality dawning on you that Gillard will last a full term and Abbott has nothing left in the tank. Derangement syndrome all round.

m0nty

8 Dec 12 at 11:02 am
Um…you called Gillard a hero in the same way William Bligh was…

Keep talking, turkey.

.

8 Dec 12 at 11:03 am
Like Gillard, who the “institutionalist” monty is praising as a Governor Bligh-like “hero”.

I never called Gillard a hero Dot. Don’t attribute words in quotes to me that I never said. You are just making that up. As usual.

m0nty

8 Dec 12 at 11:04 am
http://img1.uploadscreenshot.com/images/orig/12/34119042258-orig.jpg

sdog

8 Dec 12 at 11:06 am
Don’t attribute words in quotes to me that I never said. You are just making that up. As usual.

The blog comment says no. The autographed bedside photo says yes.

Greg P.

8 Dec 12 at 11:07 am
LOL. Excellent, Spot.

Gab

8 Dec 12 at 11:10 am
Gillard will last a full term

LOL.

Love these new low bar lefty definitions of prime ministerial ‘success.’

1. ‘She hasn’t been charged with anything by the police.’

2. ‘She’ll last a full term.’

C.L.

8 Dec 12 at 11:10 am
Gillard is a latter day Bligh, annoying the rich by redistributing wealth.

The early governors wanted to keep NSW as a large-scale open prison, with a primitive economy based on yeomen ex-convicts and run by government fiat.

You are either condemning Gillard or praising her. Which one is it?

.

8 Dec 12 at 11:10 am
Love these new low bar lefty definitions of prime ministerial ‘success.’

1. ‘She hasn’t been charged with anything by the police.’

2. ‘She’ll last a full term.’

3. Gillard is a latter day Bligh, annoying the rich by redistributing wealth.

4. The early governors wanted to keep NSW as a large-scale open prison, with a primitive economy based on yeomen ex-convicts and run by government fiat.

Love? Makes me sad I share the same country as those brain dead fuckheads.

.

8 Dec 12 at 11:12 am
Something The Lying Slapper and her squalid filthy slew of incompetent squandermonkeys (and the entire Australian left) do not comprehend.

And so worth repeating occasionally verbatim.

Kipling knew what he was on about.

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “The Wages of Sin is Death.”

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

Mk50 of Brisbane

8 Dec 12 at 11:15 am
re IT’s cricket comment: quite.

They even invented T20.

Any Test where the batting team scores past 400 is zzz…

Greg P.

8 Dec 12 at 11:17 am
So was monty praising or condemning Gillard, calling her a modern day William Bligh?

.

8 Dec 12 at 11:30 am
The ALPBC is playing up verandah arse’s $250 “power” cut and consumer advocates are cheering. Were the bastards cheering when the carbon tax was announced.?

NT Oldie

8 Dec 12 at 11:45 am
Continued from previous Open Thread.

“No. It’s just the latest focus of every self-professed ‘expert’ who knows better than anyone else.”

Perhaps. Who’s to say you’re not one of those too? But let’s leave ad hom and appeals to authority out of this for now.

“They have a verifiable 100% record of being wrong.”

Since the other choices weren’t made, this is of course impossible to prove. Furthermore, the eventual good performance of the F-111, for example, doesn’t invalidate the criticisms of its development in the slightest. And the problems identified then are on a bigger scale today.

“And here’s the rub, their actions mean there is now no choice.”

The TINA argument is part of what you previously condemned – large incentives to throw good money after bad.

“And then operate an aircraft which is inferior”

You keep espousing the supposed superiority of the JSF, but since IOTE won’t be completed until 2019, I don’t know how you can possibly say that.

In the interim, the weight is going up while the payload and stealthiness are going down. Thank Christ we opted for CTOL.

In addition, a key weakness of the JSF is that it is trying to be a jack of all trades. That means it is inherently inferior to specialist craft.

“has a higher through life cost due to the smaller production run”

You seem to think economies of scale are the only consideration when it comes to cost, and assume Australia has to buy a plane with a small run. Considering our options, that’s not a given.

“and probable near-monopoly support”

Maybe. That is a serious issue for consideration, but again, you can’t assume the worst and make your comparison against that.

“and which si not compatable with our major ally.”

Compatibility with the US is important, I agree. But we’re not an arm of the US military, our strategic needs are paramount.

Look, the drawcard of the highly concurrent production system and the sharing of so many systems across just three variants was low cost. The self-sabotaging development has meant that APUC has almost doubled already, and full rate production has been pushed back to 2019, which means we have to pay more to cover the capability gap as well as pay LRIP prices for initial deliveries.

The main reason for choosing the F-35 has disappeared, simple as that.

Jarrah

8 Dec 12 at 11:47 am
Were the bastards cheering when the carbon tax was announced.?

Why yes, the bastards cheered.

Gab

8 Dec 12 at 11:58 am
#HateWatch:

Intolerant Redneck Deep South ‘Bible Belt’ City Most Dangerous For Gays

sdog

8 Dec 12 at 12:00 pm
‘A friend of mine, who happens to be an intolerant redneck,…’

Greg P.

8 Dec 12 at 12:03 pm
Obama’s People

Yay Detroit.

sdog

8 Dec 12 at 12:04 pm
The main reason for choosing the F-35 has disappeared, simple as that.

Indeed. The fact that F-35 is more expensive than the F-22 now and we signed up to the F-35 as to back our alliance with the US means we should get the F-22 as a matter of practicability and ethical Governance on behalf of the US Government.

Like I said, the F-35 blowout is a fuck up of immense proportions – wars are fought at the highest strategic level on economic terms and the West cannot afford to piss money away like this.

.

8 Dec 12 at 12:11 pm
The F-35 seems to be quite the (expensive) piece of shit.

Greg P.

8 Dec 12 at 12:15 pm
it is trying to be a jack of all trades.

That’s been the greatest frustration watching the whole shambles develop.
Everyone wants their own warp factor nine killing machine, but no one is prepared (or allowed) to admit it can’t be done with the one airframe without ending up with something only good for the Paris Airshow.

lotocoti

8 Dec 12 at 12:22 pm
Last time it was discussed the F-22 was not available for sale to foreign nations. Has that changed? It was also pretty expensive.

blogstrop

8 Dec 12 at 12:45 pm
ABC:

Eddie Mabo’s daughter, Gail, will read Paul Keating’s historic Redfern speech at an anniversary celebration in Sydney.

They mean Don Watson’s speech. Keating the junior school dropout couldn’t write a speech if his life depended on it. He also wouldn’t recognise an Aborigine if he tripped over one at the doorfront of his Zegna dealer.

C.L.

8 Dec 12 at 12:48 pm
Sanctimonious national agony aunt, Jeff Kennett, worried about mental health of radio duo:

Mr Kennett, the chairman of the national depression initiative beyondblue, said today he hoped the Australian public would support the two radio hosts involved in the prank.

“When they did this they had no intention to cause harm, it was a harmless prank,” he said.

“Now they will be under extraordinary pressure and I just hope that they get our support and that their employer provides them with the professional support to help them get through what will be a terrible few weeks,” Mr Kennett told ABC radio.

NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell told reporters the two radio hosts must be feeling “terrible”.

“I don’t imagine in any way that those who were engaged in the typical FM radio stunt would have thought it would lead to this,” he said.

“I think there are some people today who are suffering, not just the family of the nurse but those who in some way were involved with what appears to be the trigger for this tragedy,” Mr O’Farrell said.

See, being the young children of the dead nurse is just the same, suffering-wise, as being a relo of one of the DJs.

As Hendo says, can you bear it?

C.L.

8 Dec 12 at 12:53 pm
Bunyip:

Did the Blackbirders Get the Wrong Address?

C.L.

8 Dec 12 at 1:00 pm
Prank calls of this type have always been immature and stood the risk of harming the reputation or career of the person on the receiving end, especially in this case where the point of the call was to elicit private information which the patient may not want disclosed.

I have no sympathy for the radio hosts or station management whatsoever. The hosts can make a living doing something else; they should never be heard on the air again.

FM Radio should grow up.

steve from brisbane

8 Dec 12 at 1:02 pm
PAUL Keating speechwriter Don Watson says the former prime minister’s Redfern Park address on reconciliation has “fixed nothing of a practical kind” for Aborigines.

Speaking ahead of the 20th anniversary of the speech on Monday, Watson said governments had lacked the courage to effectively tackle Aboriginal disadvantage and bureaucracies had been “incompetent and corrupt”…
At Redfern Park on December 10, 1992, Keating urged whites to acknowledge past injustices…
The speech fired debate about notions of “guilt” for the actions of past generations. However, Keating said “guilt is not a very constructive emotion” and urged a focus on “practical things” such as improving living standards…
The speech is also controversial because of a feud between Watson, who drafted it, and Keating, who delivered it without changing a word.

“It appals me to read in the media that authorship of the speech is ‘a matter of dispute’ between Paul and me,” he told The Weekend Australian.

“Of course I wrote the thing. When asked, am I meant to say I was his flower arranger?”…
“Anyway, it’s just a speech.” Watson told The Weekend Australian.

Gab

8 Dec 12 at 1:04 pm
I wonder if the 2Day FM station had legal advice that the stunt was okay.

Perhaps it’s illegal to pretend to be someone else when enquiring about a patient in hospital, in Australia anyway.

candy

8 Dec 12 at 1:04 pm
We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life

We should all be living in beehive huts?

Gab

8 Dec 12 at 1:09 pm
I would also hope that the radio station is preparing to offer a huge amount of money, perhaps both for the family and a hospital charity in the UK.

steve from brisbane

8 Dec 12 at 1:11 pm
We’ll have to see what the coroner says. It’s very possible she had existing problems. Nonetheless, that’s not really the point. Nursing the next Queen of England is no small gig – she was a highly respected professional who was caught on the hop by a couple of radio deadbeats. The embarrassment to her would have been enormous – perhaps heightened by cultural factors – and would certainly have triggered any pre-existing problem she may have had. I hope the radio station is sued heavily. I don’t listen to the popular ‘drive-time’ duos – ever. I loathe their stupid workshopped nicknames and their hoax calls – many of which cause significant anxiety to the targets (albeit temporary). They have free speech. Great. And victims have the legal freedom to hold them to account where necessary.

C.L.

8 Dec 12 at 1:20 pm
Why not abolish political parties and political funding of any kind,let politicians serve one term of four years ,then be forbidden to stand again for 20years? Abolish state governments,the senate and paid local councils,compulsory voting,andi preferential voting . distribute National government departments around the Nation intoans likeAlbury Cairns,Darwin ,the Alice,the Simpson Desert ,Giles ,and alongbthe Nullarbor coast , even Tassie , Close Scamberra down ,leaveit to Duntroon!

Borisgodunov

8 Dec 12 at 1:48 pm
Watson can feel as guilty as he likes about what his ancestors did as he likes (they sound like a nasty bunch), but considering no member of my family was on this continent before ’57, I can be certain he isn’t talking about me and mine.

Token

8 Dec 12 at 1:49 pm
Cheers for the replies guys, will look into it.

@ JC, never was I intending to quit bitching and moaning

Adam Diver

8 Dec 12 at 2:00 pm
“I have reached a point, where knowing and bitching about is not enough anymore, want to do my part…”

Wish it was this easy
Network- I’m Mad as Hell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dib2-HBsF08

blind freddy

8 Dec 12 at 2:01 pm
Token @9:35

Jump, your suggestion would allow Maddog Milne, Alien-phone Brown and many others, but would bar great people like Mattias Corman.

Yes, agreed, his is on the podium in my books too.
But i’d drop him like an old school bag to never have heard of Slapper , Shagger and Mad Doug Cameron.

I’m sure there are more non-Australian born MPs, good and bad, but those 3 really give me the sturks.

jumpnmcar

8 Dec 12 at 2:13 pm
“I hope the radio station is sued heavily”

and

“I have no sympathy for the radio hosts or station management whatsoever. The hosts can make a living doing something else; they should never be heard on the air again.”

Committing suicide should never be a trump card for anything. Its obviously extremely sad but the truth is, she fucked up initially and her reaction was then to fuck up her families life as well. Quite possibly there is a mental condition behind it, but this site of all sites should not lose its moral compass when it comes to individual responsibility.

Please no more mis-appropriating blame.

Adam Diver

8 Dec 12 at 2:17 pm
I’m really not impressed by the ‘free speech’ justification for lying to an innocent and diligent professional woman in her workplace, seeking to attain private information, from a private hospital and then ridiculing that person globally.

C.L.

8 Dec 12 at 2:25 pm
Perhaps the hospital is at fault to some degree.

Why should a nurse be answering the general telephone, which is done by a trained administrative officer who knows the correct procedures.

candy

8 Dec 12 at 2:30 pm
That’s my feeling as well, Adam.

sdog

8 Dec 12 at 2:35 pm
OIC:

The prank call was pre-recorded and vetted by lawyers before being broadcast to listeners in Sydney.

Well, there’s another person who should need another line of work after this incident.

steve from brisbane

8 Dec 12 at 2:37 pm
candy: I think I read that the call came into the hospital at a time the normal staff who would handle it was off work.

steve from brisbane

8 Dec 12 at 2:38 pm
Let’s explore the free speech angle further.

Would it be OK to prank a woman in a maternity ward by ringing up and saying her premmy baby just died in the humidicrib?

If not, why not?

C.L.

8 Dec 12 at 2:43 pm
Steve

i’m a little surprised a major hopsital does not have administrative staff answering the phone after hours, and that that job is given to a registered nurse.

candy

8 Dec 12 at 2:48 pm
I wouldn’t be surprised if a judge soon applies the eggshell head rule in an incident such as this soon.

dover_beach

8 Dec 12 at 2:48 pm
Or here’s another solution candy: if you run a radio show, don’t make prank calls to strangers seeking private patient information.

steve from brisbane

8 Dec 12 at 2:50 pm
Same for chaser ?

jumpnmcar

8 Dec 12 at 2:54 pm
What are you so touchy about Steve – i think it’s abominable what they did and probably illegal.

but i’m very surprised a general call to the hopsital was answered by an on duty nurse,

perhaps it’s a cost cutting measure.

candy

8 Dec 12 at 2:54 pm
I do think the lawyers were stupid to let the call go to air, but only because of the minefield of medical privacy laws. That went beyond just a run-of-the-mill embarrassing prank call. If they were “causing to be published” (or whatever the on-air equivalent is) any illicitly-acquired medical details from someone in the States, that’s probably a million dollar fine minimum right there. I don’t know anything about England’s medical privacy legislation though.

The hospital should be in a hell of a lot of trouble as well too, though. No patient, royal or not, should have their privacy breached so easily. That’s ridiculous.

sdog

8 Dec 12 at 2:55 pm
Or candid camera too for that matter.

jumpnmcar

8 Dec 12 at 2:55 pm
So they impersonated relatives of the person in hospital.
They recorded and broadcast the conversation without permission from the nurse.
They elicited private medical information fraudulently.
They mocked the nurse publicly and in a cruel manner.
They jeopardized the nurse’s job. And despite the nurse receiving help from the hospital staff after it was known to be a prank, the nurse took her own life.

But yeah, the two idiot radio jocks thought it all good fun.

Gab

8 Dec 12 at 2:56 pm
Cameron announces UK churches can marry gays but only if they choose to. Wonder what the European Court of Human Rights wil have to say about that.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9729773/Gay-marriage-given-the-green-light-for-weddings-in-churches.html#dsq-comments

Viva

8 Dec 12 at 3:07 pm
Put simply, I have no sympathy for anyone that kills themselves nor any contempt or condemnation.
As for the radio 2, if they broke the law, they pay the price.

jumpnmcar

8 Dec 12 at 3:08 pm
You need to compare apples with apples.

Joking about kids with cancer is not the same as calling up a ward and asking about a particular kid with cancer.

Chaser probably has done some similar things, crashing APEC for instance where they did break the law. Your immediate reaction might be that it’s different because no one died, but what if a guard lost their job and topped themselves? It was only a remote chance but was here too that someone affected would do something like this.

Harold

8 Dec 12 at 3:11 pm
“They mocked the nurse publicly and in a cruel manner.
They jeopardized the nurse’s job. And despite the nurse receiving help from the hospital staff after it was known to be a prank, the nurse took her own life.

But yeah, the two idiot radio jocks thought it all good fun.”

Too right Gab.

The nurse’s name suggests she is from East Asia somewhere. In the Asian cultures I know attaining a nurse’s role is a high honour. To be involved in something bad is not at all good.

You can bet your life some middle ranking departmental bureaucrat, whose job it is to find others guilty and thus climb the ladder, has come storming out of nowhere at her screaming “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?!?!” Plicks like that are well aware of their supreme power when dealing with 46 year olds fearful of losing their job.

The whole bloody thing is loaded against her and she’d have been feeling the shame of having made a mistake, for sure. Some here speculate she might have been ill in some way – so what, she’s been hung out to dry regardless.

I see the hospital has already lobbed in “Nah, not our fault. See? We helped her. See? We gave her a Cabcharge voucher ‘n all.” The lawyers who crafted that have won a fee, the bureaucrats are off the hook and the molly coddled idle royals saunter off whistling too, just like the radio jockette and jock. Nearly everyone wins.

Now I look closer and find the radio superstars were in Australia, on 2DAYFM, and Jeff Kennett and Comrade Labor Lite NSW Premier are weighing in with “It’s not your fault” to the playful kiddies who are probably well past 21 or 27 years old. They want us to feeeeel the pain of the kiddies’ families.

“Pigs” I say – tell your brats to get a real job, unless they are just as vacuous as the dills who tune into them – then it would be Centrelink, and to send their severance cheques to the family in England with a dead mother.

Its a consequences thing.

Mick Gold Coast QLD

8 Dec 12 at 3:47 pm
Hey, any of you going to listen to 2ue from 14 Jan, when that Murray chap from Sky is apparently going up against Neil Mitvhell but more importantly Alan Jones and Ray Hadley from 2gb?
Pardon my mirth but I’m predicting that an obituary will soon be in order,for the death of yet another Fauxfacts venture!!

Jazza

8 Dec 12 at 3:55 pm
Aggghhh! That’s Neil Mitchell

Jazza

8 Dec 12 at 3:56 pm
Also, did you catch the Ben Fordham “chat” with Craig Thomson’s lawyer.? A scream,as he tried to browbeat Ben–I would never try that, as Ben can be pretty formidable,reminds me of the terriers I’ve met does Bennie, but in this case, he KNEW that Michael Smith broadcast the talk with the MP for Dobell where he admitted he authorised the payment of the credit card bills for prostitutes…His lawyer is vehemently denying this–ohh er, I think someone is in for a very rude awakening soon enough,if that’s his defence strategy!

Jazza

8 Dec 12 at 4:00 pm
Anne Summers’ incredibly important, incredibly credible new online magazine exposes the case of an Aboriginal girl cruelly stolen from her parents because of the colour of her skin.

Tom

8 Dec 12 at 4:30 pm
Looks like we are throwing the kitchen sink in here, to clarify

- Nurse’s fault still, she is the only one who could control the final outcome

- Hospital procedures have massive problems, why would an RN answer a call about the princess!!! Unbelievable, surely there is a public relations arm for this stuff.

- Radio Prank was bad taste, but humour is never universal. Banning one thing allows other the opportunity to ban things you may like. As for the mocking after I would have to take your word.

- Not sure of the legal issues involved but surely their is some sort of liability to falsely access private medical records (or at least there should be)

Adam Diver

8 Dec 12 at 4:38 pm
From Tom’s link:

She has an Associate degree in Aboriginal health, a Bachelors degree in Indigenous health and a Masters Degree in Indigenous Health.

That’s quite a CV. It’s amazing that you can specialise in ‘Ingigenous Health’ from an Associate Degree level, without any other medical or health sciences grounding at all. It must be a very special field of endeavour.

John Mc

8 Dec 12 at 4:39 pm
I don’t get because maybe it’s just me. But why would she kill herself over the prank? I would have laughed myself silly.

She wasn’t going to get fired or anything like that.

Furthermore, it’s a prank call, that’s all. It’s no one would think someone would snuff themselves out over a joke call. FFS.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 4:41 pm
It’s no one would think someone would snuff themselves out over a joke call. FFS.

Spot on, next we’ll be squealing leftylike about lefty Orson Welles radio broadcasts.

jumpnmcar

8 Dec 12 at 5:04 pm
In the last 20 minutes, the temperature in Melbiurne has dropped 8 degrees…arrrggghhhh! I’m scared! It’s climate change!!

Gab

8 Dec 12 at 5:04 pm
You out west, Gab? It has just hit Williamstown.

areff

8 Dec 12 at 5:08 pm
Gab
I’v been there twice in my life, once in June and once in January.
Both times it was 13 degrees.
The last time they were disassembling that Ferris wheel thing that buckled due to the heat the year before.
You can have that joint to yourself.

jumpnmcar

8 Dec 12 at 5:16 pm
- Hospital procedures have massive problems

THIS.

The radio morons would have got nowhere had there been any kind of even semi-robust patient privacy rules put in place from hospital management and respected by hospital staff.

It shouldn’t have been that easy to breach the patient privacy of even a “commoner”, let alone a VIP patient. And if it hadn’t been, NONE of this would have happened.

But the suicide thing, sad as it is, means nothing to me as far as what should happen to the hospital and to the radio morons. Whatever they end up getting hit with, they should have got hit with whether the nurse offed herself or not. Killing herself was 100% her decision, 100% her doing, and 100% on her. Making others’ punishments harsher because of what she chose to do gives suicides altogether too much power over the living. And they don’t deserve it.

sdog

8 Dec 12 at 5:22 pm
“… why would an RN answer a call about the princess!!!”

The answer, grasshopper, is in doing minimal research of the news reports. Enter the nurse’s name and you will find 108,000 potential sources of information.

“The BBC reported that Mrs Saldanha answered the phone because it was 5.30am and there was no receptionist on duty. She then put the pair through to the duty nurse.”

I agree with your other bit, Adam Diver.

“Unbelievable, surely there is a public relations arm for this stuff.”

The royal mob turn up and all the hospital staff are gathered together to be told how very, very important the patient is and that they are nonetheless expected to get about doing their normal jobs.

The royal layabouts ought to have brought their own privacy protectors, rapid escape modules and bull mastiffs on short leads, paid for after hours phone operators and booked a couple of extra rooms for the whole show rather than expect that additional pressure can be readily absorbed by the ordinary staff doing their normal jobs.

JC says:

But why would she kill herself over the prank? I would have laughed myself silly.

She wasn’t going to get fired or anything like that.

Furthermore, it’s a prank call, that’s all. It’s no one would think someone would snuff themselves out over a joke call. FFS.

Yeah, sure. Can you not contemplate the effect of a brace of officious little public servants running about instructing “The princess is here, the princess is here – now don’t you muck it up, do ya hear??”?

They put the fear of God into the low end staff and then do nothing to help them. I’ve expressed my further view up the page a bit.

Mick Gold Coast QLD

8 Dec 12 at 5:23 pm
Killing herself was 100% her decision, 100% her doing, and 100% on her. Making others’ punishments harsher because of what she chose to do gives suicides altogether too much power over the living. And they don’t deserve it.

Agree 100%

jupes

8 Dec 12 at 5:26 pm
Looks like 2DAY FM have stopped advertising over the weekend.

PR will be busy on the phone I’d say.

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 5:27 pm
In the last 20 minutes, the temperature in Melbiurne has dropped 8 degrees…arrrggghhhh! I’m scared! It’s climate change!!

No. It’s the ‘carbon’ tax.

jupes

8 Dec 12 at 5:30 pm
The “crime” was committed 2 days ago. In one sense the criticism now shouldn’t change because of what happened. And we can observe that commentators haven’t before now suggested that someone could have died over the prank, though now there seems to be a lot of experts who think otherwise, now.

In another sense, we do tend to judge similar actions differently if consequences are different. Like if you drive drunk and speed and get caught you’ll lose your license. Do the same thing but someone dies and you face culpable driving and jail.

Harold

8 Dec 12 at 5:45 pm
Between when I picked up Mrs D from lunch with her girlfriends and got her home (say 30 minutes) the temperature dropped from 38 to 20 degrees (according to the car thermometer).

Sinclair Davidson

8 Dec 12 at 5:48 pm
…gives suicides altogether too much power over the living. And they don’t deserve it.

So we agree to reject blackmail in all its forms? Hard to do that in a post mortum context. The impact is that of a a done deed. Just like the hoax.
I submit that our governments are giving in to blackmail from the media and human rights groups on a daily basis. On all sorts of matters.
If “Toughen Up” is the message, it has a hell of a lot of applications in this society.

blogstrop

8 Dec 12 at 6:00 pm
Like if you drive drunk and speed and get caught you’ll lose your license. Do the same thing but someone dies and you face culpable driving and jail.

Like if you drive drunk and speed and get caught you’ll lose your license. Do the same thing but [two days later] someone ~~dies~~ [decides to kill himself/herself] and you ~~face culpable driving and jail~~ do not bear legal responsibility for that.

If you hit and kill someone with your car while speeding and driving drunk, that is directly down to you. They didn’t decide they wanted to be dead; you killed them.

The only reason this 47 year old nurse is dead is because she decided she wanted to be dead. 100% her decision, 100% her doing, 100% on her. That is the last thing she’ll ever own but boy oh boy does she own it.

sdog

8 Dec 12 at 6:05 pm
Agree 100% sdog. The living are left to deal with the consequences.

Woolfe

8 Dec 12 at 6:21 pm
Between when I picked up Mrs D from lunch with her girlfriends and got her home (say 30 minutes) the temperature dropped from 38 to 20 degrees (according to the car thermometer).

The biggest drop I experienced was around 80 degs F to 35 F. That’s like 28 C to (just a little above freezing to) 2 C.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 6:39 pm
We have no information on which to determine why this woman apparently took her own life, but in any event, it is the hospital which is at fault.

As Candy pointed out, it is very unusual for hospital phones to be answered by nurses untrained in the protocols (I have a relative who does this job in a large public hospital). The switchboard should have been staffed 24 hours a day by professionals, as is the case here.

Further, if due to an emergency, nursing staff must answer phones, you put people with assertive and suspicious natures on the job – not someone like this lady, who was evidently both gullible and too shy to check callers’ bona fides.

The hospital screwed up big time, but now we are already hearing that this is yet another justification for tighter media regulation. The radio idiots would never have got anywhere trying this on at any public, or probably private, hospital in Australia – let alone where a high profile patient was involved.

johanna

8 Dec 12 at 6:41 pm
Can you not contemplate the effect of a brace of officious little public servants running about instructing “The princess is here, the princess is here – now don’t you muck it up, do ya hear??”?

They put the fear of God into the low end staff and then do nothing to help them. I’ve expressed my further view up the page a bit.

Yea true, but fuck’em.

Look, she alone made the decision to snuff herself out over what was actually an amusing prank. Agree with the other people here who have said the same thing about she alone deciding.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 6:42 pm
While the suicide of this nurse is a tragedy for her family, it is still an excessive response to a prank. OK, she may have been upset and humiliated but to take her own life is an unwarranted over-reaction. The coronial inquiry may reveal other contributory factors. However Jeff Kennett and Barry O’Farrell trying to equate the pressures on the broadcasters and their families with those on the poor family of the nurse is simply ludicrous.

Cold-Hands

8 Dec 12 at 6:45 pm
However Jeff Kennett and Barry O’Farrell trying to equate the pressures on the broadcasters and their families with those on the poor family of the nurse is simply ludicrous.

Yea true.

It’s one of those. oh shit moments.

I done or got involved in lots of pranks in my time. Looking back, life wouldn’t be the same without them.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 6:48 pm
oops I’ve

JC

8 Dec 12 at 6:51 pm
nilk @ 8 Dec 12 at 7:20 am

Thanks for the link to Bill Wittle – Outstanding!

Grigory Potemkin

8 Dec 12 at 7:04 pm
Johanna, I doubt that small private hospitals anywhere in the world have administrative staff manning switchboards at 2.30 AM. You don’t plan for wankers trying to hoax you as a matter of course in the health system, no matter how high profile your patients are. Blaming the hospital for not hiring an administrator overnight seems misguided. Blaming the hospital if it pressured the nurse over his mistake is another matter and it remains to be seen if this was indeed the case.

Cold-Hands

8 Dec 12 at 7:05 pm
Ya just gotta love this.

U.S. firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson reported a 48 percent increase in sales in its announcement of the company’s second-quarter financial results for fiscal year 2013.

The company’s press release read:

“Net sales from continuing operations for the second quarter were a record $136.6 million, up 48.0% from the second quarter last year. The increase was led by continued strong sales across all of the company’s firearm product lines.”

….gun sales have surged since the reelection of Barack Obama, reaching an all-time single day record on Black Friday this year with 154,873 background checks completed by the FBI.

Note: I’ve owned this stock in the past.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 7:07 pm
JC – so is an investment in S&W or Remington looking like a good bet?

Carpe Jugulum

8 Dec 12 at 7:10 pm
the temperature dropped from 38 to 20 degrees

Really? It’s still 29C on the Mornington Peninsula.

Carpe Jugulum

8 Dec 12 at 7:15 pm
Really? It’s still 29C on the Mornington Peninsula.

I literally watched the wind change direction and people clear off the beach. It was quick.

Sinclair Davidson

8 Dec 12 at 7:17 pm
Carpe

I think it’s just a trade to be honest. I didn’t participate this time but I bought S&W when he was elected the first time because it was at the height of the recession, there were lots of survicalist bullshit going around and I thought people would stock up on guns since his election meant the possibility of gun control. I was a good bet.

I think this time it’s the same without the recession and the survivalist bullshit. Gun sales are going up because the punters think the Kenyan will try on some sort of gun control. OF course there are people who are actually worried about what the birdbrain is going to try and do with the economy.

CL’s comment that pack of hungry hounds scurrying around for a piece of meat in the vid is pretty reflective of the marginal Kenyan voter so the middle class on up is concerned about safety issues. Bottom line.. the Kenyan doesn’t like white people and a lot of white people know it. So you buy a Wessy.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 7:20 pm
Cold-Hands, if you have a prominent member of the Royal Family as a patient, you bet you would have someone professionally trained screening the calls, whatever the cost or the circumstances.

You will notice that leaks from hospitals, private or public, involving high-profile patients, are very rare indeed. That is not just good luck at work.

On a lighter note, Dave Barry has released his 2012 Christmas Gift Guide. Enjoy. It is not too late to obtain gems like the Toilet Tattoo or the Inflatable Unicorn Horn for cats!

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/26/3114376/dave-barrys-gift-guide.html

johanna

8 Dec 12 at 7:22 pm
That Debra Hocking chick is taking the piss calling herself a first nationer.

Much like Pink’s ridiculous song “Dear Mr President”

Alright, you work hard do you love…okay.

.

8 Dec 12 at 7:23 pm
I like Rand Paul. I like his gumption and wanting to take political risks in lieu of a big potential pay off.

SEN. RAND PAUL: I have yet another thought on how we can fix this. Why don’t we let the Democrats pass whatever they want? If they are the party of higher taxes, all the Republicans vote present and let the Democrats raise taxes as high as they want to raise them, let Democrats in the Senate raise taxes, let the president sign it and then make them own the tax increase. And when the economy stalls, when the economy sputters, when people lose their jobs, they know which party to blame, the party of high taxes. Let’s don’t be the party of just almost as high taxes.

LARRY KUDLOW, CNBC: Some people have called that the doomsday scenario. Others have said, ‘Look, it’s a strategic retreat on the Republicans’ behalf.’ WWould you vote present for that in the Senate if that came up?

RAND PAUL: Yes, I don’t think we have to in the Senate. In the House, they have to because the Democrats don’t have the majority. In the Senate, I’m happy not to filibuster it, and I will announce tonight on your show that I will work with Harry Reid to let him pass his big old tax hike with a simple majority if that’s what Harry Reid wants, because then they will become the party of high taxes and they can own it.

Give it to the fucking asshats good and fucking hard.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 7:25 pm
Having no sympathy for someone who commits suicide due to say depression or extreme stress is like having no sympathy for someone who dies of pneumonia because their immune system wasn’t up to the job. Weaklings!

But like others I think the primary concern here is how this shows how poorly patient privacy has been taken by this hospital. It simply shouldn’t be that easy to get information about any patient anonymously over the phone without the patient’s consent. Cutting admin staff like receptionists to screen calls is popular with management because its any easy way to cut costs and the price of those cuts is not easily measured, or in this case is paid by someone else (the loss of privacy of the patient). The Royal family will probably play nice and not sue for PR reasons, but the hospital certainly deserves to pay a financial penalty for their slackness to dissuade them from allowing this in the future.

Chris

8 Dec 12 at 7:35 pm
The Doha COP 18 CAGW talks seem to be taking a toll on the members.

Around 1am on Saturday, at a meeting on a part of the text dealing with compensation to poor countries for the damages caused by climate change, there was a row and a negotiator from the Alliance of Small Island States left, apparently in tears. Tempers were fraying in other meetings as tired delegates wrangled over details.

Happens like that in the dole office as well.

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 7:53 pm
Chris someone earlier mentioned that these sorts of breaches of confidentiality are very uncommon. Its true, it rarely happens.

My Aunt was the receptionist at the Doctors who saw Slim Dusty, she mentioned he was a patient, never his illness till after he died.

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 7:56 pm
A December 7th reminiscence from Walt at Belmont Club, and a note: unless you’ve watched that old series “Victory At Sea”,complete with marvellous soundtrack music by Richard Rodgers, you may not appreciate that battleships sunk at Pearl Harbour were rebuilt by the “CBs”, the US Forces engineering Mr Fixits.

“Guts and valor are words not usually associated with inanimate objects, but ships are not inanimate objects. Ships are live, living things. Ships, as well as men, can be tough and resilient. Such were the ships of Battleship Row.

0755 SUNDAY, 7 DECEMBER 1941

A quiet, peacetime Sunday morning. Seven battleships swung gently at their moorings; Maryland, Oklahoma, Tennessee, West Virginia, Arizona, Nevada and California. Pacific Fleet flagship Pennsylvania was in drydock. When the attack came, half their crews were ashore, and most of the officers. None had steam up, for it was Sunday, and all was at peace. Except Nevada. Nevada had steam. Nevada could move. At the height of the attack, with burning and exploding ships all around her, already severely hurt by a torpedo to her port side, Nevada, under Lt. Commander Francis J. Thomas, senior officer aboard, broke out her big battle ensign and stood down the channel, heading for the open sea. Sailors on the burning ships cheered and threw their caps in the air, but Nevada’s gallant sortie was short lived. Five Japanese dive bombers laid her low, beaching her.

The battleships were ultimately raised and rebuilt, those that were salvageable. They rejoined the fleet, but the war had passed them by. It was a carrier war now, and the World War 1 era battleships were too slow, could not keep up with the fast carriers. They were relegated to fire support, and accompanied the Marines in their march across the Pacific, bombarding the beaches, their 14 and 16 inch guns trained on palm trees instead of dreadnoughts, declared unfit to do the job for which they were built. Until Surigao.

SURIGAO STRAIT, 0351 TO 0409 hours, 25 OCTOBER 1944

Vice Admiral Nishimura, with a force of battleships, cruisers and destroyers, was heading for the Leyte beaches and the soft-skinned, vulnerable transports, still loaded with troops. Standing across his path was Admiral Oldendorf, and six old fire support battleships, all but Mississippi on Battleship Row that Sunday morning in December. The other five were California, Tennessee, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Oldendorf put his weary old battleships in line ahead, a Battle Line, as battleships had fought since the 17th century, and waited for Nishimura. At 0351 the big guns lit the sky. Oldendorf brought his big ships across the Japanese front, crossing the T, the dream of every admiral down the centuries, doing to the Japanese what Togo had done to the Russians at Tsushima nearly forty years earlier. The Japanese fought back, but when Nishimura turned away his battleships were gone, along with most of his heavy cruisers.

Surigao was the last battleship to battleship action of WWII, and very likely the last big gun surface action battleship fight the world is likely to see, and it was fought by ships that had been sunk at Pearl Harbor and returned to life. Ships, like men, can be judged by their deeds, and some, like the ships of Battleship Row, by their sheer stubbornness, their refusal easily to die. Ships, like men, are alive, and though it took the ships of Battleship Row almost three years, they gained their revenge in the only way they knew how. With their guns.”

blogstrop

8 Dec 12 at 8:28 pm
She has an Associate degree in Aboriginal health, a Bachelors degree in Indigenous health and a Masters Degree in Indigenous Health.

I bet you a million dollars she’s never touched a bed pan in her entire career.

C.L.

8 Dec 12 at 8:37 pm
If leftwingers keep telling us that everyone is the same and that it’s wacist to think otherwise why are there undegrad and masters degrees in Original Owners health?

JC

8 Dec 12 at 8:45 pm
Caricature perfection: Julia Gillard – malicious clown.

C.L.

8 Dec 12 at 8:47 pm
I worked in a medical laboratory once upon a time. GP’s would ring directly sometimes for patient results before the formal written reports were distributed. Once “Dr. Smith” called and asked for the Hep C result for “Roderick Smith” and I gave out the positive test result, to be met with expletives, whereupon I realized that the Doc was calling for his own test result. I apologized immediately and told him I had done the wrong thing giving out this information. After terminating the call I told my boss what I had done, and we waited to see the repurcussions. Next day the Doc came in person to see us and made it clear that he should not have called us and he did not want me to feel bad about divulging the result.

hzhousewife

8 Dec 12 at 8:49 pm
Probably because they have different health issues.

sdfc

8 Dec 12 at 8:49 pm
Now see here you Carbon Dioxide wussies, that were real pollution back then in 1952, the Great Smog O’ London:
http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=83396

blogstrop

8 Dec 12 at 8:50 pm
Like what unique health issues do the original owners have that requires special degrees Sdfc?

JC

8 Dec 12 at 8:51 pm
High rate of alcoholism, diabetes, lower life expectancy, stuff like that.

sdfc

8 Dec 12 at 8:56 pm
So there’s no expertise in dealing with excessive boozing and diebities in the non-original owners population SDFC?

Like I said, you require a degree for that?

It’s a wank. Just fucking admit it for once.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 8:59 pm
Those aren’t really unique sdfc, have a stroll around Wooloomooloo, particularly under the railway bridge, and not all of the people with those problems are Aborigines.

In fact virtually none.

Check the church in Ashfield that bills itself as Loaves and Fishes. Not a great number of Aborigines there either.

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 9:03 pm
Have you put one too many question marks in that comment?

sdfc

8 Dec 12 at 9:04 pm
M0nty! look over there!

A Unicorn!

Forester

8 Dec 12 at 9:04 pm
CL that cartoon looks like its based on Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca.

No I say, No.

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 9:06 pm
Have you put one too many question marks in that comment?

No

I’m guessing that as an unreformed alcoholic you think your “illness” is unique.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 9:11 pm
Dave

That’s true but they are more likely than the wider community to subject to those conditions.

sdfc

8 Dec 12 at 9:11 pm
SDFC

The question is what would you need bachelor, masters and presumably PhDs in that area?

You idiot.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 9:14 pm
Look, she alone made the decision to snuff herself out over what was actually an amusing prank.

You really are the greatest [naughty word. Sinc] that ever lived, JC. An absolute bastard shitpiece. When you finally snuff it yourself, the world will be a far better place. Arsehole supreme!

hammygar

8 Dec 12 at 9:14 pm
So now I’m in moderation because I used a swearword. This blog really has the strangest set of values. Afraid of the “c” word but ready to vilify some poor dead nurse for daring to take a “lighthearted” prank seriously. You really are appalling creatures here.

hammygar

8 Dec 12 at 9:18 pm
Then don’t bother coming back. Honestly, you’re not missed and you don’t add any value.

John Mc

8 Dec 12 at 9:20 pm
You say you see how expertise is needed in that area but that aboriginals should be denied it. I get it you twat.

sdfc

8 Dec 12 at 9:20 pm
My God, I’m glad I’m not a right-winger. You’ve really demonstrated what’s wrong with your view of the world. Heaven help ASusytralia if your sort ever gets back into politcal power.

hammygar

8 Dec 12 at 9:20 pm
I add a great deal more value to the world than you and your ilk ever have John Mc.

hammygar

8 Dec 12 at 9:22 pm
It’s going to happen in under a year so start praying.

John Mc

8 Dec 12 at 9:22 pm
Is that a picture of you hammygar? Pretty uncommon of people to do that. Your name as well.

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 9:22 pm
So you idiots thaink that JC actually adds value to this blog! What an appalling unredeemable creature he is.

hammygar

8 Dec 12 at 9:23 pm
Hammy – My god i’m glad i don’t have yoour world view, does it get tiring being the perpetual victim, or does it siut your “every one is picking on me” mentality.

Seriously, you are a fvked up individual. Seek professional help.

Carpe Jugulum

8 Dec 12 at 9:25 pm
It’s incredible that JC and others in this blog think that driving a nurse to suicide is “an amusing prank”. What twisted creatures you all are.

hammygar

8 Dec 12 at 9:26 pm
sdfc that isn’t exactly right. Pop wise far more non aborigines have these problems. The idea of a sliver – Aborigines – having dedicated teaching modules and degrees is crazy.

There just aren’t that many.

Even if 50% of the Aboriginal population is stuffed uo it couldn’t be justified.

It’s a PC degree.

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 9:26 pm
I’m at least human Carpe. Something you obviously are not.

hammygar

8 Dec 12 at 9:27 pm
Dave

Not every graduate will specialise in aboriginal health. I don’t see any problem with specialising in a population with such poor health outcomes. Just what is the issue?

sdfc

8 Dec 12 at 9:31 pm
Kero

It was a prank call. That’s all. There would not have been a thought in the entire world the knock on effect would have been suicide.

And while on the subject of suicide, hows yours going as we’re still waiting.

Get off the soap box, kero, you appalling headcase.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 9:32 pm
I’m at least human Carpe. Something you obviously are not.

For now at least… until you light the match.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 9:33 pm
No Hammy, you are a cretin who trolls for comment, you lack original thought and can only respond to the comment of others.

You lack the insight to have any form of original thought nor can you initiate any sort of conversation. You try to dominate a thread with less than credible btain farts yet you present as nothing more than a sad caricature of a ‘stroll in buffoon’.

I pity your shallow empty life.

Carpe Jugulum

8 Dec 12 at 9:35 pm
OK hammygar it is your real name. Kudos for that.

I believe in social justice, as it’s the only way for the undeserving rich to share its ill-gotten wealth with the poor, whose state of being they created.

This however I take issue with.

‘Undeserved’? ‘poor, whose state they created’

Mate, you really need to think about that. The pizza man in your suburb becomes rich with a good product. He isn’t undeserving. He didn’t create poverty. He accepted money from customers for a pizza.

He didn’t create zoning laws that prevent people from buying affordable housing. He didn’t demand money from the government to complete his green dream hot rocks electricity facility, making everyone in the country poorer. He didn’t tax the guts out of cigarettes and beer which makes the poor poorer.

He sold a product to customers. They liked it. He became rich.

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 9:35 pm
So you idiots thaink that JC actually adds value to this blog!

There isn’t a person here who has made such an appalling comment, Kero boy. Not a one. I’d be horrified if there were.

What an appalling unredeemable creature he is.

Thank you Kero. I don’t actually need to try very hard.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 9:35 pm
I believe in social justice, as it’s the only way for the undeserving rich to share its ill-gotten wealth with the poor, whose state of being they created.

This however I take issue with.

That shouldn’t be the only thing to take issue with.

Tell him Kero. Tell him what you also said or I will.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 9:37 pm
Just to fill you in, DaveF: the hamster lives in the Soviet Union, which is being kept alive in an small underwater cell beneath the Indian Ocean. All the key heroes are being preserved there cryogenically until the world comes to its senses and realises that mass extermination of the proletariat is the only system that can keep dumb brutal true blue fascists like the hamster in the opulence to which they’re accustomed.

Tom

8 Dec 12 at 9:37 pm
There would not have been a thought in the entire world the knock on effect would have been suicide.

This poor nurse was humiliated across the entire world for having been so “foolish” to be sucked in like that. The pressure would have been unbearable. I doubt that she even had any sort of depression prior to that. The result was eminently forecastable. It’s only not so for supreme self-centred egotists like those radio announcers. The complete lack of humanity on their part, and that of most of the commenters on this blog is really shocking.

hammygar

8 Dec 12 at 9:40 pm
sdfc I just think it’s a terribly narrow group of people to specialise in which happen to be a politicised group.

And urban/big town Aborigines don’t have a big divergence in health outcomes. Its the remote ones.

I include Walgett and Brewarrina (Im sure there are other examples interstate buy I know NSW better) in remote. But hell, if its a special degree isn’t it premised on “crap town, crap hospital, nothing to do = drinking and acting up”. That’s a degree now?

No, I can’t see it.

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 9:41 pm
I don’t see any problem with specialising in a population with such poor health outcomes. Just what is the issue?

You’d probably think there are some universal health concepts that apply to all health practice, and if this program was credible it would be a post-graduate specialisation for people who were health professionals. It just seems odd there might be means to specialise in ‘Indigenous Health’ from the Associate Degree level. You’d think at this level the concepts and practice might be somewhat generic, and you probably wouldn’t concentrate your base level training on a population of people less than 500K, not all of whom have health issues.

But I suppose there is a large amount of money available in the ‘Indigenous’ industry, so I suppose it might make sense after all.

John Mc

8 Dec 12 at 9:42 pm
This poor nurse was humiliated across the entire world for having been so “foolish” to be sucked in like that.

Umm, she answereed a phone and passed on a call.

No amount of hyperbowl will change that fact.

Carpe Jugulum

8 Dec 12 at 9:46 pm
This poor nurse was humiliated across the entire world for having been so “foolish” to be sucked in like that.

Bullshit. I, for instance, hadn’t heard about it until someone here posted a comment about it. I hadn’t heard about the prank nor the suicide. Secondly even if the news of the prank had hit the press in a big way, it wouldn’t have meant her name would be plastered everywhere. We would be hearing about the “hospital” allowing the call to go through.

Lastly , big fucking deal. It’s not a reason to feel stupid or snuff yourself out.

Kero, you wouldn’t believe the number of pranks I’ve been a victim to… and also the number of pranks I’ve also carried out.

The pressure would have been unbearable.

Oh bullshit. It should have been a good laugh for her.

I doubt that she even had any sort of depression prior to that.

Okay.

The result was eminently forecastable.

You predicted this, yea? Show me.

It’s only not so for supreme self-centred egotists like those radio announcers.

It is not. They were just hard at work trying to get a few laughs. That’s all.

The complete lack of humanity on their part, and that of most of the commenters on this blog is really shocking.

I agree. In the immortal words of Jackie Chiles, I’m shocked and chagrined. It’s flouting society’s conventions.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 9:50 pm
Umm, she answereed a phone and passed on a call.

No amount of hyperbowl will change that fact.

Eggsactly. Turn it off, Kero. No one would have thought less of her around the world. In fact she would have been seen as a “victim of a stupid, but funny prank.

Loosen up dagwood.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 9:52 pm
Tom he has the ‘nads to use his own name in his pic. I respect that.

It’s a terrible idea, but I respect that.

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 9:55 pm
You really are the greatest c**t that ever lived, JC. An absolute bastard s**tpiece. When you finally snuff it yourself, the world will be a far better place. A**ehole supreme!

This comment with letters instead of asterisks has been censored at 9.14pm. What sensibilities you have here. You have no qualms about driving a worthwhile nurse to oblivion, yet you’re scared of a few commonplace swear words. Your value system is weird.

hammygar

8 Dec 12 at 9:56 pm
You have no qualms about driving a worthwhile nurse to oblivion,

Fvk off you gazoo, you shriek like a little schoolgirl because a nurse who amswered a phone and passed on a call chose to end her life.

I somehow doubt that your assertions of her ‘humiliation’ was the cause of her action. Grow the fvk up.

Carpe Jugulum

8 Dec 12 at 10:02 pm
You’re a revolting human being, Hammy. The fact you keep coming back here when you’re clearly out of place raises the obvious question: why do you bother? The only sensible answer is you’re a loser with nowhere else to go.

John Mc

8 Dec 12 at 10:03 pm
I reckon that comment hangs you hammy.

It was pretty intemperate and fairly content free. And you advocate suicide for JC whilst condemning the discussion of the suicide of someone else.

I don’t think you thought through that comment.

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 10:04 pm
You really are the greatest c**t that ever lived, JC.

Actually, you are Kero.

An absolute bastard s**tpiece.

I’m not the person who raphosdizes about bashing peoples skulls in with a hammer in the back of the head because they disagree with your socialism and your putrid sense of social justice, fuck face.

Of all the leftwingers that have ever frequented this blog, Kero I would put you at the top of the list in having all the markers of a potential mass killer who would go to sleep soundly t night after killing countless people. I’m not kidding, fuck face.

When you finally snuff it yourself, the world will be a far better place.

Stop projecting. The world will be a better place when you finally decide to light that match for social justice.

A**ehole supreme!

Yea you are.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 10:04 pm
Hey where are the follow ups on my reasonably argued pieces re: Aboriginal healthcare and the rich and poverty creation?

I’m a bit disappointed.

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 10:06 pm
What an appalling unredeemable creature he is.

FFS, hammster, it’s “irredeemable”, you pompous pillock.

Rabz

8 Dec 12 at 10:07 pm
The world will be a better place when you finally decide to light that match for social justice.

LOL

Tom

8 Dec 12 at 10:07 pm
I’m a bit disappointed.

Life is full of disappointments, Squire.

You’ll live.

Rabz

8 Dec 12 at 10:08 pm
He had me at:

Your value system is weird.

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 10:09 pm
And you advocate suicide for JC whilst condemning the discussion of the suicide of someone else.

I was not referring to or advocating how he will eventually die, just that when he does, the world will be a far better place. But of course lying scumbags like you have no scruples abut lying and misrepresentation, do you?

What I find interesting is the rather silly scruples of the proprietors of this blog who censor swearwords spelt out, but ignore them when a few letters are asterisked, although everyone in the world knows what words I’m using. Hypocrisy and stiupidity all wrapped up together. Par for the course for Catallaxy.

hammygar

8 Dec 12 at 10:11 pm
Let me repeat. The radio jocks are not responsible for her death. She was and only her.

The only reason you’re all heated up Kero is because you once threatened suicide on another blog and because I found that comment to be so weak-willed, so appalling wanky, so politically correct and so pathetic that I have made fun of you ever since.

I’m referring to this comment you made.

Yes this form of subconscious racism has been noted regularly for many years. I’m not even sure that using the word subconscious is accurate. White people in the USA in particular seem to have an irrational loathing of black people that depicts the lingering racism in that country. Once again it appears to be more prevalent among the uneducated lower class whites, particularly in areas that vote Republican.

Much the same phenomenon appears in Australia, particularly in those rural areas where aboriginals are more numerous. Whites in these areas blame aboriginals for misbehaviour (particularly drunkenness and violence) that can be directly traced back to the dispossession of their land.

I am of anglo-saxon descent myself (several generations), and cannot seem to help my perpetual feelings of guilt about my existence here in their land. I would really like to migrate away from Australia. I’m ineligible for immigration to any other country because of my age, so I have thoughts that the only just decision on my part would be self-termination on the grounds of social justice.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 10:12 pm
Catching up here, and cleaning out one of my pc drives. I never realised how many photos I had in it. I really need to cull them down.

Regarding the temp plummet here in Melbourne today, it’s quite a normal sort of thing to happen. At least we’re never bored here – there’s always something to talk about.

And in the car yesterday and this morning, we’ve been listening to Frank Sinatra. What a voice. *sigh*

nilk

8 Dec 12 at 10:12 pm
FFS, hammster, it’s “irredeemable”, you pompous pillock.

Could be both, Rabz.

In fact, FFS I hope I am. Imagine being a leftwing turd like Kero boy.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 10:14 pm
it’s “irredeemable”, you pompous pillock.

Oh how clever of you. Much more important being pedantic than discussing serious issues.

hammygar

8 Dec 12 at 10:17 pm
As a side note.. Anyone seen the 8th season of Curb Your Enthusiasm” and is it worth getting the DVD. Amazon just sent me the ad for it.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 10:17 pm
JC,

I beg to differ.

“irredeemable” slides off the tongue with li’l effort.

“unredeemable” is just clunky.

Rabz

8 Dec 12 at 10:18 pm
I reckon that comment hangs you hammy

That is a Schaedenboner moment.

Carpe Jugulum

8 Dec 12 at 10:18 pm
Much more important being pedantic than discussing serious issues.

Some nurse topping herself in that notorious cesspit is important?

How, exactly?

Rabz

8 Dec 12 at 10:20 pm
The prank was mildly amusing. Wildly celebrated by many. Suicide by the nurse a tragedy. Lamented by more.

Such is life.

3d1k

8 Dec 12 at 10:20 pm
I was not referring to or advocating how he will eventually die, just that when he does, the world will be a far better place. But of course lying scumbags like you have no scruples abut lying and misrepresentation, do you?

Mate, you stated that when he topped himself the world would be a better place.

Not: when he died of natural causes.

Not: when he died of his heart attack from his crazy comment attacks on people.

Not: when he died of his dissolute lifestyle.

Not: a car accident.

Lying scumbag? I think not.

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 10:21 pm
Oh how clever of you. Much more important being pedantic than discussing serious issues.

The serious issue being me of course. JC.

When you’re not discussing your own suicide thoughts, Kero, you really are a pompous fuckwit.

You don’t discuss issues. Like all leftwing turds, you put forward personal value judgements and platitudinous swill while exhorting those who disagree with you. You never discuss anything mostly because you’re incapable of doing so.

We, on the other hand, do have discussions. We discuss matters about economics say and why free trade and open markets offer hope to humanity. You’re unable to discuss these things because you understand shit, fuckface.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 10:24 pm
10.17 PM

Oh how clever of you. Much more important being pedantic than discussing serious issues.

9.35 PM

I believe in social justice, as it’s the only way for the undeserving rich to share its ill-gotten wealth with the poor, whose state of being they created.

This however I take issue with.

‘Undeserved’? ‘poor, whose state they created’

Mate, you really need to think about that. The pizza man in your suburb becomes rich with a good product. He isn’t undeserving. He didn’t create poverty. He accepted money from customers for a pizza.

He didn’t create zoning laws that prevent people from buying affordable housing. He didn’t demand money from the government to complete his green dream hot rocks electricity facility, making everyone in the country poorer. He didn’t tax the guts out of cigarettes and beer which makes the poor poorer.

He sold a product to customers. They liked it. He became rich.

Serious. Issues.

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 10:25 pm
JC,

I beg to differ.

“irredeemable” slides off the tongue with li’l effort.

“unredeemable” is just clunky.

good point.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 10:26 pm
The only just decision on my part would be self-termination on the grounds of social justice.

Will you set a date, hamster? Can we buy tickets?

Tom

8 Dec 12 at 10:26 pm
You beat me to it JC

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 10:26 pm
Mate, you really need to think about that. The pizza man in your suburb becomes rich with a good product. He isn’t undeserving. He didn’t create poverty. He accepted money from customers for a pizza.

He didn’t create zoning laws that prevent people from buying affordable housing. He didn’t demand money from the government to complete his green dream hot rocks electricity facility, making everyone in the country poorer. He didn’t tax the guts out of cigarettes and beer which makes the poor poorer.

He sold a product to customers. They liked it. He became rich.

Serious. Issues.

Okay, debate that Kero. Go on I fucking dare you to leaving the moralizing and the platitudes aside.

Go!

JC

8 Dec 12 at 10:28 pm
Dave

Aboriginal social problems aren’t a reason for not specialising in their health. I imagine it’s a major reason in favour of specialisation.

sdfc

8 Dec 12 at 10:30 pm
The world will be a better place when you finally decide to light that match for social justice.

The only just decision on my part would be self-termination on the grounds of social justice.

FFS, my sides, stop it, Squire, please!

Rabz

8 Dec 12 at 10:32 pm
sdfc

My point is it is a regional thing, not a colour thing. Cunnamulla has rotten health and it isn’t much Aboriginal.

Remote Health Degree I can go with. “Doing More With Less”. I can see that.

Don’t tag it abo, that’s all.

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 10:34 pm
Waiting on the discussion hammy.

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 10:48 pm
“It’s incredible that JC and others in this blog think that driving a nurse to suicide is “an amusing prank”. What twisted creatures you all are.”

Wrong! JC and I exchanged views about that event (mind you, he never said what you pretend he said) and we disagree about bits of it.

On hammygalah I find I agree entirely with JC, even on the things he hasn’t yet said to you.

Go away ya fool.

Mick Gold Coast QLD

8 Dec 12 at 10:58 pm
So you’re against a group with poor health outcomes having specialised help because?

sdfc

8 Dec 12 at 11:00 pm
It’s a small and political sliver. Political.

And my other points?

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 11:06 pm
Ok sdfc I’m out. If you want to discuss this I’ll be here tomorrow arvo.

Also you, hammygar, who seems disinterested in Serious. Issues.

DaveF

8 Dec 12 at 11:13 pm
Thanks to the likes of Hammygar and the rest of the “compassionate” left there are now over one thousand unnamed men, women and children’s drowned bodies floating off the coast of Western Australia.

Yet Hammygar comes here and desperately tries to repedal the 2004 era narrative that the brutal, flint hearted left represent some sort of touchy feely compassion.

Sick.

twostix

8 Dec 12 at 11:15 pm
Is

“a group with poor health outcomes”

the same as a group with poor health?

In any event some pretender with a walk up start to “study” a made up degree in health for 3% of people is merely a pretender with a made up degree.

If she’d done a classic degree in doctor stuff and then specialised in, say, opthalmology, like Fred Hollowes, then she would have achieved something worthwhile.

Mick Gold Coast QLD

8 Dec 12 at 11:15 pm
No worries Dave. I think that’s it anyway.

sdfc

8 Dec 12 at 11:17 pm
Whatever Mick.

sdfc

8 Dec 12 at 11:17 pm
The ATO wants to to be able to do phone and email taps:

The ATO wants to use “real-time” telecommunications data to pinpoint the location of suspected tax cheats as they make phone calls or send emails.

Only “historical data” held by telcos such as names, addresses, call duration and location can be accessed by the ATO.

The ATO wants the government to designate it as a “criminal law-enforcement agency” under the Telecommunications Interception and Access Act, along with the police and ASIO.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/spying-on-tax-crooks/story-fndo317g-1226532753869

twostix

8 Dec 12 at 11:26 pm
Yet Hammygar comes here and desperately tries to repedal the 2004 era narrative that the brutal, flint hearted left represent some sort of touchy feely compassion.

Sick.

He’d bash the back of your skull in without a moments hesitation then go off to lunch or dinner. I’ve no doubt, given the chance.

JC

8 Dec 12 at 11:26 pm
I’m ineligible for immigration to any other country because of my age, so I have thoughts that the only just decision on my part would be self-termination on the grounds of social justice.

Ahahahahahahaha.

Yeah, I remember that.

I love the Hamster.

Don’t take any of JC’s shit, Hammy.

C.L.

8 Dec 12 at 11:30 pm
Chris someone earlier mentioned that these sorts of breaches of confidentiality are very uncommon. Its true, it rarely happens.

Or just that they’re rarely reported because the victims never find out. For example Doctor’s clinics are often willing to give out test results over the phone (often done by a nurse who has never met you) without adequate identification procedures. And birthday/maiden names when used are pretty weak protection.

I suspect that if in a few months once this all dies down if someone decided to test a few hospitals here to ask about information on people who aren’t celebrities they’d find it pretty easy to social engineer around the standard protocols (if they have any at all)

Chris

8 Dec 12 at 11:38 pm
Hammy, can you do me a favour if you do decide to self immolate? Can you plant a couple of tree to offset the carbon footprint of your conflagration, my children’s children will thank you for your contribution.

Splatacrobat

8 Dec 12 at 11:56 pm
John Mc
You used to be able to get an AD where I work, then articulate to a Bachelor qualification and keep your AD.
No more ADs any more though.

kae

9 Dec 12 at 12:14 am
She has an Associate degree in Aboriginal health, a Bachelors degree in Indigenous health and a Masters Degree in Indigenous Health.

I had assumed that that was some version of Public Health. If so, it’s not necessarily so much about hands-on medical stuff (or “bedpan changing”) but about policy and administration. And it’s not always a wank of a field. It depends on the school I guess, you can get a Masters in it anywhere from a dodgy online program through to Johns Hopkins.

I don’t get the part about having specialized in one narrow area all the way from the Associate Degree/ Community College level right through the Masters Degree though. Even though it’s useful to specialize eventually, Public Health majors usually start off with a broad grounding in public health or related fields as an undergrad (including math, stats, business, psychology, sociology, sometimes biology or chemistry) and then hone in on a specific population (migrant workers, rural communities, urban underclass, the gay community [that was a thing at the start of the AIDS crisis], any kind of racial or cultural minority group, prison populations, etc) later.

I get John Mc’s point, but I also get sdfc’s. Assuming it’s something like a Public Health degree she’s got, there are plenty of good reasons to specialize on one specific population subgroup.

sdog

9 Dec 12 at 12:34 am
Radley Balko on Obama’s escalation of the “War on Drugs”:

Well, dammit.

I was so very excited about all that sensible drug policy we were going to get out of President Obama in his second term. I mean sure, Obama had spent a good deal of his first term waging more raids on medical marijuana clinics in four years than Bush had waged in eight. And his administration defended DEA agents who point guns at the heads of children during drug raids. And his appointees continued to defend the carnage in Mexico as merely the consequence of good, sensible drug policy.

Sure. There was all of that. But there were also all of these progressive pundits who kept telling drug war reformers that they should go ahead and vote for Obama anyway . . . because they just knew, or at least they were pretty sure, or at least they had heard rumors, that maybe, possibly, Obama would turn the corner and show some leadership. . . .

Sucked in, ‘tards.

sdog

9 Dec 12 at 12:59 am
Potemkin’s Village

A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is… here

Grigory Potemkin

9 Dec 12 at 5:57 am
Indigenous Community Health (Associate Degree)

Other requirements:

Available only to applicants of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent…
Travel and accommodation arrangements are made by our teaching staff and are funded by the Government.

Course Structure.

Bachelor of Health Science in Indigenous Health Studies

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 6:28 am
So, hammygar the perpetual purveyor of compostalike platitudes has further revealed his abject failure. Instead of joining in a debate as he puts it of serious matters, he shrinks back to a series of ” you are all horrible”.
Pathetic. I think his proposed solution to his persistent guilt problem should be implemented forthwith, and he should terminate his blatherings here forever.

Blogstrop

9 Dec 12 at 6:32 am
Yeah, no. So maybe it’s not quite the same, Gab.

sdog

9 Dec 12 at 6:41 am
Master of Indigenous Health includes “Reflective Practice”. What’s that, you ask.

This Reflective Practice subject develops (or enhances existing) personal conceptual frameworks and skills of reflectivity applicable to practice, to enable participants to ‘stand back’ from situations, to see the ‘whole of the moon’ rather than just ‘the crescent’. The subject promotes reflection upon theory and research which underpins practice, to enable participants to identify potential areas for practice development and meaningful research.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 6:56 am
Now that Barack Obama is safely ensconced in the White House for another four years, several items which should have been noticed or revealed before Election Day have come to the fore. Collectively, they tell us two things: that the pre-election economy was worse than voters were led to believe, and that the prospects for meaningful improvement under the current regime are bleak at best. Additionally, in at least one instance, economic activity itself was likely manipulated.

ha ha, sucked in again. Don’t worry, The One will save you LOL

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 7:13 am
The campaign of challenger Mitt Romney should have been paying closer attention, as half of GM’s inventory spike occurred and was reported before Election Day. But instead, it let itself get distracted by mostly irrelevant noise about Chrysler’s plans for its Jeep brand in China. It even missed touting Chrysler parent Fiat’s announcement that it plans to manufacture a new Jeep model for the North American market in Italy.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 7:16 am
Master of Indigenous Health includes “Reflective Practice”.

Ah, they’re trying to teach wisdom. Sorry. Can’t work when your entire class are febrile leftwing missionaries with a worldview stuck in delinquent human infancy.

Tom

9 Dec 12 at 7:21 am
Seventy-three percent of the new civilian jobs created in the United States over the last five months are in government, according to official data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Who says government doesn’t create jobs?

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 7:23 am
HAMAS politburo chief Khaled Meshaal has rejected ceding “an inch” of Palestinian territory to Israel or recognising the Jewish state, in a speech in Gaza marking the 25th anniversary of the Islamist group’s founding.

“Palestine is our land and nation from the (Mediterranean) sea to the (Jordan) river, from north to south, and we cannot cede an inch or any part of it,” he said of the borders currently held by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, at a rally marking the 25th anniversary of the foundation of Hamas.

“Resistance is the right way to recover our rights, as well as all forms of struggle – political, diplomatic, legal and popular, but all are senseless without resistance,” he said on a historic first visit to Gaza.

Turning to the question of Palestinian unity, he said: “We are a single authority, a single reference, and our reference is the PLO, which we want united.”

Founded in 1987 shortly after the start of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, Hamas was inspired by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.

Its charter calls for the eventual destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic state on the pre-1948 borders of the British Palestine Mandate.

And the murderous dictator’s club, The UN, fully supports them.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 7:31 am
Great Christmas gifts. From the guys at Organizations and Markets.

Rafe

9 Dec 12 at 7:35 am
Your taxes at work at the ABC.

Rafe

9 Dec 12 at 7:38 am
Mate, you stated that when he topped himself the world would be a better place.

These were not my words, What I said was

When you finally snuff it yourself, the world will be a far better place.

That means whenever JC dies of whatever cause (as we all will one day), that event will make the world a far better place. I was very obviously not referring to his suicide.

You people simply either can’t read, or you are deliberately lying.

hammygar

9 Dec 12 at 7:49 am
I’m always astonished when these are so willingly described as “accidents”. A young woman drives her BMW at speed at 1am on Saturday morning the wrong way on a freeway far from home and kills herself and four others:

On Wednesday, Ms Houlihan changed her Facebook cover, with a picture of a white wolf and a quote from motivational speaker Steve Maraboli: ”My past has not defined me, destroyed me, deterred me, or defeated me; it has only strengthened me.”

I’ll keep an eye out for the Coroner’s Court case in Geelong, which will explain what particular madness overtook this woman.

Tom

9 Dec 12 at 7:55 am
The link between the phone call and the death of Jacintha Saldanha is one of direct cause and effect. Mel Greig and Michael Christian are therefore killers. They caused her death. JC and others who laugh this horrible episode off as a “harmless” and “funny” prank are completely in denial.

There is absolutely no evidence that Jacintha had a pathological condition that contributed to her death.

hammygar

9 Dec 12 at 7:59 am
Yes, so you’ve said already, hammy. A number of times. You’re just baiting people now. Troll.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 8:02 am
There is absolutely no evidence that Jacintha had a pathological condition that contributed to her death.

Oh, and you’ve seen ALL the evidence have you ?

jumpnmcar

9 Dec 12 at 8:05 am
The link between the phone call and the death of Jacintha Saldanha is one of direct cause and effect.

That is the stupidest thing you’ve ever said here, hamster. You really shouldn’t be allowed to roam outside fishtanks like The Drum.

Tom

9 Dec 12 at 8:25 am
A hat tip from Professor Bunyip!
Surely the a watershed moment in my blogging career…..

Papachango

9 Dec 12 at 8:36 am
Gab,

According to your definition a troll is someone who disagrees with the majority philosophical position of a blog. This is nonsense. If it were so you’d have, not a discussion, but a love-in where everyone agrees with everyone else and no contrary ideas are ever allowed. Ironically this has been one of Gerard Henderson’s complaints about the ABC where A agrees with B who agrees with C who in turn agrees with D who agrees with A.

hammygar

9 Dec 12 at 8:40 am
Merry Christmas Hammy!

Rafe

9 Dec 12 at 9:01 am
Thanks for your civilised comment, Rafe. Even if it was said with your usual irony.

hammygar

9 Dec 12 at 9:07 am
Inadvertently breaching the privacy of the Royals is a very big deal over there and she would have felt tremendous pressure, perhaps the hospital had given her her marching orders or were making a scapegoat of her.

she probably had other problems just like anyone else but this pressure was enough to unhinge her for a bit.

if it was an “ordinary” patient there would not be the pressure, it would not have happened.

candy

9 Dec 12 at 9:12 am
Merry Christmas Hammy!

What a cowinkydink.
Today is my golf courses Christmas breakup day called ” Ham Day ”
Why?, because all the prizes are ham with the winners ( 4BBB stab ) getting the largest and the size diminishes the further you are in the rundown.
Last place get a can of Spam.
Which brings us back to hammygar.

jumpnmcar

9 Dec 12 at 9:14 am
Let’s explore the free speech angle further.

Would it be OK to prank a woman in a maternity ward by ringing up and saying her premmy baby just died in the humidicrib?

Not according to JC and others on this blog, C.L. Just a harmless, even humourous prank, even if the mother harmed herself as a result.

hammygar

9 Dec 12 at 9:20 am
Accelerating sea level rise has been a key plank of the anti-capitalism movement in the West for the past decade, but the fantasy is getting harder to maintain. German meteorologist Klaus-Eckart Puls:

It is obvious to see that sea level rise has slowed down significantly. In view of the relatively short time frame in which the measurements have been made, it should not be speculated on whether the deceleration in the rise is a trend change or if it is only noise. What is certain is that there is neither a ‘dramatic’ rise, nor an ‘acceleration’. Conclusion: Climate models that project an acceleration over the last 20 years are wrong.

H/T Bolt

Tom

9 Dec 12 at 9:55 am
Is there any evidence (aside from fallacious post hoc ergo propter hoc leaps by tabloids etc.) that the nurse’s suicide had anything at all to do with the prank call? All the media reports I have seen simply assume that there must be a link.

Cato the Elder

9 Dec 12 at 9:55 am
The link between the phone call and the death of Jacintha Saldanha is one of direct cause and effect.

No it isn’t you half witted evil fuck. There is no direct connection. She took the action she did, not the silly jocks.

Mel Greig and Michael Christian are therefore killers.

No they aren’t. It was just an unfortunate turn of events for them. Shit happens. 99.999999999999% of people would not snuff them self out because they were involved in a prank like this one.

They caused her death.

You’re repeating yourself fuckface. Bad sign you have nothing to say.

JC and others who laugh this horrible episode off as a “harmless” and “funny” prank are completely in denial.

Point to one comment on this thread where anyone has. Go on you lying evil piece of shit. I challenge you.

There is absolutely no evidence that Jacintha had a pathological condition that contributed to her death.

Yes there is fuck face. She snuffed herself out over a silly incident. That’s plenty of proof for me.

For someone who has threatened to kill himself over shosial justice for the original owners, you would be the last fucking moron to judge anyone’s mental health.

According to your definition a troll is someone who disagrees with the majority philosophical position of a blog.

That’s not true. You’re lying. You’re a troll because you dishonestly ascribe to others that they did you say or suggest. No one has laughed at the woman’s death yet you persist with this accusation.

Kero, if you said that to my face, I’d crack your teeth. You know that right?

If it were so you’d have, not a discussion, but a love-in where everyone agrees with everyone else and no contrary ideas are ever allowed.

It’s actually better than arguing with leftwingers, because you all understand shit about pretty much everything. You don’t understand human behavior, have no understanding of economics and have a religious view of scientific theories that border on the pathological. However it’s amusing at times to make fun of you, which is why this site is so good.

Ironically this has been one of Gerard Henderson’s complaints about the ABC where A agrees with B who agrees with C who in turn agrees with D who agrees with A.

There’s a huge difference that you don’t seem to understand fuck fuck. We aren’t forced to pay for this site! whereas our pockets are rifled to put Fran Tractor Kelly, Ol’leatherface Cassidy, Slimey Jon Faine or Fatty Jones on air.

Leftwingers really seem to have a problem understanding this concept, don’t they Kero Boy.

JC

9 Dec 12 at 9:56 am
Just a harmless, even humourous prank, even if the mother harmed herself as a result.

Good work Hammy.

You just made the point pranking the mother of a baby that has died is just “harmless”.

It is best if you step away and have a think about the way you phrase things.

Token

9 Dec 12 at 9:56 am
I think someone’s already posted this clip from Judge Judy once, back when it was on SDA, but since Prof Jacobson’s just discovered it himself for the first time I thought I’d do ahead and put it up for anyone who might have missed it the first time round:

“What do you do? I’m me”

Oy.

sdog

9 Dec 12 at 10:02 am
You are correct Cato, I believe CL has made hat point too.

This could be like the tragic case of the woman who died in Ireland which the pro-abortion types exploited in such a macabre fashion.

Token

9 Dec 12 at 10:03 am
Tim’s right: This is a much funnier phone prank.

sdog

9 Dec 12 at 10:03 am
Let’s explore the free speech angle further.

Would it be OK to prank a woman in a maternity ward by ringing up and saying her premmy baby just died in the humidicrib?

Not according to JC and others on this blog, C.L. Just a harmless, even humourous prank, even if the mother harmed herself as a result.

Fuckface, the issue of free speech has always been about the right to political dissent. It’s not about punking some poor woman in a maternity hospital.

You know, poltical dissent, something you would snuff out given the opportunity in addition to killing millions of people who disagree with you.

You are one evil member of the species, Kero boy. Really evil.

JC

9 Dec 12 at 10:03 am
Is there any evidence (aside from fallacious post hoc ergo propter hoc leaps by tabloids etc.) that the nurse’s suicide had anything at all to do with the prank call? All the media reports I have seen simply assume that there must be a link.

Good point Cato.

JC

9 Dec 12 at 10:06 am
How come there was no switchboard receptionist on duty so the call went straight through to the duty nurse? The nurse would have assumed that only family or appropriate people would have the number.

Congratulations to Kennett for a strong response.

Rafe

9 Dec 12 at 10:09 am
Strong and prompt. No points to the British monarchist official who wants more press regulation. Silly old buffer. Silly old bugger as well.

Rafe

9 Dec 12 at 10:10 am
No points to the British monarchist official who wants more press regulation.

These bastards always use the lowest point to argue against the right to free speech.

JC

9 Dec 12 at 10:16 am
Would “oh damn” be enough of an exclamation if this happened to you. I know what I would say.

In 2006, he offered to buy Picasso’s “La Reve,” priced at $135 million, also from Wynn. The purchase was canceled after Wynn, whose vision has deteriorated owing to retinis pigmentosa, accidentally put his elbow through the canvas.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-07/sac-s-cohen-art-watched-by-buyers-as-trading-probe-grows.html

JC

9 Dec 12 at 10:29 am
Um

She got a prank call and she killed herself.

1. Steal underpants

2. ???

3. Profit!

Please. What actually and was meant to have happened.

.

9 Dec 12 at 10:37 am
How come there was no switchboard receptionist on duty so the call went straight through to the duty nurse?

I find that extremely implausible. There is more to the story than we know.

Token

9 Dec 12 at 10:39 am
I note my 9.14 pm comment last night is still in moderation. I used the word c**t spelled out. Yet JC gets to use f**k without a problem. What gives, Sinc?

hammygar

9 Dec 12 at 10:45 am
???

I presumed delta hedged traders in a way all operated in some form of insider trading. Why would you buy a call option they were selling? Most of the time, it would be losing it’s value. What clients do traders have???

Insider trading is a bad law written by those who don’t understand the markets.

All you need is a law written against fraud and a law against breaching duty of care.

If there is no fraud and your customers do not lose, then the trades are okay.

Taking cream off the consumer is what brokers and market makers basically do anyway.

How does a hedge fund engage in insider trading anyway?

.

9 Dec 12 at 10:48 am
I used the word c**t spelled out. Yet JC gets to use f**k without a problem. What gives, Sinc?

Unlike disgusting lefties who endorse a PM who is on the record for giving Thompson & Slipper her full confidence, we respect women around here.

Token

9 Dec 12 at 10:49 am
Yet JC gets to use f**k without a problem. What gives, Sinc?

He’s said before, he doesn’t like seeing that word on his blog, fuckface. His blog, his rules. If you don’t like it then go set up your own blog and use the word as much as you like. Now go buy a box of matches.

JC

9 Dec 12 at 10:49 am
You just made the point pranking the mother of a baby that has died is just “harmless”.

You fucking idiot Token. Re-read my comment and you’ll find that I’m paraphrasing JC, based on his declared attitudes. You’ve misrepresented it deliberately as my view, you fucking stupid arsehole.

hammygar

9 Dec 12 at 10:52 am
[A whole comment that consists of naughty words. That must be a record. Sinc]

hammygar

9 Dec 12 at 10:52 am
You’ve misrepresented it deliberately as my view, you fucking stupid arsehole.

I actually didn’t, you carelessly wrote the statement without providing context.

Don’t get angry at me over the fact you were careless and as a result sounded like a monster.

Token

9 Dec 12 at 10:54 am
Wow… I only caught this. Yea okay, she’s a little older .. but she’s really cute.

Bloomberg anchor, Stephanie Rhule shows her panties on bloomberg TV. Great legs too.

It’s stuff like this that makes business/economics news worth watching.

Foxbusiness news doesn’t have all the good anchors.

http://www.egotastic.com/2012/11/stephanie-ruhle-flashes-her-panties-on-bloomberg-tv-video/

JC

9 Dec 12 at 10:55 am
I note my 9.14 pm comment last night is still in moderation. I used the word c**t spelled out. Yet JC gets to use f**k without a problem. What gives, Sinc?

Sinc told me to f**k off yesterday, with no asterisks. Obviously that’s part of his own personal vocabulary. Many people draw the line at the C word, he’s one of them. Enh.

m0nty

9 Dec 12 at 10:55 am
Unlike disgusting lefties who endorse a PM who is on the record for giving Thompson & Slipper her full confidence, we respect women around here.

LOL Token, how many times have you used the Cat-approved phrase “lying slapper”?

m0nty

9 Dec 12 at 10:58 am
LOL. Monty’s women aren’t allowed to criticise other women. You’re such a child, Monster.

Tom

9 Dec 12 at 11:00 am
The point is, monty, she’s a hypocrite and a criminal.

.

9 Dec 12 at 11:02 am
Sinc told me to f**k off yesterday, with no asterisks.

So you really irritated him, right fat boy. You appear to have this effect on people.

LOL Token, how many times have you used the Cat-approved phrase “lying slapper”?

As if those terms of endearment aren’t also used to describe men.

Go away fat boy. You’re now annoying everyone again.

JC

9 Dec 12 at 11:02 am
Sinc told me to f**k off yesterday, with no asterisks.

Yes. Yes, he did. You could maybe hear the applause from your front porch?

sdog

9 Dec 12 at 11:05 am
LOL Token, how many times have you used the Cat-approved phrase “lying slapper”?

Monty you ignorant slut.

sdog

9 Dec 12 at 11:06 am
What gives, Sinc?

Things come out of moderation when I check the moderation queue. This occurs at random.

Sinclair Davidson

9 Dec 12 at 11:07 am
Obviously that’s part of his own personal vocabulary.

… and I practice too.

Sinclair Davidson

9 Dec 12 at 11:11 am
Sinc told me to f**k off yesterday, with no asterisks.

And did you listen to him?? No. Here you are again, whining about whatever it is you lefties whine about.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 11:14 am
No wonder the left supports ‘the new democracy’ AKA the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt!

They’ve got torture chambers.

And we know how the left loves the mechanisms of totalitarianism.

Mk50 of Brisbane

9 Dec 12 at 11:16 am
Been away a while at work – I see Hammyracist is excreting on the blog again on the subject of that poor British Nurse. Guess that being a devout practising racist he’s delighted with the outcome given her ethnicity.

And no, I have not read the sewage he squirts forth onto the blog. It’s not as if he’ll be saying anything worth reading.

Mk50 of Brisbane

9 Dec 12 at 11:22 am
Mark, you may have noticed the sheer relief in ShakeMyHead.com’s coverage this morning of Morsi’s annulment of the decree giving him dictatorial power. This will be followed up with an opinion piece during the week by Palestinian correspondent Paul McGeough declaring that Morsi has always been a moderate.

Tom

9 Dec 12 at 11:28 am
Liberals slap social media gag on MPs

Abbott’s short answer to free speech: shut up!

Longer answer: for God’s sake, don’t let them know what we’re actually thinking and believing!

m0nty

9 Dec 12 at 11:30 am
monty I have been contractually bound by my employers not to speak ill of them or divulge commerical information.

It isn’t a breach of free speech. They can speak and lose preselection etc.

Social media ends up being a bunch of starlets being famewhores and mothers trying to boss their families around in the most undignified manner anyway.

Other than that, it’s a place for people under 25 to brag about their status.

Who cares?

.

9 Dec 12 at 11:48 am
Well, tom, they were only moderately tortured I suppose.

Mk50 of Brisbane

9 Dec 12 at 11:51 am
Yes. Yes, he did. You could maybe hear the applause from your front porch?

Even from Queensland!

kae

9 Dec 12 at 11:51 am
This Reflective Practice subject develops (or enhances existing) personal conceptual frameworks and skills of reflectivity applicable to practice, to enable participants to ‘stand back’ from situations, to see the ‘whole of the moon’ rather than just ‘the crescent’. The subject promotes reflection upon theory and research which underpins practice, to enable participants to identify potential areas for practice development and meaningful research.

LOL.

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 12:08 pm
monty I have been contractually bound by my employers not to speak ill of them or divulge commerical information.

The situation is a bit different with political parties, Dot. Of course you wouldn’t be allowed to speak ill of the McDonald’s Corporation.

It isn’t a breach of free speech. They can speak and lose preselection etc.

Abbott is just trying to stop a repeat of the Akin/Mourdock situation in the US. It is a breach of free speech, he’s trying to minimise the amount of people who speak on behalf of the Liberal Party. The right is dominating preselection, and now they’re trying to fool the Australian people that they’re old school Howard centrists. A party that professes to stand up for personal liberty is gagging the free speech of its own candidates. Blatant hypocrisy.

m0nty

9 Dec 12 at 12:15 pm
Blatant hypocrisy.

How come monty never spoke up when gillard gagged her people from speaking to the press three times this year?

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 12:18 pm
Of course you wouldn’t be allowed to speak ill of the McDonald’s Corporation.

Your sponsors, not mine.

Abbott is just trying to stop a repeat of the Akin/Mourdock situation in the US.

Hence he is a good leader.

A party that professes to stand up for personal liberty is gagging the free speech of its own candidates

No, it’s not.

.

9 Dec 12 at 12:19 pm
Two weeks ago Labor MP Steve “Akin” Gibbons called Julie Bishop a “bimbo” on Twitter. He was immediately forced to apologise and delete the Tweet by Julia Gillard.

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 12:23 pm
How come monty never spoke up when gillard gagged her people from speaking to the press three times this year?

The press has been full of Labor backbenchers talking to journos every damn day for the entire length of the Gillard government, Gab. She couldn’t stop them if she tried.

m0nty

9 Dec 12 at 12:25 pm
Hence he is a good leader.

Somehow the Bernardis of the world always find a way to put their foot in their mouth regardless.

m0nty

9 Dec 12 at 12:27 pm
Beside the point, hypocrite.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 12:27 pm
How come monty never spoke up when gillard gagged her people from speaking to the press three times this year?

Easily explained
Because the blimp was hanging around Dunkins ordering 36 donuts at a time and never saw it.

JC

9 Dec 12 at 12:27 pm
Monst?

Doesn’t dunkins have customer web service you can latch onto when you’re there?

JC

9 Dec 12 at 12:30 pm
Hi Mk50 – you’ve been away – see my cut and paste of 8.28 pm last night.

blogstrop

9 Dec 12 at 12:31 pm
Beside the point, hypocrite.

Your point is a lie, because Gillard did not gag them.

m0nty

9 Dec 12 at 12:36 pm
Your point is a lie, because Gillard did not gag them.

The Liars party has the most draconian rules of dissent than most parties in the Western world. You vote or speak against party policy and you’re considered a rat and thrown out.

Don’t even go there fat boy.

JC

9 Dec 12 at 12:39 pm
Kevin Rudd branded a coward as Julia Gillard gags her MPs

THE entire Labor cabinet has been banned from talking to editors of the nation’s major newspapers as Prime Minister Julia Gillard moves to stamp out leadership speculation.

Under the gagging order, ministers must seek permission from her office before any meeting or private talks.

go on, make your excuses for the douchebag.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 12:41 pm
Not according to JC and others on this blog, C.L. Just a harmless, even humourous prank, even if the mother harmed herself as a result.

That’s plenty of context for any intelligent person, Token. I guess your level of moronity can’t always be forecast, you fucking dickhead arsehole moron. (my awful language is just following the culture of this blog!)

hammygar

9 Dec 12 at 12:46 pm
That’s plenty of context for any intelligent person, Token. I guess your level of moronity can’t always be forecast, you fucking dickhead arsehole moron. (my awful language is just following the culture of this blog!)

Yea, but it just doesn’t sound right, Kero. It’s sounds like a pipsqueak attempting to sound all tough and shit and would only promote giggles.

Look, you evil intentioned fuck, it also doesn’t sound right coming from a pathetic individual publicly proclaiming on a website about thoughts of taking his own life because of your skin color.

JC

9 Dec 12 at 12:56 pm
Two weeks ago Labor MP Steve “Akin” Gibbons called Julie Bishop a “bimbo” on Twitter. He was immediately forced to apologise and delete the Tweet by Julia Gillard.

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 1:14 pm
C.L.:

I’m really not impressed by the ‘free speech’ justification for lying to an innocent and diligent professional woman in her workplace, seeking to attain private information, from a private hospital and then ridiculing that person globally.

Thanks for that comment C.L.

I know you won’t like my support, being a righty and all, but at least I can see you’re a civilised right-winger – something quite rare (certainly on this blog).

I could also point to other excellent comments by you on the same topic on this thread.

hammygar

9 Dec 12 at 1:15 pm
THE entire Labor cabinet has been banned from talking to editors of the nation’s major newspapers as Prime Minister Julia Gillard moves to stamp out leadership speculation.

Under the gagging order, ministers must seek permission from her office before any meeting or private talks.

Rebuttal of the week.

Monty humiliated.

Wrong again etc.

News at 11.

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 1:16 pm
I know you won’t like my support…

Not true, Hammy. I value your support a great deal.

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 1:17 pm
The boy in the picture is now in jail.

Well done, Mr Keating. The speech you read made a big difference.

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 1:20 pm
In the spirit of the season Hammy, the boys have had a whip around and we managed to purchase you 2 litres of unleaded and a pack of Redheads. Merry Christmas and felicitations of the season from all of us.

Infidel tiger

9 Dec 12 at 1:20 pm
you fucking dickhead arsehole moron.

Very entertaining, hamster, but it work better if you mean what you’re saying. You need a bit of primal therapy to get that beta zombie anger externalised, instead of festering into homicidal leftard rage against the adults. However, you must understand that, for as long as you continue fantasising about Stalinesque genocide, you’ll remain a person of interest to the police.

Tom

9 Dec 12 at 1:21 pm
I’m really not impressed by the ‘free speech’ justification for lying to an innocent and diligent professional woman in her workplace, seeking to attain private information, from a private hospital and then ridiculing that person globally.

I don’t think there’s been a person here who has argued that on the free speech argument. Just that it was a silly prank that may have gone bad.

JC

9 Dec 12 at 1:21 pm
OK, who caused Hammyracist’s head to expolde this time, Hmmmmm?

You really are the greatest c**t that ever lived… absolute bastard shitpiece. When you finally snuff it yourself, the world will be a far better place. Arsehole supreme!
..
…driving a nurse to suicide is “an amusing prank”
…
…lying scumbags … no scruples abut lying and misrepresentation. … Hypocrisy and stiupidity all wrapped up together. Par for the course for Catallaxy.
…
You fucking idiot …, you fucking stupid arsehole.
…
[A whole comment that consists of naughty words. That must be a record. Sinc]
…
level of moronity …, you fucking dickhead arsehole moron

And the pitiful critter does not even have a basic mastery of invective.

The Hammyracist – is there anything it is actually any good at?

Mk50 of Brisbane

9 Dec 12 at 1:23 pm
Radio prank call was a silly attempt at royal bashing.

stackja

9 Dec 12 at 1:23 pm
Clearly he’s not a civilised left-winger, Mk.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 1:28 pm
Wendy Harmer’s reaction to the DJ radio stunt (see Blair) was classic.

Step 1. ‘Woo-hoo, stupid royals embarrassed. Heh heh.’

Step 2. ‘Oh. An Indian female, you say? I’m appalledly appalled.’

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 1:29 pm
Blogstrop – intersting post that one. I did an evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of the BB rebuilds the USN did post Peal Harbour salvage operations. Not one of them except Nevada was worth the effort. It was entirely a matter of wounded pride/propaganda.

It led to a lot of unnecessary deaths, too. There’s a then-classified RN report on the Franklin and Bunker Hill damage control oeprations. It is utterly scathing. The RN noted that their practise would have been to abandon the ships and scuttle them in order to minimise crew losses. The USN practise was to sacrifice hundreds of lives in fighting the fires to save the ship. Oh they did it and then as they noted with Franklin wasted millions repairing her – but she never had another aircraft land on her deck again, going straight into reserve and then to the breakers.

I like the USN and USMC a hell of a lot as I have done a lot of work with them over the years, but they have some weird ideas.

Mk50 of Brisbane

9 Dec 12 at 1:29 pm
There’s a good reason why the shooting etiquette I was taught demanded you partner with a checker who verified you were not loaded before getting in a vehicle:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-09/father-kills-son-in-accidental-shooting/4417256

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 1:33 pm
I witnessed something similar once.

I saw a Barry Humphreys show in NY. It was basically the same thing he’d do here. Instead of hanging shit on the outer burbs of Melbourne or Sydney he was hanging crap on Nu Jorsey.

Anyways he began to pick on a female audience member from Jersey and she appeared to take it really badly as she started to sob. It wasn’t that sort of attention seeking sob gals do as she really looked hurt and upset. We could see her as we sitting a couple of rows diagonally in front of her.

Humphreys felt it too as he began to look concerned for her explaining that it was just part of the act and looked like he was taken aback… like Oh shit what have I done type of thing.

Now most people don’t get upset by this stuff while some do obviously.

As I said, stuff like this can happen.

JC

9 Dec 12 at 1:33 pm
I still really don’t get this whole suicide prank call thing.

.

9 Dec 12 at 1:36 pm
Humphreys has been torturing audience members for years and in fact made a good living out of it.

JC

9 Dec 12 at 1:38 pm
Hey Hey Guido H!

How many receptionists have you killed today?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VQGrUxifmI

“At the front we write Guido, and at the back, one word mate, LEGEND…”

.

9 Dec 12 at 1:39 pm
Listening to FM radio DJs would make me off myself too.

Infidel tiger

9 Dec 12 at 1:40 pm
Lulz, IT

.

9 Dec 12 at 1:40 pm
Yeah, I saw a Les Patterson show once where a young couple arrived late, shuffling along to get to their seats. Sir Les targeted them, suggesting they were late because they’d been rooting etc. They were obviously beetroot red but they just laughed.

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 1:41 pm
As I said, stuff like this can happen.

Simple solution – don’t do it. At least you now acknowledge the likelihood of it happening. You were in complete denial earlier.

hammygar

9 Dec 12 at 1:43 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5X9XAolB7A

Now mate I’ll be there at 9, I like a coffee – white with 1, and a selection of doughnuts alright. If they do not meet with my approval, I will punish you, ok

A selection of lebanese half turn heel kicks

A greek legend mate

Seriously. Now one has topped themselves. I just don’t get this whole incident.

.

9 Dec 12 at 1:43 pm
A trader punked an Indian kid intern once. It was great.

The trader handed the kid a closed envelope, told him it was a prescription and to go fill it at the local Duane Reade.

Anyways the kid goes to the chemist hands over the envelope to the assistant who begins to giggle uncontrollably. She then walks over to the chemist and they both start laughing and giggling.

The Chemist walks up to the kid and says… “Sir, unfortunately they only come in one size”.

So the kid asks for the letter back and reads it.

It says:

Dear Sir/Madam:
I have an unusually tiny penis and need a small condom as the normal ones simply don’t fit correctly. Can you please help me?

The kid took it really well too. He’s one Indian who survived a good prank.

JC

9 Dec 12 at 1:50 pm
I just don’t get this whole incident.

Which part don’t you get?

It seems a vulnerable woman was inadvertently ridiculed globally and held to be an inept doofus while nursing the future Queen of England. Is that a sound reason to suicide and traumatise her own family? No, of course not. Should a pair of dickheads with useless, adolescent ‘jobs’ on radio be ashamed of themselves for attempting to garner confidential information about a sick, hospitalised woman? Yes.

I’m afraid I don’t get the comparative relevance here of a tow-bar gag.

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 1:50 pm
Should a pair of dickheads with useless, adolescent ‘jobs’ on radio be ashamed of themselves for attempting to garner confidential information about a sick, hospitalised woman? Yes.

Yea fair point.

JC

9 Dec 12 at 1:54 pm
I wouldn’t kill myself over the monarchy or a couple of radio announcers. I’m just shocked by that.

Should a pair of dickheads with useless, adolescent ‘jobs’ on radio be ashamed of themselves for attempting to garner confidential information about a sick, hospitalised woman?

The type of arsehole that doesn’t take shit seriously but when it happens to them, everyone has to hear about it.

.

9 Dec 12 at 1:55 pm
Sheesh. Can’t they take a joke?

‘Fragile’ 2Day Fm DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian in intense counselling.

THE Sydney radio presenters behind the prank call that has been linked to a British nurse’s death are said to be “fragile” and undergoing intensive psychological counselling.

The Sun reports that both are close to having breakdowns. Hey, who could have foreseen that a bit of global attention could have such consequences?

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 1:57 pm
What a load of crap. Like how Tiger Woods wanted to cure himself for banging girls other than Elin.

.

9 Dec 12 at 2:02 pm
Funny how people react in different ways to global humiliation. I hear that in some cultures suicide is the honourable way when one considers their actions to have brought shame upon their family.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 2:04 pm
Beijing now has more millionaires than Los Angeles:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100289964

(DRUDGE).

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 2:50 pm
Santamaria was right:

Nelson Mandela ‘proven’ to be a member of the Communist Party after decades of denial.

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 2:54 pm
What is going on at the Australian Open Golf tournament at The Lakes is Sydney, where play has been suspended for most of today because of ‘dangerously strong winds’. Say what?

I and my golfing friends have played many times in cyclones, struggling to get a driver to send the ball 200 metres into the teeth of the gale, then hitting 7 irons with the wind into greens well over 200 metres away, and doing the best we could to control putts on the slippery and wind-swept greens. And all the while dodging bits of trees flying through the air.

But, so what you say? Battling the elements on the day to get the lowest possible score – that’s what golf is supposed to be about, isn’t it?

Exactly. So, what is it with these nancy boys pretending to play the noble game in our most prestigous golf tournament today?

Septimus

9 Dec 12 at 2:55 pm
…play has been suspended for most of today because of ‘dangerously strong winds’.

Australia: land of manly, rugged individualists.

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 3:01 pm
Hey, who could have foreseen that a bit of global attention could have such consequences?

Actually CL it doesn’t take much to imagine the white hot intensity of having global contempt poured on the head of the unfortunate hate figure du jour. Expect more suicides and nervous breakdowns and PTSD in this age of global naming and shaming. Facebook is bad enough but now people are being literally pecked to death by thousands of beaks on twitter.

Viva

9 Dec 12 at 3:01 pm
There must be other people involved in that disgusting 2DAY stunt too, who okayed the whole thing, like the station manager, lawyers, someone in charge. The announcers couldn’t have done it off their own bat.

candy

9 Dec 12 at 3:05 pm
Everything is taken too far.

The DJs were idiots but latest talk of the duo being ‘interviewed’ by police and/or extradited to the UK is insane.

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 3:05 pm
Has anyone considered that global attention via the internet given to the radio hoax may have had as much or even more to do with the distress of this nurse than the hoax call itself?

Viva

9 Dec 12 at 3:07 pm
I saw a Barry Humphreys show in NY. It was basically the same thing he’d do here. Instead of hanging shit on the outer burbs of Melbourne or Sydney he was hanging crap on Nu Jorsey.

Anyways he began to pick on a female audience member from Jersey and she appeared to take it really badly as she started to sob. It wasn’t that sort of attention seeking sob gals do as she really looked hurt and upset. We could see her as we sitting a couple of rows diagonally in front of her.

Humphreys felt it too as he began to look concerned for her explaining that it was just part of the act and looked like he was taken aback… like Oh shit what have I done type of thing.

Now most people don’t get upset by this stuff while some do obviously.

As I said, stuff like this can happen.

JC years ago I attended a live Humphreys show. People were laughing but I sensed that the contempt he was showing the audience was very real and very nasty. That woman probably picked up on that – not everybody does.

Viva

9 Dec 12 at 3:10 pm
It’s good to see that Candy is another commenter here taking a sensible view of the appalling 2Day-FM episode.

I agree that the station should have overseen the situation more responsibly, but the announcers still can’t escape blame. They must accept personal responsibility.

There appears now to be a move in the media to a position of “poor dears – they need counselling”. What they need is a good kick up the backside, and shown the door without a reference.

hammygar

9 Dec 12 at 3:23 pm
I loathe Barry Humpries. I regard him as a vicious, malevolent, petty and profoundly unfunny man who despises us all and who holds Australia and Australians in a contempt so thick you could slice it with a bowling ball.

I will say that he sure knows how to gull people, though. He’s made himself rich off the back of that contempt.

Mk50 of Brisbane

9 Dec 12 at 3:26 pm
…people are being literally pecked to death by thousands of beaks on twitter.

No.

sdog

9 Dec 12 at 3:29 pm
That’s something Biden would say.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 3:32 pm
Yeah, I agree that Humphries hates Australians. I’ve only ever liked Les Patterson but I doubt I laugh at the character in the way Humphries intended. We were supposed to cringe with embarrassment. Instead, a new comfortable-in-their-skin generation found Sir Les funny because they were almost proud that an Australian caricature was associated with casual contempt for political correctness. Thus when Sir Les mocks curry-munchers, Pakis and poofters, we’re supposed to be ashamed.

Far from it.

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 3:36 pm
Gab: Yes.

sdog

9 Dec 12 at 3:37 pm
Spot
Literally is a good word to put in there, you know, literally.

Even when the statement is something that couldn’t be literal, or is obviously something said in a normal description.

“He literally hit the roof.” would be fine in a statement about someone jumping out of a plane, or bouncing inside on a trampoline. But not of someone doing his nana.

Literally. It’s a good word to use. It’s big, literally.

kae

9 Dec 12 at 3:40 pm
My favorite is, “OMG that was so funny, I literally pissed myself laughing.”
o_0

sdog

9 Dec 12 at 3:48 pm
Like your owl, Gab.

Abu Chowdah

9 Dec 12 at 3:57 pm
Who? Who?

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 3:58 pm
Funny, I c no p.

kae

9 Dec 12 at 4:02 pm
Nobody doesn’t love owls. Except maybe communists.

sdog

9 Dec 12 at 4:06 pm
Looks tasty!

Mk50 of Brisbane

9 Dec 12 at 4:10 pm
Owls are my favourite critters. Elephants are a close second. Then it’s fox, cheetah, swan….

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 4:10 pm
Don’t care for fishes much, except to eat.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 4:10 pm
you’re forgetting one.

sdog

9 Dec 12 at 4:13 pm
Candy and Hammy – Im with you

Candy’s comment sums it up well for me

”

There must be other people involved in that disgusting 2DAY stunt too, who okayed the whole thing, like the station manager, lawyers, someone in charge. The announcers couldn’t have done it off their own bat.

I for one am sick to death of stunts like this. Its not funny at all plus its an invasion of privacy for some public person to be hunted down whilst they are not well in hospital and unethical.

No they couldnt have done it off their own bat I completely agree. Its just trash media and well the whole Murdoch empire has really led the charge in that respect so its become almost the norm. Doesnt make it acceptable. I am not saying it was a direct cause of that girls death but the phone hacking scandals certainly wrecked more than a few lives.

Its gutter media at its finest isnt it and Australia certainly has demonstrated via Kyle Sandilands and others that our media has what it takes to mix it with the best global trash around and yes, one pugface who had the power to stop this sort of invasion of people’s privacy totally ignored his own media inquiry findings.

Alice

9 Dec 12 at 4:13 pm
lol Spot. I’m referring to wild critters, not the domestic variety. Love dogs n cats. Dogs because they’re loyal, friendly and just adorable…mostly except for poor old bulldogs and chihuahuas. And cats ’cause they’re haughty, aloof and have attitude.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 4:16 pm
sdog

9 Dec 12 at 4:39 pm
Gab

What does porpise taste like?

Vic Hislop and Alf Dean used them as bait for Great Whites.

.

9 Dec 12 at 4:51 pm
Love them little mousies…

Tom

9 Dec 12 at 4:53 pm
I’ve never eaten “porpise” to my knowledge, Dot. Impala and crocodile, yes.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 4:55 pm
Interesting thing about owls: I love them more than Gab!

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 4:58 pm
What does Kookaburra taste like?

Ranbow lorikeet?

Orange-bellied Parrot?

.

9 Dec 12 at 5:00 pm
Pretty darn fowl, Dot.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 5:01 pm
the more PC colleges get the more they will be surprised with bad behavior.

Harvard and Cornell universities have joined Yale University and Dartmouth College in cracking down on out-of-control behavior as drinking, hazing and sexual harassment endanger students and tarnish Ivy League reputations.

Dartmouth College mugs are displayed for sale at a store on campus at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire . Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
Ivy League Cracks Down as Drunk Students Spiral Out of Control

Dartmouth, based in Hanover, New Hampshire, was rocked by a hazing scandal in January when then-senior Andrew Lohse wrote about eating omelets made from vomit and other degrading rituals at Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Photographer: Jim Cole/AP Photo
Enlarge image Ivy League Cracks Down as Drunk Students Spiral Out of Control

Harvard faculty voted last month to require registration of parties and ban drinking games, and Cornell ordered fraternities to have live-in advisers. This fall, Dartmouth began security checks at Greek houses and Princeton University banned freshmen from joining them.

The moves are the latest effort to regulate campus behavior since rules controlling students — known as in loco parentis — were abolished in the 1960s. Disobedience crested last year for Ivy League schools, which cost more than $50,000 a year to attend. A Dartmouth hazing article detailed rituals involving bodily fluids. A Cornell student died of alcohol poisoning, and Yale was hit with a discrimination complaint after fraternity members chanted “No means yes! Yes means anal!”

“Colleges have been in an arms race to prove to students that they’re cool and give more freedom than the others,” said Lisa Wade, head of the sociology department at Occidental College in Los Angeles. “Now, maybe the pendulum is starting to swing the other way.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-07/ivy-league-cracks-down-as-students-spiral-out-of-control.html

JC

9 Dec 12 at 5:02 pm
I love them more than Gab!

Awww. I didn’t know you cared that much!

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 5:02 pm
I’ve come up with a culinary sensation

“Orange Perroquet à ventre noyé dans l’Armagnac comme Bruant Ortolan”

.

9 Dec 12 at 5:04 pm
“No means yes! Yes means anal!”

I’m sure that’s a school motto somewhere south of the Spit and north of Circular Quay.

.

9 Dec 12 at 5:06 pm
I hate to say I told you so…
Two of my hobby-horses for quite some time have been
a) the perverse media voyeurism that is employed against celebrities, that would be illegal if applied to non-celebrity citizens;
b) the trend in comedy toward ‘pranking.’

This incident had both. So who would have guessed that when you expose someone to public humiliation, that person might be in a fragile psychological state. Who would have guessed that you make money out of mocking someone who, oh I don’t know, has problems of their own that you know nothing about, and maybe you’re about to tip them over the edge.

As for the deejays being in counselling, I actually don’t think this is an over-reaction on their part because their entire modus operandi and worldview has been brought crashing down in spectacular fashion. They’re traumatised, and I am glad that they are. A woman died.

On the other hand, this kind of public humiliation, pranking and access via false pretenses either is already against the law, or should be against the law.

Borat, The Chaser, etc. All of them. You’ve had your fun boys, now it’s time to pack up and go home. Fuck off. The show’s over.

I’d prefer sitcoms for my comedy, thanks. They might not be as edgy, but at least nobody gets hurt.

dd

9 Dec 12 at 5:06 pm
also I agree with mk50 and CL about Humphries.

dd

9 Dec 12 at 5:08 pm
I like you as an owl, Gab.

—————————————————

I suspect management arranged the ‘counseling’ for the DJs so they could sell a contrition narrative.

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 5:12 pm
Yeah probably but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it’s true.

dd

9 Dec 12 at 5:15 pm
DD

Some of it is quite harmless. I’m thinking of the Norman Gunstan pranks.

This for instance has to be one of the funniest clips ever.

JC

9 Dec 12 at 5:17 pm
As I said, I’m glad they’re in counselling but there must be some law that they broke!

Imagine if teenagers did this just for giggles. If kids who were nobodies did this they’d get a knock on the door from the local constabulary. Designated comedians get a pass- just as there are rules for designated journalists that don’t apply to the hoi polloi.

dd

9 Dec 12 at 5:18 pm
Candid Camera was the very original prank show but I don’t remember anyone ever topping themselves after being on that.

Splatacrobat

9 Dec 12 at 5:18 pm
Them white owls is good-looking birds.

Tom

9 Dec 12 at 5:21 pm
Chair sniffer Troy Buswell back in the news…

This time for “dry-humping” a businessman.

WA Treasurer accused of lewd behaviour.

WTFF?

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 5:22 pm
Perth’s Sunday Times has detailed claims that Mr Buswell “dry-humped” a prominent Perth businessman during a private function last year, in an incident confirmed by his former partner and Independent MP Adele Carles.

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 5:24 pm
Jesus that man is a pig

Tal

9 Dec 12 at 5:26 pm
Never had porpoise. Had dolphinfish many times – very nice. Had whale in Fiji (IIRC is was pilot whale), they hunt ‘em traditionally, make a very heavy, rather stodgy curry out of them and probably grow 5″ taller on hot days as pilotwhale’s got a lot of mercury in it. Spermwhale is much nicer but that may be as the Indons make a much lighter curry out of it.

Dugong is just disgusting as it’s a mass of fat with thin laters of meat in it – might make a good bacon but boiled it’s awful.

Turtle you can keep, don’t like the taste and I’d rather have the turtles paddling about the place anyway.

Do not even think of eating flying fox unless you are in Palau whetre they make a very nice dish out of it. PNG or the Sollies – just run away screaming.

Mk50 of Brisbane

9 Dec 12 at 5:32 pm
I can’t help but think my attention is being misdirected when I see all this condemnation for what was a stupid but not ill-intended prank. Lord Glenarthur’s letter, particularly, struck me as more than a little deflective. It makes me think one half of the equation is missing. Something is missing from this equation.

Did the hospital administration put the fear of God into the staff, lest they were to misstep in their treatment of the Royal family? And, more crucially, what did they say and do to Ms. Saldanha and others concerned after the broadcast of the prank call?

There would be scant attention being paid to the DJs and their standard brain-dead FM radio antics, had the poor woman not killed herself.

Toxic

9 Dec 12 at 5:40 pm
Kookaburra is probably like crow.

To cook crow.

Put a crow in a pot, fill with water and add two stones.

Boil for several hours.

Throw away bits of crow and eat the stones.

boy on a bike

9 Dec 12 at 5:44 pm
Video Claims Proof Assad Unleashed Chemical Weapons
Fears confirmed in Syria: A video released by rebels that shows victims of chemical warfare. Will Obama carry out his threat?

If President Barack Obama thought that his warning would be enough to stop Assad, he apparently is mistaken. Assad knows that if he does not defeat the opposition, his fate is death, and probably in a way no more humane than his brutal suppression of the uprising if not in a way similar to that of his old friend, Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi.

Military intervention would have far-reaching repercussions especially, in Iran, a last holdout in Assad’s collapsing support.

Tehran’s fears of the fall of Assad were reflected Saturday in an article in Fars News Agency, an Iranian regime mouthpiece. It misquoted the London Guardian, which reported Hague’s statements on Assad’s preparations to use chemical weapons, and said that the newspaper reported, “The U.S. is spreading rumors about the use of chemical weapons in Syria to find an excuse for launching military strike on Damascus.”

Rudiau

9 Dec 12 at 5:50 pm
A Perth newspaper has reported that Mr Buswell pretended to perform sexual acts on Nicholas Kailis, managing director of Kailis Bros, at a private function over 12 months ago.

Kalis sounds like a Xerox boy from mergers and acquisitions. What a softcock. Not a trader, for sure.

.

9 Dec 12 at 5:56 pm
BoaB

Isn’t it boil until stones are soft then eat stones?

kae

9 Dec 12 at 6:06 pm
I think it’s the same as the galah cooking instructions.

kae

9 Dec 12 at 6:06 pm
Not one of them except Nevada was worth the effort. It was entirely a matter of wounded pride/propaganda.

But apart from the propaganda value and the cost-benefit-analysis, the devastation of an enemy fleet is always a good ending. Full points to the admiral who took them into it. Looking back further Jutland was not that great in terms of demolition of the Kaiser’s Imperial High Seas Fleet, but it certainly kept out of things thereafter. The Brits took a pounding but were not out of it.

blogstrop

9 Dec 12 at 6:09 pm
Rudiau.

based on the video, I have my doubts. These could be blister agent wounds but they don’t look like it unless aerosolisation was uniform, and if that was the case the eyes would have been attacked as well.

Obviously it was not nerve gas – that’s very distinctive.

It was life frozen. Life had stopped, like watching a film and suddenly it hangs on one frame. It was a new kind of death to me. You went into a room, a kitchen and you saw the body of a woman holding a knife where she had been cutting a carrot. (…) The aftermath was worse. Victims were still being brought in. Some villagers came to our chopper. They had 15 or 16 beautiful children, begging us to take them to hospital. So all the press sat there and we were each handed a child to carry. As we took off, fluid came out of my little girl’s mouth and she died in my arms.

It might be white phosphorus from an anti personnel round, not from a smoke round.

It could also be entirely faked. There’s no way to tell from this.

Mk50 of Brisbane

9 Dec 12 at 6:15 pm
Did the hospital administration put the fear of God into the staff, lest they were to misstep in their treatment of the Royal family? And, more crucially, what did they say and do to Ms. Saldanha and others concerned after the broadcast of the prank call?

I think you have hit the nail on head Toxic. I work in a large private hospital and can imagine the blow back on staff after a breach of privacy incident. Where I work it’s instant dismissal.

Daisy

9 Dec 12 at 6:28 pm
So all the press sat there and we were each handed a child to carry. As we took off, fluid came out of my little girl’s mouth and she died in my arms.

Truly horrific.

It could also be entirely faked.

Yes. After the fake injuries reported in Gaza, this is aways foremost on my mind.

Rudiau

9 Dec 12 at 6:41 pm
b) the trend in comedy toward ‘pranking.

This is not new though. Radio stations were doing it in the 80s. The difference today is perhaps that the potential audience is huge if it goes viral. I doubt the announcers. I doubt the radio djs ever thought that they’d get any confidential information with this prank. But did exercise poor judgement when they did.

Chris

9 Dec 12 at 6:48 pm
Just had the misfortune to watch Adelaide Channel 9 news and that punz Mike Carlton was on admonishing the Pom newspapers for criticising our Australian jocks. What an unadulterated look-at-mememe!!

Mike of Marion

9 Dec 12 at 6:57 pm
What an unadulterated look-at-mememe!!

What does Grey Goose, Galliano and Australian Grown OJ equal?
A very happy Rudi.
My Lil Princess just served me one hellava HW, delicious.

Rudiau

9 Dec 12 at 7:09 pm
Fresh off the back of Campbell Newman authorising local councils to remove fluoride from their water supply, local Lex Luthor lookalike and marginal LNP MP leads a push of 31 elected fruitcakes to get rid of fluoride because it is “mass medicating people” with a “brain-altering poison”.

No wonder Abbott told his backbenchers to shut up. There are some real wingnut loonies among them.

m0nty

9 Dec 12 at 7:15 pm
Flouride has probably saved the choppers of many lazy Australians with poor hygine.

The fact is fluoride tastes like shit.

Water supply is state owned and recently, rain water tanks have been banned in Australia.

It is a marginal issue but there is an element of coercion and a lack of choice.

Why do you always attack the LNP but never the Greens or ALP if you’re a centrist, monty?

.

9 Dec 12 at 7:19 pm
Envious, Rudiau. I have never had a HW (but I have had Grey Goose, Galliano and OJ on their own.

My dearly beloved does not do alcohol and leaves it to me to mix my own – except for the rare occasion when I mix us both a Toblerone cocktail.

Septimus

9 Dec 12 at 7:26 pm
Kevin Rudd branded a coward as Julia Gillard gags her MPs

Ministers are a bit different to backbenchers, Gab. Ministers are supposed to be on the leadership team, sending a single message. There was no blanket gag on the entire party, unlike what Abbott is trying to pull.

And how long did that last, anyway? It didn’t have any effect at all, did it?

m0nty

9 Dec 12 at 7:36 pm
Here’s another gag order by gillard:

Julia Gillard gags [all] her ministers

Pathetically weak excuse, monty but I expected as much from you protecting that douchebag.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 7:44 pm
Abbott has not forbidden anyone talking to the media – unlike gillard.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 7:46 pm
Toblerone cocktail.

- 1 nip of hazelnut flavored liqueur eg. frangelico
- 1 nip of coffee flavored liqueur eg. kahlua
- 1 nip of irish cream whisky eg. baileys
- 1 tablespoon of honey
- 2 nips of cream
- chocolate syrup
- ice cubes

Method:

Put the frangelico, kahlua, baileys, honey, and cream into a cocktail shaker with the ice. Shake vigorously. Pour chocolate syrup into the side of a balloon glass and rotate the glass to create a pattern on its inside with the chocolate syrup. Gently strain the mix from the cocktail shaker into the glass. Decorate the drink with some flaked chocolate, and the rim of the glass with strawberries. Decadence! Cheers!

Sep, had one once at Darling Harbour Casino, Yum.
It has the Lil Princess going down memory lane and is now firmly on next weekends agenda.
Reminds to soon get out the Eggnog recipe.

Rudiau

9 Dec 12 at 7:51 pm
Why do you always attack the LNP but never the Greens or ALP if you’re a centrist, monty?

As an avowed Institutionalized and centrist why would he?

JC

9 Dec 12 at 7:51 pm
Rudiau What is HW?

Daisy

9 Dec 12 at 7:52 pm
Toblerone cocktail

Mmmmmmm

Tintarella di Luna

9 Dec 12 at 7:53 pm
Rudiau What is HW?

Harvey Wallbanger, Daisy.

Rudiau

9 Dec 12 at 8:01 pm
“I can’t help but think my attention is being misdirected … Something is missing from this equation.

Did the hospital administration put the fear of God into the staff, lest they were to misstep in their treatment of the Royal family? And, more crucially, what did they say and do to” Mrs. Saldanha… after the broadcast of the prank call?

That’s pretty much where I ended up yesterday Toxic (at 3:47 pm Dec 8, further up the page). There would have been careerists running for cover in all directions, looking for someone beneath them to blame.

Mind you – I am a bit bemused why people find it at all important to report or know whether the New Goddess Diana in hospital is taking her duck a l’orange through a tube or squatting over the bedpan.

Mick Gold Coast QLD

9 Dec 12 at 8:01 pm
“mass medicating people” with a “brain-altering poison”.

Err Fluoride in the water supply by definition is “mass medicating people”.

WTF do you think it’s there for?

twostix

9 Dec 12 at 8:02 pm
“brain-altering poison”.

He’s not far off the mark there either.

“Fluoride is capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, which may cause biochemical and functional changes in the nervous system during pregnancy, since the fluoride accumulates in brain tissue before birth,” they write.*

Animal studies show fluoride’s toxic brain effects include classic brain abnormalities found in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, Valdez-Jimenez’s team reports.

A different research team (Tang et al.) reported in 2008 that “A qualitative review of the studies found a consistent and strong association between the exposure to fluoride and low IQ.” (Biological Trace Element Research) (2)

In 2006, the U.S. National Research Council’s (NRC) expert fluoride panel reviewed fluoride toxicology and concluded, “It’s apparent that fluorides have the ability to interfere with the functions of the brain.” And, “Fluorides also increase the production of free radicals in the brain through several different biological pathways. These changes have a bearing on the possibility that fluorides act to increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.” (3)

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-study-fluoride-can-damage-the-brain—avoid-use-in-children-124299299.html

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 8:07 pm
Who said I was a centrist, btw?

m0nty

9 Dec 12 at 8:07 pm
How do you know Santa’s a male?
He shows up late, eats your cookie, empties his sack, comes only once, calls you a ho and leaves while you are asleep.

Rudiau

9 Dec 12 at 8:08 pm
LOL, Gab’s a fluoride crank too.

m0nty

9 Dec 12 at 8:08 pm
Rudiau, I have all the Toblerone ingredients on hand so might also make some. Instead of a cocktail shaker, I mix them in a blender (crushes the ice). Very tasty.

Septimus

9 Dec 12 at 8:09 pm
Water supply is state owned and recently, rain water tanks have been banned in Australia.

Dot
When were rain water tanks banned in OZ?

Rudiau

9 Dec 12 at 8:11 pm
Not at all monty. I don’t care one way or the other. I simply linked to scientific research studies. Although, by your manic and inane postings, perhaps you ought to be the poster child for the case against Fl in H2O.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 8:11 pm
No wonder Abbott told his backbenchers to shut up. There are some real wingnut loonies among them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1pEt7bgY2U

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 8:14 pm
I mix them in a blender (crushes the ice).

Yes. Blenders are the go.

Rudiau

9 Dec 12 at 8:16 pm
Dot commenting on fluoride..

“Flouride has probably saved the choppers of many lazy Australians with poor hygine.”

Poor hygeine had nothing to do with it. I was taught to brush my teeth morning and night by my careful parents but I grew up with no flouride and had numerous fillings by the time I was 15.
o
My son on the other hand for years was notoriously remiss in cleaning his teeth and had to be reminded constantly. He is twenty and has one filling.

Surely now you fuckwit you arent going to get in here and argue against the benefits of fluoride because “shcok for Dot” a government mandated its use.??

You have no idea hw many people pre fluoride had their entire teeth removed at what 50? and replaced by horrible dentures because so many had fallen out.

You really are a total crackpot glibertarian. A fool.

Someone else in here was completely right about you. You are the type that currently gives conservatives a bad name.

Dot you are totally nuts. Really nuts.

Alice

9 Dec 12 at 8:17 pm
LOL, Gab’s a fluoride crank too.

Lol look at m0nty the science denier.

twostix

9 Dec 12 at 8:19 pm
NSW Labor steals $100,000,000 from taxpayers, inquiry finds.

Former ALP national president in the back of a police car.

Criminality proven in Slushgate.

Gillard Speaker Peter Slipper sacked.

Craig Thomson’s alleged brothel records sought by police.

Monty: ‘Look over there. A squirrel.’

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 8:19 pm
Monty

They have lost the plot (it appears Gab and Dot).
Next they wont be immunising their offspring because “its state controlled”.

Alice

9 Dec 12 at 8:20 pm
Alice you like monty have comprehension issues.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 8:21 pm
Julia Gillard has promised to reduce the Earth’s temperature with a ‘carbon tax.’

Lefties: ‘Fluoride – LOL!’

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 8:22 pm
Poor hygeine had nothing to do with it. I was taught to brush my teeth morning and night by my careful parents but I grew up with no flouride and had numerous fillings by the time I was 15.

My son on the other hand for years was notoriously remiss in cleaning his teeth and had to be reminded constantly. He is twenty and has one filling

Well that’s some convincing science right there.

My sister has a mouthful of fillings and has brushed and drank fluoridated water all her life.

So there goes your evidence.

twostix

9 Dec 12 at 8:23 pm
Since Peter Slipper’s vile comments about ladies’ private parts I haven’t had the stomach for Spaghetti a la Marinara. Bastard!

Tintarella di Luna

9 Dec 12 at 8:25 pm
I draw the line at British police saying they want to ‘interview’ the 2Day FM duo.

The British police.

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 8:27 pm
Julia Gillard has promised to reduce the Earth’s temperature with a ‘carbon tax.’

Lefties: ‘Fluoride – LOL!’

Nearly no western country fluoridates their water anymore including: France, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, etc, etc…

Lefties on Climate Change: “But Europe! Europe! We must follow Europe! Boo evil America”

Lefties on any other matter of the welfare state: “But Europe! Boo backwards America”

Lefties on Fluoride: “Lol look at those backwards euro-cranks, onwards with the wonderful Americans!”

twostix

9 Dec 12 at 8:30 pm
Since I left you…

Rabz

9 Dec 12 at 8:32 pm
“The British police”

England’s surrender is complete.

Mick Gold Coast QLD

9 Dec 12 at 8:32 pm
OK Gab subs Monty for Twostix who claims you are a an anti fluoride crank.

Are you?

Alice

9 Dec 12 at 8:35 pm
The British police.

Rabz

9 Dec 12 at 8:37 pm
No it was Monty who claimed you are an anti fluoride crank Gab?

I dont have comprehension issues. Gab are you or are you not against fluouride and on what basis?

Alice

9 Dec 12 at 8:37 pm
If you actually read what I wrote you’d know the answer to your question, Alice.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 8:37 pm
UCLA Berkley’s newspaper surrender is complete.

Not one positive comment on this embarrassing article.

She doesn’t know the internet is forever?

DaveF

9 Dec 12 at 8:38 pm
Next they wont be immunising their offspring because “its state controlled”.

Wtf? Immunisation isn’t “state controlled” it’s a private choice parents make for their children. Fluoridation of the water supply is the state making a decision to medicate grown adults.

You’re pretty bad at this.

twostix

9 Dec 12 at 8:41 pm
I aleady know Gab which is why I posted my post and dont have a comprehension problem. You are anti flouride for all sorts of reasons eg it crosses the blood brain barrier.

Im not personally sure that much of what we consume, doesnt cross the blood brain barrier.

What barrier? The brain always needs blood?
(some brains obviously need it more than others).

Alice

9 Dec 12 at 8:42 pm
Oh FFS, Alice.

LOL, Gab’s a fluoride crank too.

Not at all monty. I don’t care one way or the other. I simply linked to scientific research studies.

What part of “Not at all” are you having problems deciphering?

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 8:45 pm
OK Gab subs Monty for Twostix who claims you are a an anti fluoride crank.

I don’t even know what this gibberish means.

twostix

9 Dec 12 at 8:49 pm
As I child I was fed flouride tablets as was my brother before water was fluoridated. I still have (all but 4)of my own teeth at 54 (mum lost hers to gum disease at 19). My brother refused to visit the dentist at an early age, smart boy. He has very few fillings and the only trouble with his teeth is old amalgam fillings expanding.
My teeth are there but have been buggered by amalgam fillings and dentistry taught in the 40s (drill and fill children’s fissures which they now clean and coat with a protective resin).
I think people should be able to choose.

kae

9 Dec 12 at 8:49 pm
Poor hygeine had nothing to do with it. I was taught to brush my teeth morning and night by my careful parents but I grew up with no flouride and had numerous fillings by the time I was 15.

Your incompetence knows many levels.

You have no idea hw many people pre fluoride had their entire teeth removed at what 50? and replaced by horrible dentures because so many had fallen out.

Your family are a bunch of unwashed, stinky bloody ferals.

Someone else in here was completely right about you. You are the type that currently gives conservatives a bad name.

Fluoride tastes like shit. Life’s too short to go without immunisation, or to drink stuff that tastes like Light Ice (cat’s piss).

There is nothing untowards about fluoride. It just ruins the quality of water from a culinary angle.

Sure there are health benefits – which are made redundant by proper hygiene.

Learn to use dental floss, you disgusting bloody feral.

.

9 Dec 12 at 8:51 pm
Dave f

“She doesn’t know the internet is forever?”

neither did Linda Lovelace?

Alice

9 Dec 12 at 8:51 pm
The blood brain barrier…

Do some research, Alice-the-nurse.

kae

9 Dec 12 at 8:51 pm
Dot why would I waste my time arguing with a glibertaraian anti government radical fuckwit (Itake the liberty to reply in kind to you)?
Get some sense, argue nicely, and grow up and stop swearing.

You revert to the base denominator of peronal insults at the first speedbump you encounter (not just with me – with everyone).

Hopeless Dot. Polish up your arguing skills or ship out.

Alice

9 Dec 12 at 8:56 pm
Get some sense, argue nicely

You are too stupid to brush your teeth and want society to be medicated on behalf of your ineptness and crack house levels of personal hygiene.

Go fuck yourself.

.

9 Dec 12 at 8:57 pm
Since Peter Slipper’s vile comments about ladies’ private parts I haven’t had the stomach for Spaghetti a la Marinara. Bastard!

I’m hazarding a guess that I can speak for myself and (at the very minimum) the Bunyip in that it would take a lot more than that to put us off either the marinara or the ladies’ parts.

blogstrop

9 Dec 12 at 8:58 pm
Sure there are health benefits – which are made redundant by proper hygiene.

With the availability of $2 toothbrushes and toothpaste it’s time Australia moved past the 1960′s industrial view of mass medicating its citizens via the tap and joined the rest of the first world.

twostix

9 Dec 12 at 9:02 pm
A simple question, Gab:

Do you think the science of whether fluoridated water is a “brain-altering poison” at 1Mg/L is settled?

m0nty

9 Dec 12 at 9:04 pm
Dot says to my request that he doesnt repeatedly slpit his spleen spitting the word “fuckwit” at peaople

“Go fuck yourself.”

I dont need to Dotty. Do you?

Alice

9 Dec 12 at 9:06 pm
Do you think the science of whether fluoridated water is a “brain-altering poison” at 1Mg/L is settled?

Do you think that Australia should continue to go it alone with the US shunning nearly all of Western Europe on the matter of reducing Fluoride in our water supply?

twostix

9 Dec 12 at 9:11 pm
“I am too stupid to brush my teeth, ergo, rather than BUYING fluoride supplements, everyone else ought to be all but coerced into consuming fluoride”

You really are a boorish idiot Alice.

How dare you attack the advancement of the culinary arts in Australia with your projection and deplorable crack house standards of personal hygiene?

You’re a greedy twit. You won’t bloody pay your own way, but you force people to pay to opt out.

.

9 Dec 12 at 9:13 pm
Do you think the science of whether fluoridated water is a “brain-altering poison” at 1Mg/L is settled?

Fat boy, she’s already explained she has no problem with da science, you fat spiteful douchebag. She does have a problem with forcing stuff down peoples throat. This time literally.

JC

9 Dec 12 at 9:17 pm
I don’t agree with Gab, but I respect her to have a contrary opinion.

JC

9 Dec 12 at 9:18 pm
Do you think that Australia should continue to go it alone with the US shunning nearly all of Western Europe on the matter of reducing Fluoride in our water supply?

Yes.

m0nty

9 Dec 12 at 9:18 pm
Do you think the science of whether fluoridated water is a “brain-altering poison” at 1Mg/L is settled?

What’s that in “parts per million “?
Just so i can compare to CO2 concentrations.

jumpnmcar

9 Dec 12 at 9:21 pm
Fat boy, how did your teeth cope with all the sugar you’ve inhaled over the years? Boy you got owned before.

Tiny Dancer

9 Dec 12 at 9:23 pm
There is no benefit in doing so monty.

Overall better nutrition has done more than what fluoridation could ever do.

This was noted in Nature across income levels globally in the mid 1980s.

So many other industrialised and industrialising nations have dropped this initiative.

The benefit is so marginal and the target beneficiaries are so self selecting.

A better initiative might be increased funding for AIDS/HIV vaccination research or MRI scans for prostate cancer.

At least these would have a tangible benefit, even if there is a non immediate payback period for one of them.

The ALP’s priorities are all wrong. They are going for the most marginal issues.

Keep fluoridation and the dental plan but cut chemotherapy because Swan overestimated MRRT revenue?

Chumps. Throw them out.

.

9 Dec 12 at 9:23 pm
This is beyond ridiculous now. I don’t care either way. Fluoridate, don’t fluoridate. Don’t care. The research is intriguing as to whether there is a correlation between F- and Alzheimers. However there just hasn’t been enough done to date. And remember, F- exists in water anyway, without the government mass medicating the population.

I wonder how true the latest studies showing people are not getting enough Iodine (which used to be in milk)and now the nanny statists have decreed that I2 must be added to salt.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 9:24 pm
Overall better nutrition has done more than what fluoridation could ever do.

True. As has dental hygiene education.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 9:27 pm
Unintended consequences?

So people get enough Iodine and Fluorine from additives, but don’t bother to eat seafood at all?

So they end up with low intakes of Omega 3 and Omega 6 and consume virtually no squalene?

That would be a poor outcome. what do we do, mandate squalene is added to processed meats?

We will get to a point where people who can make choice for themselves will be dominated by the stupidity of others.

If you keep on applying second best, you will get to the point where you won’t be able to buy any basically processed foods (like bakery bread) without having some additives in it.

I’m sure there is a market for it but there is also a market which eschews such things.

At the end of the day, regulations can only be enforced with the threat of fines or imprisonment. it isn’t worth putting a consumer and producer in gaol or fining them because they don’t want to make or consume a good that follows a regulation designed to cover the arses of people who don’t give a shit about their own health.

It isn’t worth following that path to placate dummies with poor choices.

.

9 Dec 12 at 9:30 pm
It isn’t worth following that path to placate dummies with poor choices.

And yet that is exactly what this government, in particular, is doing: legislating for stupidity.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 9:32 pm
Dot says

“How dare you attack the advancement of the culinary arts in Australia with your projection and deplorable crack house standards of personal hygiene?”

Get a grip you moron.

This is an inane comment from a complete twit and you dare to assume I have crack house standards of personal hyfeine when I have never even met you, when you have obvious crack house standards of intellectual impairment apparent to all?

WTF does the culinary arts have to do with any of this?

We can smell flouride in restaurant food can we?

Alice

9 Dec 12 at 9:32 pm
A better initiative might be increased funding for AIDS/HIV vaccination research or MRI scans for prostate cancer.

What the hell Dot, this is not an either/or proposition. You’re making things up again.

m0nty

9 Dec 12 at 9:33 pm
You are a disgusting philistine, Alice.

You are not even considering the costs of these programmes. They offer literally no benefit, come with a cost to public finances and can only be opted out at cost.

Hang your head in shame. Your pretences of rationality are diabolically ugly and your hygiene and that of your family is below the mother superior of a crack house.

.

9 Dec 12 at 9:35 pm
HI Gab
The iodine in milk is interesting. With the cessation of recycling and reusing milk bottles the washing, which left trace iodine which is all that is needed, ended and so now some children are growing up iodine deficient.
Sorry, I can’t find the article I read about this.

kae

9 Dec 12 at 9:35 pm
What the hell Dot, this is not an either/or proposition. You’re making things up again.

They have tangible benefits. Fluoridation does not.

You can read, can’t you, you bloody idiot?

.

9 Dec 12 at 9:36 pm
Yes.

So you’re saying that all of Europe, Japan, and others are wrong and you’d rather stand with the bastions of public health the US, Brazil and Chile?

But on Global Warming the US, Brazil and Chile are wrong and Europe is right?

You could just reply: “I stand with big government” for 90% of your posts.

twostix

9 Dec 12 at 9:36 pm
Gab not everything government does is stupid unlike those on the extreme of your party would have you believe. Those sort of people are like the rabid communists of the left – exceot they are the “tear down government” glibtertarians of the right.

They are fucking extremeists who want to shout down the sensible in political parties because they have some ridiculous view of a perfect world “their way”. Dont be fooled no matter how hard they scream. Dont forget the peoples revolution in china was fuelled by a bunch of aggro kids.

The majority must have the voice not a wacko noisy minority.

Alice

9 Dec 12 at 9:37 pm
The research is intriguing as to whether there is a correlation between F- and Alzheimers. However there just hasn’t been enough done to date.

Gab says the science is not settled on whether fluoridated water poisons our brain. Other things the science is not settled on, according to Gab: whether Hurricane Katrina was faked, the influence of Leninism on Play School, and whether Tony Jones is in fact a monitor lizard.

m0nty

9 Dec 12 at 9:37 pm
He’s an institutionalist, twostix. He’s also semi bloody illiterate.

.

9 Dec 12 at 9:37 pm
mOron, does your family hate the sight of you? All you do is talk shit, bag people, get destroyed, run away and then come back and pretend it didn’t happen. Stick to doughnuts and putt putt.

Tiny Dancer

9 Dec 12 at 9:38 pm
They have tangible benefits. Fluoridation does not.

How much money is spent on fluoridating water? Honestly Dot, you’re sounding even stupider than normal today. Try to make some sense.

m0nty

9 Dec 12 at 9:39 pm
gab also syas monty is a full blown mendacious attention-seeking pratt.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 9:39 pm
They are fucking extremeists who want to shout down the sensible in political parties because they have some ridiculous view of a perfect world “their way”.

Yes, like people who force others to opt out.

You are so stupid and your personal hygiene standards are simply revolting. You ought to be ashamed of your parenting skills too.

.

9 Dec 12 at 9:39 pm
Hang you head in shame Dot. It doesnt matter what the hovernment spends money on you claim its an impost.

Are you some sort of major tightarse who doesnt want to pay any taxes at all.

Go fuck yourself.

Alice

9 Dec 12 at 9:39 pm
So you’re saying that all of Europe, Japan, and others are wrong and you’d rather stand with the bastions of public health the US, Brazil and Chile?

But on Global Warming the US, Brazil and Chile are wrong and Europe is right?

Another stupid application of either/or logic to something that doesn’t merit it. Congrats 26, you’re sounding as dumb as Dot today.

m0nty

9 Dec 12 at 9:40 pm
Dot you are a nutcase. Nothing left to say.

Alice

9 Dec 12 at 9:40 pm
Hi Dot
They already add thiamine* to bread for the alcoholics.
My father was an alcoholic.
He never ate bread.
He’d get up in the middle of the night, cut a slab of cheese (which he hated), slather it with three-threes and eat that.
No bread.

* think it’s thiamine (some B group vitamins)

kae

9 Dec 12 at 9:40 pm
How much money is spent on fluoridating water? Honestly Dot, you’re sounding even stupider than normal today. Try to make some sense.

This is why you should never, ever be allowed anyone else’s money and you ought to be income managed.

.

9 Dec 12 at 9:40 pm
I agree – but Dot makes a habit of sounding stupid.

Alice

9 Dec 12 at 9:41 pm
I wonder how true the latest studies showing people are not getting enough Iodine (which used to be in milk)and now the nanny statists have decreed that I2 must be added to salt.

But don’t those same nanny-statist decree that we should consume far less salt than what we currently do?

Brian of Moorabbin

9 Dec 12 at 9:43 pm
Alice.

Go home, shove your double standards up your arse, drink yourself to a stupor and wake up in your filthy home of ferals and rejects.

Another stupid application of either/or logic to something that doesn’t merit it. Congrats 26, you’re sounding as dumb as Dot today.

Fatboy

I have first class honours in economics. You couldn’t pass the first unit of undergraduate economics.

Mediate on that koan, post haste, before the bedosres kick in.

.

9 Dec 12 at 9:43 pm
The majority must have the voice not a wacko noisy minority.

Are you seriously calling 97% of Western Europe – including the French and Germans “extremist” “wackos”?

twostix

9 Dec 12 at 9:45 pm
Alice asks:

WTF does the culinary arts have to do with any of this?

We can smell flouride in restaurant food can we?

I wonder:
Has anyone here ever been able to smell fluoride in water? I certainly never have, and I was raised on rain-tank water in my childhood before moving to ‘the Big Smoke’ (and thus fluoridatated water-supply) in my teens…

Brian of Moorabbin

9 Dec 12 at 9:46 pm
Hi Dot
They already add thiamine* to bread for the alcoholics.
My father was an alcoholic.
He never ate bread.

There you go. It’s a fucking ridiculous policy and it has a cost. munty and alice are preaching crank economics in denying that opportunity costs exist.

However Alice think’s I’m a bit silly, however she has a fake degree and says “it don’t matter how the hoverment spends the money”

We are dealing with the lifetime achievement awards of trailer park stupidity and epidemiological nightmares with Alice, though.

.

9 Dec 12 at 9:47 pm
Yes they do, Brian but I ignore them.

Gab

9 Dec 12 at 9:47 pm
Brian. It tastes like shit.

Imagine if the Government mandated we all drink West End Bitter or Light Ice.

Pure fucking evil, IMO.

.

9 Dec 12 at 9:48 pm
Dot says

“Fatboy

I have first class honours in economics. You couldn’t pass the first unit of undergraduate economics.”

But you dont have your phd and you dont have a teaching job and you have crap powers of observation DOT and are as biased as all get out.

Generally the politically extreme, such as yourself, dont go that far in econ but you have plastered a labek smack across your forehead if anyone knows your name at uni.

Id be really careful about that. You are studying in the uni system arent you or have you found yourself a private patron?

The young can be incredibly stupid for all their good results elsehwere.

Alice

9 Dec 12 at 9:49 pm
This may belong in the top five list of stupid pseudoscience topics that you lot push in the face of all logic and accepted scientific principle.

- Austerity
- Anti-AGW lies
- AWU case criminality by Gillard
- Abiotic oil
- Anti-fluoridation

And that’s just the As!

m0nty

9 Dec 12 at 9:50 pm
Folic acid I’d added to bread for pregnant Sheilas. .

Infidel tiger

9 Dec 12 at 9:50 pm
alice.

Your career and credentials are made up. On the other hand, thousands of people have a first.

“11th out of a graduating class of 3000 commerce students from a uni in sydney in 1996″

Sure, it’s called the Pacific Western University.

.

9 Dec 12 at 9:52 pm
The Australian left worships Tim Flannery – a dinosaur turd specialist dating a dildo expert who believes Gaia will soon emerge as a corporeal being to rule the planet.

But they object to local councils deciding whether or not to put fluoride in the water supply. So very very hard to take them seriously.

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 9:53 pm
Austerity

You stupid fat moron. The US is running a deficit of 9% of GDP. IT’s unsustainable and id doing the nation serious long term damage through debt accumulation.

JC

9 Dec 12 at 9:53 pm
- Austerity
- Anti-AGW lies
- AWU case criminality by Gillard
- Abiotic oil
- Anti-fluoridation

Then go away you fat loser. You get belted every time. Your village is missing you.

Tiny Dancer

9 Dec 12 at 9:53 pm
monty you really are a moron.

Austerity is bad, all oil is of biotic origin.

You couldn’t pass first year microeconomics.

You are in the bottom 5% of society.

.

9 Dec 12 at 9:53 pm
What we are dealing with you Dot is a biased fuckwit who has sometime made it into economics and is likely to contribute jack shit to the science or the world because he is so caught up in his vision of nirvana that he wants to shove down everyone else’s throats.
There have been thiousands like you, before you, who think they know it all and invariably wreak total havoc on one corner of mankind.

Grow up Dot before, in your heated political fervency and urgency, you inflict a majpr religious mistake on ordinary people. You are no god. Your type needs a lesson in what the majority want.

So keep goomg to school Dot and learn something real about how to add value.

Alice

9 Dec 12 at 9:55 pm
Another stupid application of either/or logic to something that doesn’t merit it. Congrats 26, you’re sounding as dumb as Dot today.

Uhuh.

It’s never “either / or” for you it’s always “More Government Fuck Yeah!”

twostix

9 Dec 12 at 9:56 pm
Jealousy is a curse Dot.

Alice

9 Dec 12 at 9:56 pm
The Metropolitan Police have “made contact” with Australian police re the radio scandal du jour. Some people the Met didn’t make contact with.

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 9:57 pm
Dot, West End Biiter or Light Ice would be tolerable.

But if they ever mandated that we had to drink Swan or XXXX……….

Brian of Moorabbin

9 Dec 12 at 9:57 pm
What we are dealing with you Dot is a biased fuckwit who has sometime made it into economics and is likely to contribute jack shit to the science or the world because he is so caught up in his vision of nirvana that he wants to shove down everyone else’s throats.

I don’t want anyone to force anyone else to do anything.

There have been thiousands like you, before you, who think they know it all and invariably wreak total havoc on one corner of mankind.

By what…allowing people to make choices? Please name someone from history like that. Ooh that Lech Walensa was a bad man! Same with that Aung San Suu Kyi! What a white-boned devil!

Grow up Dot before, in your heated political fervency and urgency, you inflict a majpr religious mistake on ordinary people. You are no god. Your type needs a lesson in what the majority want.

This is seriously unhinged.

So keep goomg to school Dot and learn something real about how to add value.

Maybe we can enrol you in a typists course and when you’ve saved up enough, you can be referred to a psychologist for being a serial fantasist.

.

9 Dec 12 at 9:59 pm
Hands up the lefties who are now willing to distance themselves from the Rainbow Serpent being placed in school curriculums.

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 10:00 pm
lol typist’s

.

9 Dec 12 at 10:00 pm
This may belong in the top five list of stupid pseudoscience topics that you lot push in the face of all logic and accepted scientific principle.

M0nty channels his inner “Australia FUCK YEAH” self calling half a billion west europeans and their governments “illogical” and “unscientific” because Australia almost alone in the world mass medicates almost it’s entire population through the tap.

Which, of course, is the exact opposite of what he was saying about Europe last year in the middle of the carbon dioxide tax debate when we constantly heard from the left that the Europeans only exercised scientific excellence in their political discourse and it was they, not the arse backwards, polluting, unhealthy, sick, vile US that we should emulate.

twostix

9 Dec 12 at 10:05 pm
C.L.,

I have friends who are former ALP voters who hated John Howard who now like reading his stuff on the curriculum wars.

The corruption and stupidity of Obeid and Gillard, in addition to the general cluelessness and repulsive, dysfunctional personality of Wayne Swan, has also pushed them over.

Kids literally don’t know about WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam or Gulf War I.

This is a sad and insane situation. yes we should learn about the mistreatment of Aborigines, but doing so much about it to learn about everything else (also losing perspective that some of the children taken away needed it and are thankful for it) is just aggressively wrong headed.

.

9 Dec 12 at 10:08 pm
I draw the line at British police saying they want to ‘interview’ the 2Day FM duo

Let’s do a hypothetical scenario.

If you impersonated someone else’s family members, in order to get access to a young woman in hospital who you had never met and who did not know you, in order to make fun of that young woman and perhaps post your antics online, …. what would happen?

To quote Jarrah, ‘Rule of Law FTW.’

dd

9 Dec 12 at 10:12 pm
Highlights of the AFL 2012.

Poor Old Rafe

9 Dec 12 at 10:17 pm
Hands up the lefties who are now willing to distance themselves from the Rainbow Serpent being placed in school curriculums.

The allegedly rational, pro-science ALP placed discussion of aboriginal “spirituality” into the science curriculum in NSW primary schools.

Funny stuff.

twostix

9 Dec 12 at 10:30 pm
Oh wait, they add B vitamins to beer for alcoholics.

Dad usually drank scotch to get himself well and truly smashed.

I’d better shut up so as they don’t start adding shit to the Tullamore Dew and Glenfiddich and all between and above.

kae

9 Dec 12 at 10:31 pm
kae

What I said at 9.30 tonight sums it all up.

It smashed the statist agenda of regulating everything, and Alice took offence to this.

.

9 Dec 12 at 10:35 pm
Dot
It’s catering for the lowest common denominator. Yes!

kae

9 Dec 12 at 10:45 pm
Kids literally don’t know about WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam or Gulf War I.

I went to the history curriculum here and there was plenty of stuff on all those things.

dd

9 Dec 12 at 10:49 pm
Potemkin’s Village

Ribbons and laces and Sweet pretty faces… here

Grigory Potemkin

9 Dec 12 at 10:51 pm
dd

Except history isn’t compulsory at that level.

They load up the compulsory stages with the black armband view of history.

.

9 Dec 12 at 10:58 pm
kae, I thought they refused to add the water soluble vitamins (A,D,E,K) and Thiamine to beer.
I’ve been questioning that one for years especially on the grounds of harm minimisation. Funny watching the Left twist themselves in knots when you bring in injecting rooms.

Winston Smith

9 Dec 12 at 11:14 pm
And, more crucially, what did they say and do to Ms. Saldanha and others concerned after the broadcast of the prank call?

Entirely agree. Privacy is an institutional fetish of our times and the hospital management would have been wetting themselves with royalty involved. They probably gave the poor woman a blast and are now trying to shift the whole blame elsewhere. Add to that the internet attention overdrive and it all became too much.

A lot of things were going on for that poor nurse that we will never know and the prank was just one element. But it was the trigger for everything that followed.

Viva

9 Dec 12 at 11:19 pm
If you impersonated someone else’s family members, in order to get access to a young woman in hospital who you had never met and who did not know you, in order to make fun of that young woman and perhaps post your antics online, …. what would happen?

To quote Jarrah, ‘Rule of Law FTW.’

Yeah, OK.

Fair enough.

But what do they want to interview them for?

Try YouTube, boys.

C.L.

9 Dec 12 at 11:21 pm
Well I also agree that it’s a bit hypocritical of the police, considering the sort of things that the British bobbies are inclined to let slide.

In fact I dare say that it’s got nothing to do with rule of law, and it’s all about enforcement due to pressure from the media. They must be seen to ‘do something.’

Which is actually the worst way to do policing, and is far, far from the ideal of ‘rule of law’.

dd

9 Dec 12 at 11:25 pm
I heard the UK plan to have the coronial inquest into the nurses demise in the next week or 2. That’s wildly early for a case of this sort.

In Australia usually a non suspicious death – I’m thinking pool drowning of a child here – take 12 months or so to make it up the list.

Power of the media.

DaveF

10 Dec 12 at 12:13 am
Some late night/early morning music

Just Another bloody Lawyer

10 Dec 12 at 12:44 am
Jeeze JAbL I watched that through.

Wish I hadn’t.

DaveF

10 Dec 12 at 12:52 am
Im not personally sure that much of what we consume, doesnt cross the blood brain barrier.

What barrier? The brain always needs blood?

(some brains obviously need it more than others).

Okay, I’m now calling bullshit on Alice’s prior claim to have been a specialised oncology nurse in a blood cancer unit.

If she had been, she’d be familiar with just why some of her leukemia and lymphoma patients had been receiving intrathecal chemo rather than intravenous or oral.

Ommaya reservoirs. They’re not just a fashion statement, dear. Trust me on this.

sdog

10 Dec 12 at 12:54 am
sdog

It seems Alice has a serious dose of the Walter Mitty’s

Cato the Elder

10 Dec 12 at 1:06 am
SMH moron invents private school ”endemic problem.”

Headmaster won’t expel boy charged with rape.

Be astounded by this paragraph:

An anti-sexual violence campaigner, Nina Funnell, who has done work with private schools, said principals may be reluctant to expel students accused of sexual assault without a court outcome but ”it is highly inappropriate to dilute the seriousness of a sexual assault allegation by using language that minimises or reframes the criminal nature of the alleged act”.

She’s saying the presumption of innocence interferes with the gender war.

The actual situation:

THE headmaster of The King’s School has defended his decision not to expel a student charged with rape while in Scotland on an international leadership exchange program.

Timothy Hawkes said he had suspended the teenager facing the ”dreadful” rape allegation and had also suspended others involved in incidents on the exchange program but described those other incidents as ”minor”.

Dr Hawkes strongly denied there was an ”endemic problem” at the school, and of the rape charge said ”there is a feeling that it may not go to trial at all and the matter may well be dropped”.

C.L.

10 Dec 12 at 1:11 am
Tim Hawkes is a target chosen by Fairfax in much the same way St John”s College was 3 weeks ago. I’m sure other Heads would have similar stories to tell.

Nic

10 Dec 12 at 1:16 am
Some thoughts on the dead nurse

First, all we know is that she’s dead. We don’t even know that it’s suicide. It could be an accident, like Amy Winehouse

Second, even if it was suicide, we don’t know that this prank call had any causative effect. She didn’t release any info, she just put through the call.

So all the debate is hypothetical until we get some evidence, OK?

Hypothetically:

If she did it, then she owns it. Even if she was depressed, it was still her choice. In most cases, suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. C’est la mort. It’s the ultimate selfish “screw you” to her family.

As for the prankers? They did it, they own it too. Deception, wire tapping offences? Prosecute. It wasn’t a funny joke; and even if it was, that’s no excuse.

Cato the Elder

10 Dec 12 at 1:22 am
That would be this Nina Funnell:

Nina Funnell is a freelance opinion writer and a researcher in the Journalism and Media Research Centre at the University of New South Wales. In the past she has had work published in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Age, The Brisbane Times and in the Sydney Star Observer. Nina often writes on gender and sexuality related issues and also sits on the management committee of the NSW Rape Crisis Centre.

Professional sex writer.

Some of her body of work.

Professional sex writer.

DaveF

10 Dec 12 at 1:24 am
We don’t even know that it’s suicide.

She reportedly hanged herself.

If true – and providing she didn’t trip into a noose – yeah, it was suicide.

C.L.

10 Dec 12 at 1:47 am
For Fairfax and the ABC, sexual scandals real and imagined are always “endemic” at private schools and colleges – most especially ones with religious affiliations.

By contrast, sexual crimes at state schools – and within, say, the Australian Labor Party – are never endemic.

C.L.

10 Dec 12 at 1:49 am
For example – going purely on precedent – you’re more likely to be raped by a Labor MP than by a senior at King’s College. Endemic, anyone?

C.L.

10 Dec 12 at 1:52 am
Potemkin’s Village

The bonds of friendship dwindle with age… here

Grigory Potemkin

10 Dec 12 at 4:33 am
If she did it, then she owns it. Even if she was depressed, it was still her choice.

Not necessarily true if she was seeing a psychologist/ psychiatrist for depression, or the like. Then, an incident such as this, might allow for the application of the eggshell skull rule.

dover_beach

10 Dec 12 at 5:29 am
Not necessarily true if she was seeing a psychologist/ psychiatrist for depression, or the like. Then, an incident such as this, might allow for the application of the eggshell skull rule.

But does the protagonist have to be proved to have done something unlawful in the first place (which it’s still not clear whether the radio morons did), and does the suicide have to proven to have been solely on account of the protagonist’s bad act? (isn’t it pretty hard to pin down just one sole “cause” of a suicide, which in itself usually seen to be an irrational and unreasonable act)?

I mean, otherwise, think of how much power you’re giving to manipulative suicide-threateners. “Don’t do that, or I’ll kill myself and you’ll go to jail!” “If you break up with me I’ll kill myself, and my family will sue you for all you’re worth!”

Sheeeeit. I know of a college student who killed himself because his pregnant girlfriend aborted his child against his will. Sure he had other issues going on, but that was the final straw – his suicide note blamed her and said he wanted to go be with his son that she killed. If you’re going to hold people who are not breaking the law responsible for the suicides of anyone they might “set off”, we’re talking can of worms territory here.

The world hardly needs to give the mentally ill yet more ammunition with which to blackmail and manipulate those around them. Many of them do pretty well on that front all on their own.

sdog

10 Dec 12 at 6:21 am
From The Belmont Club:
“The first generation without limits” was in fact the phrase applied by an historian (I forget who) to the age cohort of Stalin, Yagoda, Yezhov and Beria — the revolutionary Marxist apostles who made the 20th century what it was. They could do anything. They were beyond all concepts of morality, decency and limits. In a very fundamental sense they made war on God and held the world spellbound by the spectacle.

“If you really want to understand why Western academics worship Hamas or Communism and despise the cheap democracy of the Western common man, it isn’t from the intellectual content of their ideology; what they idolize is the daring to taunt God. That is what is so attractive to intellectuals; and the more timid they are, the more they admire the Men Without Limits.”

I think we have moved beyond a situation where our government is merely clinging to power. While they are not actively trying to impress upon us that they are capable of absolutely anything, the signs are there that “whatever it takes” has moved to a new and somewhat scarier level.
Automatic enrolment of younger voters is just another in a series of moves, and in itself not a damning indictment. But added to the list of things, including the palace coup, the coupling with Greens, the broken carbon tax promise, disappearing documents, the ability to say that down is up, the introduction of massive unfunded policies for purely electoral window dressing purposes, and the string of unconscionable falsehoods aimed at an effective opposition leader, and you have a brazen and totally unsentimental, single-minded power hungry regime. The additional, and for me equally, if not centrallly disturbing fact is that a large section of the media will not call things the way they should. Do they also secretly despise the west and western democracy and worship the whatever it takes practitioners?

Blogstrop

10 Dec 12 at 6:46 am
Happy Birthday, Sinc!!!

I hope you have a wonderful day.

VR

10 Dec 12 at 7:00 am
Lazy seas not rising as expected by Tim Flannery.

Poor Old Rafe

10 Dec 12 at 7:41 am
Some nice thoughts for Sinc.

Poor Old Rafe

10 Dec 12 at 7:43 am
As the dust settles on the most recent obscene junket in Doha, I really believe we are seeing Peak UN/IPCC fear-mongering. They have pushed the dial to eleven. Only in the pages of The Age and the airtime of the ABC is this stuff now treated with anything but scorn and derision. People, we have prevailed.

James in Melbourne

10 Dec 12 at 8:00 am
Thanks guys.

Sinclair Davidson

10 Dec 12 at 8:01 am
But Rafe, how can you doubt when the ABC says temperature rise is on track according to the IPCC 1990 forecast.
Just because the IPCC didn’t make a temperature rise forecast for 2030 in their report doesn’t mean the ABC can’t make things up. And just because the 1990 report forecast 3 deg C per century, doesn’t mean that the ABC can’t breathlessly report scarier numbers like 4-6 deg per century last week.

Many Happy Returns Sinc.

Keith

10 Dec 12 at 8:08 am
Blogstrop @ 10 Dec 12 at 6:46 am

Sound observations

Grigory Potemkin

10 Dec 12 at 8:09 am
… and many happy returns for the day, Sinc

Grigory Potemkin

10 Dec 12 at 8:09 am
Word of the day:

“snurging”

Look it up – you won’t be disappointed.

boy on a bike

10 Dec 12 at 8:11 am
BOAB – anything you want to tell us?

Sinclair Davidson

10 Dec 12 at 8:15 am
Singing hamsters with a message for Snic

sdog

10 Dec 12 at 8:23 am
Truly, we live in face-eating times.

sdog

10 Dec 12 at 8:24 am
Likewise, happy birthday, Prof. Sinc.

James in Melbourne

10 Dec 12 at 8:32 am
Happy Birthday, Sinc!!!

I’ve got the perfect BDP for a Doomlord: the Qld greens media party on Wednesday.
It’s at the Bleeding Heart Gallery. (ISYN)

lotocoti

10 Dec 12 at 8:37 am
What a shame, this site does not have Sinclair in the list of names (Rafe is missing as well) but in case you want to send birthday greetings to Judith.

And a nice thought for Sinc (what would we do without the internet?)

LIKE A FRESH DEWDROPS of a new day… may GOD’S loving u hands be upon u today to freshen ur soul & body! HAPPY BIRTHDAY

.

Poor Old Rafe

10 Dec 12 at 8:38 am
Happy Birthday, Sinclair and many happy returns of the day.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 8:44 am
“If you really want to understand why Western academics worship Hamas or Communism and despise the cheap democracy of the Western common man, it isn’t from the intellectual content of their ideology; what they idolize is the daring to taunt God. That is what is so attractive to intellectuals; and the more timid they are, the more they admire the Men Without Limits.”

Interesting.

It is as good an explaination about the attraction seemingly sensible people have with monsters as any I can find.

Look at all those people who backed popilist events like the “Arab Spring” and while they ignore the bog standard way islamic authoritarian regimes treat their people.

Token

10 Dec 12 at 8:45 am
Happy Birthday, Sinc

Septimus

10 Dec 12 at 8:53 am
Happy birthday Snic. I hope the trolls settle down and give you a day of rest after their recent rampages.
________________________

Watch for the whaling and gnashing of teeth from Lefties in coming years about income inequality.

So if low taxes and weak unions aren’t causing income inequality, what is? The CBPP identifies “more intense competition from foreign firms, a shift in the mix of jobs from manufacturing to services, and advances in technology that have changed jobs” as causes. And those are all huge factors.

But let’s take a look at that list of high-income-inequality states again. What do California, Arizona and New Mexico all have in common? I’ll give you a hint: Texas comes in seventh on the high-income-inequality state list.

That’s right: The three states with the highest income inequality also all share a border with Mexico. But what about New York? Or Georgia? Or Illinois (which is the sixth-most-unequal state)? They are all hundreds of miles away from Mexico.

Well, it turns out that all of those states have huge illegal immigrant populations too. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, every one of the top five unequal states also is among the top 10 states with high illegal immigrant populations.

In the article it notes the following about how progressive income tax codes & unionised labour forces do not have the effect on “income equality” as we are told:

The report identifies a “more progressive” tax system as one way states can battle inequality, but it never tells us which states have the most progressive tax codes.

As a matter of fact, California and New York have two of the most progressive tax systems in the country, according to a separate report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

…So if taxing the rich doesn’t prevent income inequality, what does? Many on the Left, including the New Republic’s Timothy Noah, believe that stronger unions can help reduce income inequality, but state-by-state comparisons don’t help that case either.

New York, California and New Mexico are all forced-unionization states, meaning if you take a job with a unionized firm, you must join the union.

The effects on a society from outsourcing your immigration to organised criminals is going to be inflated social divisions for years to come.

Token

10 Dec 12 at 8:55 am
…the ~~whaling~~ wailing and gnashing of teeth…

Token

10 Dec 12 at 8:57 am
Doom Lord – Nope. That was your birthday present.

boy on a bike

10 Dec 12 at 8:59 am
It has been interesting to note the number of organisations that were strong Obama backers who have declared extremely generous dividends before the end of the calendar year (when the Obama tax hike takes place).

Since 2003 investors have paid a maximum 15 percent on dividend income. But that historically low rate will expire in January unless Congress and President Barack Obama reach a compromise on taxes and government spending. As it stands, dividends will be taxed as ordinary income in 2013, the same as wages, so rates will go up depending on which income bracket a taxpayer is in. For the highest earners, the dividend rate would jump to 43.4 percent.

The Washington Post’s dividend payment also stands to benefit those with a significant stake in the company, such as Warren Buffett’s firm Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire is its largest shareholder with an estimated 1.7 million shares, which means it could get a roughly $17 million dividend payment.

Token

10 Dec 12 at 9:01 am
the whaling and gnashing of teeth

All that blubbering

Septimus

10 Dec 12 at 9:05 am
snurging

Someone should tell Troy Buswell.

Septimus

10 Dec 12 at 9:08 am
She reportedly hanged herself.

are you sure about that C.L? All I can find is stuff like this:

The exact cause of death remained unclear. However, media has indicated that the woman appeared to have killed herself.

Cato the Elder

10 Dec 12 at 9:12 am
Alice the moron:

But you dont have your phd and you dont have a teaching job

He probably doesn’t have a game leg and halitosis either.

Why this fetish for academics, Alice?

Rococo Liberal

10 Dec 12 at 9:13 am
Oh, and happy birthunday to Snic

Cato the Elder

10 Dec 12 at 9:14 am
Oh I found this:

She is understood to have been found hanged

But since the source was the Sunday Sun, I put it on a par with “no suspicious circumstances”, in other words “looks like suicide”

Cato the Elder

10 Dec 12 at 9:18 am
I think we’ve skewered Alice’s fake career.

Can we use her account as a birthday pinata and have her sent to the next life of blogging?

Best birthday ever, Sinc!

.

10 Dec 12 at 9:20 am
I’m fairly sure she’s phil/freddie/isher/jinmaro.

They have been absent as she has been active.

.

10 Dec 12 at 9:21 am
A hole in that theory is that FDB reckoned he had the goods on jinmaro and jinmaro was a male nurse from victoria who was very militant in unions and thought he ought to be paid as much as a doctor.

Alice is just a crazy old cat lady who has a pet pig etc.

.

10 Dec 12 at 9:22 am
The pranked nurse was apparently from India (perhaps from a minority Christian community there, since she has a Portuguese name). This adds the increasingly popular ‘cultural insensitivity’ to the list of possible torts.

And the pranskters are Australian? Oh racism racism (there is a persistent myth around the world that Australia is a classically and automatically racist place, ‘white australia’ well remembered).

However, I spent many months this past year living with Indian Catholics, and I can say they are probably the least likely subcontinentals to indulge in the above.

one old bruce

10 Dec 12 at 9:31 am
Listening to AM on Your ALPBC had a report from the World’s Most Important Backbencher attending a security conference in Bahrain. Has anyone explained to this deluded narcissist that Australia already has a foreign minister, albeit a clapped out Labor hack awoken from a Macquarie Bank funded semi-retirement. Backbenchers do things like help constituents fill out Centrelink forms and complaints when things get stuffed up.

The Opposition need to ask who authorised this trip, why and how much are KRudd’s delusions of grandeur costing taxpayers.

H B Bear

10 Dec 12 at 9:35 am
Bahrain? Not that long ago he was in London giving an address on the Asian Century and then he was off to China. Can’t remember where else he’s been but not a bad gig for a backbencher. (In the first nine months as FM, Rudd spent $1 million just in travel and accommodation costs alone).

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 9:45 am
Potemkins’s Village

Monsters exist… here

Grigory Potemkin

10 Dec 12 at 9:47 am
BIOMETRIC facial scans taken for passports, driver’s licences or nightclub entry can now be stored in police and spy agency databases, under changes to Australia’s privacy laws.

The Gillard Government’s new privacy legislation has removed the ban on biometric data being handed to crime-fighting agencies.

Officials say the move could be of immense benefit in fighting crime, but privacy lobbyists liken it to a “Big Brother” development.

The Attorney-General’s Department yesterday revealed police would be able to ask private companies – including shops, pubs and clubs – to hand over patrons’ facial scans.

What could possibly go wrong? How long before we get tattooed with scanable bar codes?

I wonder if politicians are exempt from this, especially those pollies who frequent special relaxation parlors.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 9:56 am
Let’s see the left wing human rights activists explode about that one.

It’s draconian. How did it get through the Senate? Is it law or proposed law?

.

10 Dec 12 at 10:01 am
But does the protagonist have to be proved to have done something unlawful in the first place

sdog, I would look at the case illustrations in the above link. There does appear to be some scope for the application of this line of argument in such an instance.

dover_beach

10 Dec 12 at 10:01 am
I’m fairly sure she’s phil/freddie/isher/jinmaro.

They have been absent as she has been active.

Alice has too much too familiar with the regular posters and has the same underlying nastiness and agression in her tone. Phil can’t help but let the ugly emptiness bubble through.

Token

10 Dec 12 at 10:03 am
The power for police to store biometric data that was originally provided for a passport or driver’s licence is buried within 290 pages of explanatory memoranda for the legislative amendments, passed during the Parliament’s final sitting week this year.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 10:04 am
That’s bullshit. The Greens and Liberals/Nationals ought to be ashamed. They could have stopped this nonsense.

It begs the question is this civil conscription?

.

10 Dec 12 at 10:15 am
The Greens and Liberals/Nationals ought to be ashamed.

Does anyone know how to get the voting record from the Hansard from the House & Senate?

Token

10 Dec 12 at 10:19 am
Christopher Pyne takes yet another leaf out of the GOP playbook, argues for disenfranchisement of voters who don’t vote for his mob.

m0nty

10 Dec 12 at 10:32 am
monty

Sounds like he has learned from ALP and union branch stacking.

Did he have a .44 revolver as he guarded the ballot box, like the Painters and Dockers?

You have to remind yourself of the criminal element in the ALP and unions.

If you’re not hardboiled and assume everyone else is civil and genteel, it is an easy trap to fall into.

.

10 Dec 12 at 10:34 am
Dot’s argument: Look, over there, a unicorn!

m0nty

10 Dec 12 at 10:35 am
monty

You just said there’s a unicorn, I showed you a herd of them.

.

10 Dec 12 at 10:37 am
I actually don’t understand what the Libs are complaining about on the automatic enrollment issue.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 10:39 am
Dot’s argument: Look, over there, some unicorns!

m0nty

10 Dec 12 at 10:44 am
Potempkin: Monsters exist,

The camps did not exist to produce suffering only; they were designed to eradicate the humanity of their victims. They constituted a gesture of defiance towards the Creator, displaying the emptiness and worthlessness of his promises – Roger Scruton.

The “banality of all evil” describes functionaries like Eichmann, but what about Nazis animated by hatred and resentment who wanted the destruction of the Jews? This is a whole new level of evil.

ella

10 Dec 12 at 10:44 am
That’s what the right has come to: unicorn inflation.

m0nty

10 Dec 12 at 10:45 am
monty thinks the ALP owns the votes of the indigent and uneducated.

Stay classy, monty. It’s better than trawling cemeteries.

.

10 Dec 12 at 10:47 am
It’s compulsory to vote so how is automatic enrollment of those eligible to vote wrong?

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 10:49 am
The assumption that the non-enrolled are mostly young (not indigent or uneducated) is made by the Oz today, Dot. That’s why Pyne is squealing.

m0nty

10 Dec 12 at 10:51 am
If the ALP were serious about this, they wouldn’t call people who choose not to enrol disenfranchised, nor would they do it right before an election. They would have done it when Rudd was first elected.

.

10 Dec 12 at 10:52 am
Young people are generally uneducated and indigent monty.

People who are almost 30 are not “youth”.

The ALP needs to press gang voters to stay within a margin of error.

This “institutionalism” is a fine ideology, monty.

.

10 Dec 12 at 10:54 am
I guess young people move around so much they don’t bother to enrol as they don’t get the letter, so automatic enrolment ensures they are enrolled no matter where they are living currently.

Getting them to vote is another thing. They know the excuses to put off paying the fine. Many don’t care about politics at all, it’s just a nuisance to vote.

candy

10 Dec 12 at 10:55 am
By the hammstrung one:

According to your definition a troll is someone who disagrees with the majority philosophical position of a blog. This is nonsense. If it were so you’d have, not a discussion, but a love-in where everyone agrees with everyone else and no contrary ideas are ever allowed. Ironically this has been one of Gerard Henderson’s complaints about the ABC where A agrees with B who agrees with C who in turn agrees with D who agrees with A.

Let me put it simply for you, Hammy, since your simplicity becomes daily more patent. Disagreement is not trolling. Anyone can put an alternative case. Many of us just did so regarding speed limits, despite them being (seemingly) approved of by none other than the Birthday Doomlord himself.
No, trolling is pretty easily recognised. It is the putting forward of deliberately vexatious and usually spurious contrary statements in order to create a disturbance and make the colleagues here respond. These trolls can find it hard to conceal their disdain for catallaxians, and take obvious pleasure in their discomfort. They are not here for the pure discussion you cry out for, that well used mask of wanting a debate.
And, since you haven’t noticed, there are important differences between this place and the ABC. It is supposed to be a national broadcaster, not a nest of partisan propagandists. Catallaxy, on the other hand, is a blog.
There may be times when a householder invites to dinner a guest who, as part of the mix, can be guaranteed to enliven the conversation, perhaps with some controversial but well-argued positions.
Trolls here are self-invited, and tend by their nature to be immune to being asked or even told by the group to leave. Banning is often half-hearted, which gives them even more license. They transgress the norms of politeness in willfully ignoring their unwelcome status, and their cries of dismay are thereby completely robbed of meaning or impact. You have proven yourself to be just another empty but noisy vessel, and I don’t know why I waste my time on you. Just for the sport of it, I guess. Or in the hope you capable of learning something before you slip into an even more deluded dotage.

blogstrop

10 Dec 12 at 10:55 am
If the ALP were serious about this, they wouldn’t call people who choose not to enrol disenfranchised, nor would they do it right before an election. They would have done it when Rudd was first elected.

There’s still almost a year to the election, it’s not “right before”. And yes, when you lack the political franchise to vote by not being on the electoral roll, you are disenfranchised.

As Gab says, we have compulsory voting, so why not enforce the law?

m0nty

10 Dec 12 at 10:57 am
Christopher Pyne takes yet another leaf out of the GOP playbook, argues for disenfranchisement of voters who don’t vote for his mob.

Another of the Obama / DNC games, have a try at changing long established rules then reveal the real game by claiming voter supression.

Anyone looking at the US can see the DNC got Obamacare through via voter fraud while playing this game, so why wouldn’t the ALP/Greens try it?

Token

10 Dec 12 at 10:58 am
There’s still almost a year to the election

You don’t know that. We could have an election in March.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 11:00 am
As Gab says, we have compulsory voting, so why not enforce the law?

Well no, I wasn’t saying that, I was asking what the Libs are objecting to given that voting is compulsory.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 11:01 am
There’s still almost a year to the election, it’s not “right before”. And yes, when you lack the political franchise to vote by not being on the electoral roll, you are disenfranchised.

They choose to be disenfranchised. You want these people to vote on what taxes we have, which countries we’re friendly with and what military gear we get?

More than likely most of them will end up not voting anyway. A bit of petty tyranny is worth picking up some zombie ALP votes in marginals though.

What a puffed up sense of self importance the ALp and it’s supporters have.

.

10 Dec 12 at 11:02 am
There’s still almost a year to the election, it’s not “right before”. And yes, when you lack the political franchise to vote by not being on the electoral roll, you are disenfranchised.

This is a game of rope-a-dope.

As M0nty notes, the election will not be held for many months and the last thing anyone should do is get into a drawn out game which will have predicably targeted headlines.

Pyne and the Libs should not be replying to this in the media.

Token

10 Dec 12 at 11:02 am
So, D_B, are you thinking of a combination of the eggshell skull rule and the felony murder rule?

As a matter of general principle, I can see that would work; but it’s hard to think of a prank call as either a felony or “inherently dangerous”

By all means prosecute the shock-jock idiots for any telecommunications offences if there are any (perhaps illegally recording and rebroadcasting the conversation) or sue them for any privacy breaches; but murder?

Yes, criminals must take their victims as they find them; but does that mean that a minor non-violent unlawful act (say a prank call, or cutting someone off in traffic) that has the unusual and unforeseeable effect of pushing a person over the edge to suicide is therefore murder? I think not.

This case can be distinguished from R v Blaue because it was not an inherently violent act.

Cato the Elder

10 Dec 12 at 11:06 am
You don’t know that. We could have an election in March.

The world could end on the 21st. About as likely.

Nup, this one’s going the distance.

m0nty

10 Dec 12 at 11:08 am
Cato, the UK police have said there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the nurse’s death. That’s police code for suicide.

C.L.

10 Dec 12 at 11:08 am
Nup, this one’s going the distance.

With Peter Slipper in the Speaker’s chair, hey Mont?

C.L.

10 Dec 12 at 11:09 am
They choose to be disenfranchised. You want these people to vote on what taxes we have, which countries we’re friendly with and what military gear we get?

Yes, because they are Australian citizens.

m0nty

10 Dec 12 at 11:10 am
With Peter Slipper in the crossbenches voting with the government, hey Mont?

TFTFY.

m0nty

10 Dec 12 at 11:10 am
That’s police code for suicide.

Not quite. It’s police code for “looks like suicide to us”.

Cato the Elder

10 Dec 12 at 11:11 am
Does anyone know how to get the voting record from the Hansard from the House & Senate?

The only way I can find voting record in Hansard is by looking for Divisions. I cannot find a Division on the Privacy legislation Amendments Bill.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 11:11 am
They choose to be disenfranchised.

Maybe, but it is foolish to sound like you are tacitly endorsing their disenfranchisement.

I know the facts, it is the feel that matters in this bright new spin driven world.

In the US in states where they are trying to bring voter ID laws, they are providing free ID’s and as easy access to the ID’s for citizens as it is critical not to get wedged on this issue.

Token

10 Dec 12 at 11:13 am
The folly of a complient media, hubris and over-reach.

Seems Obama DNC 2012 is following Rudd’s path from 2009 and is looking to destroy John Boehner.

Let’s understand President Obama’s strategy in the “fiscal cliff” negotiations. It has nothing to do with economics or real fiscal reform. This is entirely about politics. It’s Phase Two of the 2012 campaign. The election returned him to office. The fiscal-cliff negotiations are designed to break the Republican opposition and grant him political supremacy, something he thinks he earned with his landslide 2.8-point victory margin on Election Day.

This is why he sent Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to the Republicans to convey not a negotiating offer but a demand for unconditional surrender. House Speaker John Boehner had made a peace offering of $800 billion in new revenues. Geithner pocketed Boehner’s $800 billion, doubled it to $1.6 trillion, offered risible cuts that in 2013 would actually be exceeded by new stimulus spending, and then demanded that Congress turn over to the president all power over the debt ceiling.

Boehner was stunned. Mitch McConnell laughed out loud. In nobler days, they’d have offered Geithner a pistol and an early-morning appointment at Weehawken. Alas, Boehner gave again, coming back a week later with spending-cut suggestions — as demanded by Geithner — only to have them dismissed with a wave of the hand.

It is the exact same approach Obama made in 2008 & 2010, and he got re-elected in spite of it.

You can bet Putin and the CCCP are licking their lips at negotiating with Sun King who only has one trick.

Token

10 Dec 12 at 11:18 am
Yes, criminals must take their victims as they find them; but does that mean that a minor non-violent unlawful act (say a prank call, or cutting someone off in traffic) that has the unusual and unforeseeable effect of pushing a person over the edge to suicide is therefore murder? I think not.

I can’t see how it could possibly be classed as a murder, but taking your example of a traffic offence perhaps something similar to death caused by dangerous driving? What would normally be classed as a fairly ordinary traffic offence (eg running a red light, speeding etc) becomes something much more serious if it actually results in serious injury or death (with no intent of the driver to cause harm).

From what I’ve read it’s pretty clear its a criminal offence to make an audio recording over the phone without the consent of the other party (no broadcasting required). But in the context of radio programs it has been done a lot in the past and not prosecuted. Perhaps this will change now.

Chris

10 Dec 12 at 11:19 am
According to Tim Blair this morning, pranks must be cleared by the pranked, according to the law. The radio station is now saying they tried to get through to do this. One word: BULLSHIT. They were so over-the-moon chuffed with their unexpected coup that they proceeded, sans permission from the nurse. I hope they’re both sued into the street.

C.L.

10 Dec 12 at 11:24 am
n the US in states where they are trying to bring voter ID laws, they are providing free ID’s and as easy access to the ID’s for citizens as it is critical not to get wedged on this issue.

Pre-election there were quite a few documented examples of elderly black people unable to get appropriate ID because they did not have birth certificates (which was no uncommon for black people when they were born) and did not have a driver’s licence.

Issuing free IDs for all citizens that it request it (with appropriate documentation) and liberal relaxation of documentation required for elderly people where they know there are historical problems would have helped.

Chris

10 Dec 12 at 11:25 am
Could the radio stunt debacle get worse – much worse?

Duchess of Cambridge suffers setback in recovery from severe pregnancy sickness.

C.L.

10 Dec 12 at 11:27 am
They choose to be disenfranchised. You want these people to vote on what taxes we have, which countries we’re friendly with and what military gear we get?

Yes, because they are Australian citizens.

Wrong monty.

You see their votes as ALP chattels. They don’t want to vote. Some of them don’t like taxpayer funds going to parties they don’t support.

You disregard this and cloak yourself in the mantle of Woodrow Wilson and Edmund Barton to ensure the ALP gets vote of people that can’t even be bothered to register to vote.

.

10 Dec 12 at 11:28 am
Probably chris.

I think that is a little bizzare though that it would be an issue weeks ago. Didn’t that happen in 2008 as well?

.

10 Dec 12 at 11:29 am
If they don’t want to vote, Dot, they won’t. Or they will vote donkey. What’s the problem here?

m0nty

10 Dec 12 at 11:36 am
Pre-election there were quite a few documented examples of elderly black people unable to get appropriate ID because they did not have birth certificates (which was no uncommon for black people when they were born) and did not have a driver’s licence

.

Which stats did this occur in?

Token

10 Dec 12 at 11:38 am
Which states?

Token

10 Dec 12 at 11:38 am
There may be reliable figures on voting intentions of the under-twenty year old brigades? Consensus seems to be that this will only help the ALP/Greens, with a swing of 1.5% if all voters are not just registered, but lodge a formal vote. I know I was certainly a Labor voter until life caught up with me, after a couple decades and a number of terms; seeing how it all ended. Then repeated. One should be capable of learning, unlike several of our unflushable sloganeering trolls.
It looks awfully like “get them before they have enough experience or sense to vote conservative”. They’ll move on to getting the vote down to “age of consent”, then they’ll want to lower that. You can imagine the lip-licking happening on all fronts, sex and votes, among those who rather proudly proclaim themselves “progressive”.

blogstrop

10 Dec 12 at 11:40 am
If the Duchess of Cambridge is really sick I hope they send her to the States or Switzerland so she can escape the NHS and finally receive some decent care.

Infidel Tiger

10 Dec 12 at 11:42 am
It looks awfully like “get them before they have enough experience or sense to vote conservative”.

Maybe, but as Candy says, the young are netoriously complacent and fickle.

Chris is playing the game that worked for the lefties in the US, scare people to think their vote will be taken away when in fact there is no evidence to substantiate the statement.

If people like Chris were not peddling bullsh*t they have no actual evidence for, the documented cases would be all over the media as it would substantiate the lefty scare campaign.

Look at the wiki page. Nada.

By contrast the evidence of criminals and fraud occuring is documented and as it favours the DNC [Hello, Obamacare], news of it is surpressed.

Token

10 Dec 12 at 11:49 am
I worked with a young woman who was so ill when pregnant with “morning sickness” all day, every day of the pregnancy, that she was admitted to hospital several times. She lost a lot of weight and she also ended up vomiting blood because of the vomiting.

Her baby was angelic, no problems at all, slept well, fed well and so on, which is a good thing as she’s had a second since (within two years).

kae

10 Dec 12 at 11:50 am
If they don’t want to vote, Dot, they won’t. Or they will vote donkey. What’s the problem here?

You are coercing them because some of them would vote labour.

I don’t think it is a bad idea, however we ought to end compulsory voting. Within 12 months of an election, Gillard’s sincerity is paper thin.

The fact is the ALP views the votes of the indigent the ways the US Dems view the votes of the black man.

As chattel property.

.

10 Dec 12 at 11:59 am
‘They’ll move on to getting the vote down to “age of consent”’

I’m sure I voted in the Its Time 1972 election, even though I was just 17. I even recall walking past Gough, in person, outside my polling place – our Sydney electorate swung from Libs to him that day.

There was still Nasho, but Aust had already pulled out of Vietnam (under the Libs). I seem to recall we were allowed to vote because we were ‘nearly old enough to be conscripted and ‘die for our country’, anyway the ALP used this to boost their chances. I think it was reversed later.

one old bruce

10 Dec 12 at 12:01 pm
Her baby was angelic, no problems at all, slept well, fed well and so on, which is a good thing as she’s had a second since (within two years).

Was the baby born with a full head of hair. That old wive’s tale has proven true in at least 3 cases I know about.

The fact is the ALP views the votes of the indigent the ways the US Dems view the votes of the black man.

Does the ALP endorse transparent processes, private voting and easy access to polling in Trade Union elections / votes on strikes yet?

I’ve always found a disconnect when it comes to what the ALP says and does.

Token

10 Dec 12 at 12:07 pm
For my money this is the best response to a prank call ever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAH2eQtoE2U

Infidel Tiger

10 Dec 12 at 12:11 pm
You are coercing them because some of them would vote labour.

There is a law for compulsory voting. Laws are enforced by the coercive power of the state. The law is being enforced. I don’t see the controversy.

m0nty

10 Dec 12 at 12:12 pm
I hadn’t heard this before, but apparently Doris Day has been put up as a candidate for sainthood by American Catholic bishops.

The media have enjoyed pointing out that Day’s main advocate, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, is a traditionalist, while Day was a socialist who once had an abortion. It must be something like a conservative president nominating a raging liberal to the Supreme Court, except with eternal tenure at stake.

m0nty

10 Dec 12 at 12:14 pm
“Ya know what cock?”

“What?”

“I reckon you can go and get fucked!”

Perfect.

Infidel Tiger

10 Dec 12 at 12:15 pm
If you are white, male and left wing you are racist. ***

*** according to Marcia Langton (many time winner in the victim poker)

Token

10 Dec 12 at 12:16 pm
while Day was a socialist who once had an abortion.

well before she converted to Catholicism.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 12:18 pm
Crimmins, that Twitter exchange makes the Cat look mature.

m0nty

10 Dec 12 at 12:18 pm
that Twitter exchange makes the Cat look mature.

Paul Montgomery ‏@m0nty

Shloo me noo be doo be dip de doo, rhou me ni nou men dou nou BORK BORK BORK #tweetliketheswedishchef

Certainly makes you look very immature.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 12:20 pm
Heh.

m0nty

10 Dec 12 at 12:23 pm
There is a law for compulsory voting. Laws are enforced by the coercive power of the state. The law is being enforced. I don’t see the controversy.

Of course not, you see a payoff for the ALP.

You institutionalist, you.

This is just a vote grabbing exercise. Gillard didn’t give a fuck about their enfranchisement in 2010, 2011 or most of 2012.

.

10 Dec 12 at 12:31 pm
Youre so low rent fat boy, you statist fat fuck.

JC

10 Dec 12 at 12:39 pm
As expected the churches have now been thrown under the bus on this issue in the UK.

“Sir John Major has backed David Cameron’s move to allow homosexuals to marry, telling Conservative critics and Church leaders they must “move on” and accept the change as part of 21st Century life.”

Cameron had earlier executed u turn sayings gays could marry in church after all – if the church agreed. If not well there’s always the courts isn’t there.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9733218/Sir-John-Major-backs-gay-marriage.html

Viva

10 Dec 12 at 12:47 pm
Typical Left argument – take about 0.5% of the denied votes and use them as an excuse to loosen standards for the other 99.5%
That’s dishonest, Chris.

Winston Smith

10 Dec 12 at 12:50 pm
This is what one of the “traditional owners” of the ALP (the HSU) does to disenfranchise its members.

Why is the ALP not concerned about compelling cases of voter disenfranchisement in a movement rife with hidden slush funds for elections? :Sarc Off:

A FEDERAL Court judge has ordered an inquiry into an upcoming election for the beleaguered Health Services Union after hearing union officials had deliberately ignored membership payments of one prospective candidate.

Diana Asmar has challenged the Australian Electoral Commission’s finding that she could not stand for union secretary of the HSU Victorian No 1 branch because she was not a financial member for 12 consecutive months.

Her lawyer Mark Irving this morning told the Federal Court in Melbourne that Ms Asmar had paid her dues on five occasions by providing her credit card details to the union.

He said the union had made “deliberate decisions” not to accept the payments and then avoided taking Ms Asmar’s telephone calls.

There are how many billions in members funds under trust?

Why doesn’t the AEC or a similar independent body oversee union elections?

Token

10 Dec 12 at 12:50 pm
In a bonne-bouche to Boy on a Bike’s contribution,
Happy Birthday, Sinc!

Cold-Hands

10 Dec 12 at 12:52 pm
~~Christopher Pyne~~ ~~Craig Thomson~~ Kathy Jackson takes yet another leaf out of the GOP playbook, argues for disenfranchisement of voters who don’t vote for ~~his~~ ~~his~~ her mob.

The lulz never stop with munty.

.

10 Dec 12 at 12:52 pm
Meanwhile in the EU.

“The failure of EMU policy is now undeniable. Whole societies have been broken on the wheel. Yet there has not been any substantive shift in strategy. The EU authorities remain adamant that the next bayonet charge will deliver victory.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/9733486/Europe-clings-to-scorched-earth-ideology-as-depression-deepens.html

Viva

10 Dec 12 at 12:53 pm
Hi Token
I don’t know whether baby was born with a full head of hair. She’d already had a few miscarriages so this baby was very much wanted.
We all wondered whether she was having twins with how ill she was!

kae

10 Dec 12 at 12:56 pm
perhaps something similar to death caused by dangerous driving?

Dangerous driving is inherently unsafe, unlike making a phone call. (So yes, my traffic offence analogy was a bad one.) Dangerous phone calling, causing suicide? Maybe not.

Cato the Elder

10 Dec 12 at 12:59 pm
So, D_B, are you thinking of a combination of the eggshell skull rule and the felony murder rule?

No, just the first and I’m just thinking aloud here.

but murder?

No, but lesser charges may apply.

Yes, criminals must take their victims as they find them; but does that mean that a minor non-violent unlawful act

Yes, it does, that is what is involved in the principle.

From Wiki:

(UK) In the case of Smith v. Leech Brain & Co.,[3] an employee in a factory was splashed with molten metal. The metal burned him on his lip, which happened to be premalignant tissue. He died three years later from cancer triggered by the injury. The judge held that as long as the initial injury was foreseeable, the defendant was liable for all the harm.
(US) In 1891, the Wisconsin Supreme Court came to a similar result in Vosburg v. Putney.[4] In that case, a boy threw a small kick at another from across the aisle in the classroom. It turned out that the victim had an unknown microbial condition that was irritated, and resulted in him entirely losing the use of his leg. No one could have predicted the level of injury. Nevertheless, the court found that the kicking was unlawful because it violated the “order and decorum of the classroom”, and the perpetrator was therefore fully liable for the injury.
(US) In Benn v. Thomas, the appellate court determined that the eggshell rule should have been applied to a case in which a man had a heart attack and died after being bruised in the chest during a rear-end car accident.

dover_beach

10 Dec 12 at 1:29 pm
CL – how does her health woes relate in any reasonable way to the prank call? And to say a potential miscarriage would make “much worse” a tragic death is a little weird.

Bolt rightly points out the attacks on the radio jocks is exactly what was inflicted on the nurses – irony and hypocrisy abounds.

Prank call good. Not getting permission from nurses bad. Suicide over being pranked truly bizarre. Media made it worse, as always, by getting all indignant at the prank and calling for heads to roll at hospital and radio station, and guess what then happened?

pete m

10 Dec 12 at 1:31 pm
In Benn v. Thomas, the appellate court determined that the eggshell rule should have been applied to a case in which a man had a heart attack and died after being bruised in the chest during a rear-end car accident.

Should? Why?

.

10 Dec 12 at 1:32 pm
I hadn’t heard this before, but apparently Doris Day has been put up as a candidate for sainthood by American Catholic bishops.

Not Doris Day, Monty. Dorothy Day.

Good God, you’re an idiot.

C.L.

10 Dec 12 at 1:35 pm
For my money this is the best response to a prank call ever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAH2eQtoE2U

Beautiful.

C.L.

10 Dec 12 at 1:36 pm
“Sir John Major has backed David Cameron’s move to allow homosexuals to marry, telling Conservative critics and Church leaders they must “move on” and accept the change as part of 21st Century life.”

Cameron had earlier executed u turn sayings gays could marry in church after all – if the church agreed. If not well there’s always the courts isn’t there.

No! No! cried the lefty trolls. The grubberment can’t force Churches to marry people of the same sex. let them force Muslims to marry people of the same gender as a test case. *smirk*

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 1:36 pm
For my money this is the best response to a prank call ever

HAHAHA! Hilarious.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 1:38 pm
Oh here we go:

EMBATTLED 2Day FM radio hosts Michael Christian and Mel Greig have recorded a sit down interview with A Current Affair today for an exclusive tell-all to air tonight.

The relatives of the nurse say she died of shame:

acintha Saldanha’s brother Naveen told the Daily Mail that his sister would have been “devastated” that she unwittingly assisted in the disclosure of the Duchess of Cambridge’s private medical information.

“She would have felt much shame about the incident,” he said.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 1:46 pm
That’s two deaths from shame we’ve had recently. That stuff is a killer.

John Mc

10 Dec 12 at 1:53 pm
Not Doris Day, Monty. Dorothy Day.

Good God, you’re an idiot.

Fat boy,
Are there any limits to your stupidity? You really deserve to be dropped from a crane at times… Fat head first.

JC

10 Dec 12 at 1:58 pm
Monst

If I pay will you take a bungee jump? I wanna see if you break the chord.

JC

10 Dec 12 at 2:00 pm
Which states?

Here’s just one example:

http://www.phillytrib.com/newsarticles/item/3784-seniors-hit-hard-by-voter-id-law.html

But there are plenty more if you know how to google. Many have ended up getting ID after their plight became public. But how many gave up after being knocked back a couple of times and never had their problems publicised?

Chris

10 Dec 12 at 2:01 pm
Viva, did that guy talking about the EU ever mention that flexibility in the labour market would help, or was that just a derisory reference to “elites”?

Poor Old Rafe

10 Dec 12 at 2:03 pm
Another apparently harmless garden vegetable on the dangerous list.

Poor Old Rafe

10 Dec 12 at 2:08 pm
Dangerous driving is inherently unsafe, unlike making a phone call. (So yes, my traffic offence analogy was a bad one.) Dangerous phone calling, causing suicide? Maybe not.

It’s not the phone call itself, its the pranking – illegally recording a phone call with the intent to publicly embarass the person on the other end. Now I don’t see it as anywhere near murder. But it does have commonality with dangerous driving causing death.

Plenty of people speed 10-20km/h over the speed limit and they see it as fairly harmless. Which 99% of the time it is. Its only on the rare occasion where there’s a bit of bad luck, some unforseen series of coincidences where the speed results in serious injury or death.

Pranking causing serious injury is likely even less common (though no doubt some victims end up suffering in silence from public humiliation). The DJs were probably just rather unlikely that their pranking happened to target someone who was already psychologically vulnerable, but much like a speeder is unlucky to end up on a bit of road which is not as good as they expect, or encounter a kid who doesn’t look properly when crossing the road, but due to their excessive speed can’t stop in time.

Was it really foreseable? Perhaps not since it hasn’t happened in such a high profile case before. But DJs who do it from now on should certainly be a lot more careful, and almost certainly would have to obtain consent from the victim in order to broadcast it.

btw I’m not arguing that in this case the DJs should be jailed or arrested. But perhaps instead should be used as a lesson to be learnt by others who prank and in future those who do so and cause harm to be held to a higher standard (because they now know better).

Chris

10 Dec 12 at 2:10 pm
Christopher Pyne further beclowns himself by claiming that his lies yesterday that the Coalition would have had “continuing surpluses” if it had been in government for the past five years were taken “too literally“.

m0nty

10 Dec 12 at 2:11 pm
If the Duchess of Cambridge is really sick I hope they send her to the States or Switzerland so she can escape the NHS and finally receive some decent care.

You would imagine that care received in a top Private Hospital in the UK would be of a decent standard, unlike that dished up to the proles in the NHS.

Cold-Hands

10 Dec 12 at 2:12 pm
Another apparently harmless garden vegetable on the dangerous list.

There’s nothing harmless about brussels sprouts

Chris

10 Dec 12 at 2:12 pm
Dorothy Day, LOL. I was wondering about that. Surely Doris Day didn’t do nude modelling?

m0nty

10 Dec 12 at 2:14 pm
Funny old world, John mc

We have the Steves, fatboy, Kero boy and and assorted number of morons making idiots of themelves appear like idiots here.

We’ve even had Homer arguing for months that skanke ho was an asian warlords wife….

These are deep seated fools and not a one of them has tried to self terminate although Kero boy once suggested he felt like doing so for shocial justice….something which I would wholeheartedly lend my support to.

An.d that nurse does. People are hard to figure.

JC

10 Dec 12 at 2:18 pm
Those two DJ’s appearing on TV tonight seems poor taste, in my opinion.

The nurse isn’t even buried yet.

candy

10 Dec 12 at 2:20 pm
Obama is soliciting donations for his inauguration party? the event? it isn’t clear from the article.

What caught my eye was this:

Sources close to the planning said the decision was born out of pragmatism — organizers have just six weeks to raise tens of millions of dollars to celebrate a victory that Democratic supporters already spent hundreds of millions of dollars to win thanks to the rise of unlimited outside money in campaigns this year.

Tens of millions is an awful lot of money for something that involves swearing on a Bible then having a knees up. Can’t you charge at the door?

DaveF

10 Dec 12 at 2:29 pm
Monty 1:

I hadn’t heard this before, but apparently Doris Day has been put up as a candidate for sainthood by American Catholic bishops.

Monty 2:

Christopher Pyne further beclowns himself …

Que sera, sera.

C.L.

10 Dec 12 at 2:31 pm
Actually most people do not accept that.

Fuck off Lenore. Most people don’t accept you’re a journo.

In 2009, a forecast $20 billion surplus became a $57 billion deficit in part because Labor spent more than $50 billion as stimulus in the face of an international economic meltdown and in part because company tax revenue collapsed due to the financial crisis.

So they would have had to cut spending by more than $7 billion.

Big deal. The growth of Government under Howard was ultimately something the Liberals should not have been proud of.

Cutting middle class and industry welfare, and then Government salaries from the top down would have done the trick. The states should have been put on strict diets, not just on funds, but more conditional on outcomes. Can’t cap classroom building to within 25% of commercial building costs, say, out of Rawlinsons? Your grants go down.

Cutting here whilst reducing payroll tax and occupational licensing would have made more people employed. Tax revenue over the last few years would not have fallen so much. Re-regulating the labour market, in the words of John Black, fmr ALP Senator, has pushed up unemployment structurally by 1%.

It would have been better than spending over $340 000 to “save a job” and would have kept the dollar lower for longer, but in a moderate and sustainable way, linked to macroeconomic performance.

Mortgage rates wouldn’t have had to of gone up so quickly. The RBA would have had more room to move and inflation would have been lower.

.

10 Dec 12 at 2:32 pm
Dorothy Day, LOL.

A charming way of ‘hiding’ your profound ignorance.

dover_beach

10 Dec 12 at 2:36 pm
Those two DJ’s appearing on TV tonight seems poor taste, in my opinion.

The nurse isn’t even buried yet.

Being in the media class they understand the new zeitegist perfectly.

They and their handlers understand that it is literally possible not only for them to come out of this as the victims if they work the media hard enough, but to turn the story around and make the prevailing narrative become about their injured feelings. Expect to hear more about their shock, sadness, heartache, families and at just the right moment an “insightful” “damning” of the Australian culture that listens to them and drives them to do these things.

In Australia the nurse could easily soon become a mere set piece in the DJ’s “story” of heartache and redemption.

twostix

10 Dec 12 at 2:47 pm
Via Blair, get a load of this dishonest, spin-doctoring douchebag:

Austereo CEO Rhys Holleran has admitted the station attempted to contact the hospital after recording a prank phone call involving a nurse who later took her life.

In an interview with Melbourne radio station 3AW this morning, Mr Holleran said his team had tried to liaise with London’s King Edward VII Hospital before airing the controversial call.

“We rang them up to discuss what we had recorded. Absolutely (before it went to air). We attempted to contact them on five occasions… because we wanted to speak to them about it,” he said.

“It is absolutely true to say that we did attempt to contact those people.”

Note the finale – here decoded by me : it’s “absolutely true” that they did not contact the nurse as required by broadcasting regulations.

C.L.

10 Dec 12 at 2:53 pm
Cutting middle class and industry welfare, and then Government salaries from the top down would have done the trick. The states should have been put on strict diets, not just on funds, but more conditional on outcome

Except that there’s no way a Howard (or Costello) government would have actually done that! I rather doubt an Abbott one would either – the opposition under Abbott has not been shy about criticising means testing of middle class welfare. Do you really think that Abbott is going to in practice have a “small government” policies – for example what is his maternity leave policy?

Chris

10 Dec 12 at 2:54 pm
So they’ve pretty much admitted that they knew what they should have done; and they’ve also pretty much admitted that they didn’t do it.

Keep talking, morons. Keep talking.

sdog

10 Dec 12 at 2:57 pm
Except that there’s no way a Howard (or Costello) government would have actually done that!

Their record of surpluses says otherwise. In fact, they were too focused on surpluses. They could have given back $100 bn of tax cuts before 2007. The cumulative growth on this would have avoided the GFC recession and then some.

Do you really think that Abbott is going to in practice have a “small government” policies – for example what is his maternity leave policy?

I’m talking about what a PM Costello should have done.

I thought this was patently obvious.

.

10 Dec 12 at 3:07 pm
The relatives of the nurse say she died of shame

Yes as soon as I heard the nurse had committed suicide I thought it unlikely she would be English, but probably Indian or Pakistani. It’s almost totally incomprehensible for an English nurse to suicide over a prank call, but shame and honour are very important in India and in the Middle East – think of the phenomena of honour killings, something totally alien and perplexing to the Western mind.

The importance of shame is also one reason why the Arabs have such trouble getting over the existence of Israel, a Jewish state in their midsts and on what was once Arab land shames them.

Culture is more than just cuisine and fancy dress, there are real differences in values and in whole worldviews. An increasingly multicultural West means we have to be more and more aware of this.

Andreas

10 Dec 12 at 3:13 pm
I recall a dodgy TV repair man being outed by a current affairs show a few years ago. He suicided. He was Filipino.

DaveF

10 Dec 12 at 3:33 pm
Chris

Stop being a mendacious twat. Everyone here is well aware the LP is not the LDP so we’re not expecting a libertarian party coming to power at the next election.

If we see repeal of the carbonic and mining taxes, booting the 12,000 underworked APS, avoid shit like the Lurdh/Rudd insulation fiasco, get a better handle on the northern border and tinker with the labor laws in the first year while clamping down on the spending, well thats good enough for the first term or the terms including a double dissolution.

Please stop being a clown.

JC

10 Dec 12 at 3:39 pm
Oops Inge first term, not first year.

JC

10 Dec 12 at 3:44 pm
Amongst many other things, he was the last man in the world to wear a monocle:

Stargazer, broadcaster Patrick Moore dies.

C.L.

10 Dec 12 at 3:47 pm
It makes me laugh to hear lefties think they will get the last laugh when we discover that Abbott is a big spending social conservative. As if we don’t have his number.

all i want is someone to pay more than lip service to the difference between tax receipts and expenditure.; and to have the current incompetents turfed out in a vigorous manner.

Abbott only needs to be better than Malcolm Fraser, if I am allowed to set the bar that low.

Entropy

10 Dec 12 at 3:53 pm
So they’ve pretty much admitted that they knew what they should have done; and they’ve also pretty much admitted that they didn’t do it.

Yep. Making the call and deliberately deceiving the person being called is fraud. Recording the conversation without the prior approval of the person being called is illegal. Making the recorded conversation public without the prior approval of the person whose conversation was recorded is illegal.

Septimus

10 Dec 12 at 4:03 pm
Greg Combet still lying. Labor: it’s all about their lies.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 4:07 pm
Brendan O’Connor, Minister For Housing, last Wednesday:

SO I have had an opportunity to look at this second report. It really does evidentially underline my instinct about the evidence we need to inform future government decisions.

Get these adolescent numbskulls out of government.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 4:17 pm
Julia Gillard is in Sydney today where she will host “mummy bloggers” at Kirribilli House. She has no public events planned.

Talk about spin. When did she become a mother?

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 4:18 pm
The difference:

Tony Abbott is also in Sydney, where he’ll present the 2012 Warringah volunteer awards.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 4:19 pm
Mummy bloggers: Internet publisher Mia Freedman recently boasted of her access to government ministers. Having Kate Ellis’ former COS Jamilla Rizvi on staff probably helps. But ministers really are falling over themselves to get on Freedman’s Mamamia website. Courting the “mummy blogger” has become a critical plank in Labor’s strategy to reshape perceptions of the government. ALP national secretary George Wright recently gave caucus members a lecture on the subject, while the PM’s media director John McTernan has been working on a detailed e-communications strategy. Julia Gillard, who recently took questions from Mamamia readers, is hosting 25 “mummy bloggers” at Kirribilli House. As Michelle Grattan reports today, their sites have a combined readership of 2.5 million.

gillard: the celebrity PM.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 4:21 pm
Essential finds Labor slipping back to 46-54.

Just need Newspoll to join Nielsen, Essential, Morgan and Galaxy in showing a movement towards the Coalition in recent weeks.

MDMConnell

10 Dec 12 at 4:23 pm
Julia Gillard is in Sydney today where she will host “mummy bloggers” at Kirribilli House

My God she’ll be more out of place than a set of testicles on your girlfriend.

Infidel Tiger

10 Dec 12 at 4:25 pm
“gillard: the celebrity PM”

It all ties in with maximising the female vote after the misogynist speech.
The end of world prank was to get the young.

What a lot of pandering she’s doing!

candy

10 Dec 12 at 4:28 pm
No need to bring Senator Pratt into this, IT.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 4:29 pm
f we see repeal of the carbonic and mining taxes, booting the 12,000 underworked APS, avoid shit like the Lurdh/Rudd insulation fiasco, get a better handle on the northern border and tinker with the labor laws in the first year while clamping down on the spending, well thats good enough for the first term or the terms including a double dissolution.

Howard reduced APS numbers in the first couple of years (and they’d been reducing anyway under Keating). But from 2000 onwards he increased them at such a rate that by the time he left there were more public servants than when he started.

Sacking large numbers of public servants only to rehire more a few years on is stupid because with voluntary redundancies you get rid of the good public servants first – the ones who know that can most easily get jobs in the private sector anyway.

I rather doubt Abbott will do much on IR (workchoices still haunts the LNP and apparently he was opposed to it anyway). As for border protection, he’s managed to push the ALP policy so far to the right about the only thing left he could do is start sinking the boats on sight.

Chris

10 Dec 12 at 4:41 pm
But from 2000 onwards he increased them at such a rate that by the time he left there were more public servants than when he started.

yes and Labor has continued this fine tradition adding a further 15,000 federally since 2008. The difference of course, is the libs had a succession of genuine budget surpluses.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 4:46 pm
On nuclear power for South Australia – Zero Carbon Options

Warning – environmentally concerned author. At the same time, much respect for responding to an environmental concern with a well researched, economically viable, politically charged option.

Driftforge

10 Dec 12 at 4:52 pm
Chris

HoWARd will be two administrations ago with the new government in 2013. Stop bringing up shit from a decade ago as it as a different era.

The libs have promised to fire 12,000 of the moocher and that’s good enough for me.

JC

10 Dec 12 at 5:03 pm
Good enough for me amongst all the other things.

I don’t profess to be a border expert. What I know is that these scum buckets wrecked an okay policy and replaced it with a shambles. The libs job will be to put humpty back together again. That’s what they will be paid to do.

JC

10 Dec 12 at 5:09 pm
JC – You might be disappointed with their definition of “fired” then:

According to Senator Humphries, who spoke with Alex Sloan on 666 Canberra Mornings, the reduction in public sector staffing numbers would be achieved through “natural attrition, with some positions left unfilled once they’re vacated through retirement or resignations.

Chris

10 Dec 12 at 5:11 pm
The difference of course, is the libs had a succession of genuine budget surpluses

Maybe, but swan has had lots of surpluses, he has consistently announced surpluses for next year, or the year after or some time in the future.
It’s not like Howard had crumbling borders, a financial crisis, and new taxes to support.

Rob

10 Dec 12 at 5:12 pm
Yes it’s been a real shit fight of late with some of the pollies saying there won’t be a surplus and other pollies saying there will be a surplus. And that’s just among Labor pollies.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 5:19 pm
DB the cases are civil jurisdiction from the USA. Enough said. The acts were also all violent. Extending the principle into causing “shame” is getting too close to the “hurt feelings” principle. Imagine the leverage to mooching exploiters and tell me this is still a good idea.

Cato the Elder

10 Dec 12 at 5:21 pm
Jobs for mates and mates deserting a sinking ship.

The PM’s appointment of her old boss John Brumby as COAG reform council chairman…But he’s also among string of high-profile Labor mates to be appointed to plum jobs by the Gillard government. In recent times, former Queensland Premier Anna Bligh was appointed to the Medibank board, former QLD Treasurer Andrew Fraser received a seat on the Australian Sports Commission board, and former QLD Attorney-General Cameron Dick was appointed chairman Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission.

Julia Gillard’s senior media adviser Sean Kelly is leaving the PMO at the end of this year. Kelly says he will take a “long, long break” before deciding what to do next. Confirmation of his departure follows that Swan staffer Matthew Coghlan. There’s an understanding among senior staffers that now is the time to leave if they can’t commit to an even more full-on year next year in the lead up to the election.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 5:22 pm
Here’s just one example:

http://www.phillytrib.com/newsarticles/item/3784-seniors-hit-hard-by-voter-id-law.html

Thanks Chris.

That article was pre-election – April 2012. You did not actually present a case of someone being prevented from voting.

Is that the best you can do?

That article was discussing issues of concern and I note fails address the ways the voting issues were addressing the problems for elderly people without birth certificates to get an ID.

This is addressed by John Fund and Hans van Spakovsky in the very detailed and rather agressive (ABC Aus style) interview by Linda Killian on C-SPAN.

Finally, voter ID rules were ruled ineligible in PA for 2012 so seniors had more time to get their ID’s.

Token

10 Dec 12 at 5:27 pm
Hmm Dot up all night blogging and most of today, tomorrow and the next day and night.

Not a lot of time for your econ phd DOT? You are the liar.

In addition it seems you dont even have a job. You also swear a lot at most people in most of your posts (a lot of people swear Dot but you have a HD in it and I bet thats the only HD you ever got).

How old are you again Dot?. Now wouldnt it be funny if everyone found out you were a snarly aggro little 17 year old pratt? You could easily be (maybe even 15 is my guess)

Because if you are older and still acting like this then you are seriously demented.

You are full of it Dotty boy.

Alice

10 Dec 12 at 5:38 pm
That article was pre-election – April 2012. You did not actually present a case of someone being prevented from voting.

Well yes that’s the side-effect of voluntary voting. Where people didn’t have ID and thought they would be required to have it in order to vote (in some cases erroneously) then they simply would not turn up.

Chris

10 Dec 12 at 5:40 pm
Curious reaction from Bolt re the DJ prank story. Usually he laments the absolving of individuals in favour of a bogus collective guilt but, on this, he’s saying these two adults are not actually responsible for anything. It’s ‘us’ wot done it.

C.L.

10 Dec 12 at 6:35 pm
I would sooner kill myself than listen to FM radio so I am off the hook.

Infidel Tiger

10 Dec 12 at 6:42 pm
With you on that IT. I don’t listen to the radio at all and my new car has one of these nice little SD card slots where I can plug my entire music collection into it.

Now I don’t have to put up with inane chatter by radio DJ’s at work, home or in the car. Brilliant!

tbh

10 Dec 12 at 6:45 pm
with voluntary redundancies you get rid of the good public servants first

An oft-quoted truism, but it’s not completely true.

Rather than ‘the best,’ it’s the long-serving public servants that are likely to go as they get a much bigger payout in absolute dollar terms. Redundancies these days are calculated on years of service, which means there’s no point in the fresh cadets taking one because the value of the job looking forward is high, and the value of the payout is low. This utility equation is reversed for the old-timers: their potential future earnings from their held position is less, and on top of that, the payout for leaving is much greater.

It’s true that long term employees have a lot of experience and corporate knowledge, and so there’s a loss in that respect, but that’s not the same thing as them being ‘the good-uns’.

dd

10 Dec 12 at 6:51 pm
JC – You might be disappointed with their definition of “fired” then:

According to Senator Humphries, who spoke with Alex Sloan on 666 Canberra Mornings, the reduction in public sector staffing numbers would be achieved through “natural attrition, with some positions left unfilled once they’re vacated through retirement or resignations.

That’s not what Hockey has said and he’s the one to call the shots when he becomes treasurer.

JC

10 Dec 12 at 6:53 pm
dd

In my experience, you’re mostly correct. However, there is one thing to add.

The good old timers all leave, knowing that they’ll get a wonderful payout and be able to get a good job elsewhere.

The useless old timers hang on like ticks, and are impossible to remove. Even though they face a great payout, they know they’ll probably never get another job – certainly not one that pays anywhere near what they are currently earning.

So the people you most want to get rid of – the useless old bludgers – stick around. The people you most want to keep – the useful, knowledgeable workers – split as fast as they can. The payouts are so good, you have to be careful not to get trampled in the rush to the exit.

I witnessed one outsourcing/redundancy deal where management was hoping for the following:

- retain 20% of the staff as contract managers
- 60% transfer to outsourcer
- 20% piss off, never to darken their door again

The payouts were so good, they ended up with:

3% retention – the halt, the lame, and the lazy were the only ones that stayed
6% transfer to outsourcer – the youngsters who hadn’t been around long enough to garner a decent payout
91% hightailed to the private sector

boy on a bike

10 Dec 12 at 6:59 pm
yay!

More multiculti news from the UK.

Can our resident lefties tell me one more time why people like this are not barbarians?

Mk50 of Brisbane

10 Dec 12 at 7:21 pm
“barbarian” is far too kind a word. How utterly insane and deranged can they get?

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 7:26 pm
Brumby and Bracks seem to have had an atrocious record in selecting people for senior positions:

http://www.theage.com.au/national/building-watchdog-chaos-20121209-2b3m9.html

“Established in 1994 by the Kennett government, the commission is a statutory authority responsible for overseeing the building permit system and ensuring construction standards. It is funded by levies paid on permits by home owners.

Planning Minister Matthew Guy last week announced the abolition of the building and plumbing commission and the Architects Registration Board. They will be replaced next year by a single new body called the Victorian Building Authority.

Several commission employees, speaking on the condition of not being publicly identified, have in the past week raised concerns about senior officials using public funds for international travel on matters external to their responsibilities in regulating the building industry.

Much of this travel related to the World Green Building Council, which Mr Arnel chaired for many years. The commission’s chief financial officer, Paul Crapper, was also on the audit committee of the building council.

Other expenditure under scrutiny includes lavish meals with the heads of major building companies and regular corporate boxes at AFL football games.

Until recently, senior commission officials had American Express corporate credit cards with monthly limits of up to $25,000.

Mr Arnel, who resigned at the beginning of the year after 11 years as commissioner, is understood to have pursued a collaborative approach to regulating the building industry in line with policy directives from the Bracks and Brumby Labor governments.”

All the ingredients are there – ripping off captive homeowners, fraud disguised as being green, credit card abuse, deals with mates etc. Oh, and they used ex-cops who left the force under a cloud to do their investigations.

johanna

10 Dec 12 at 7:26 pm
The tinnitus has upped the ante over the last two weeks and is tonight really bothersome – quite loud and persistent – like the background hiss on short wave radio. So, I have the headphones on and some quiet, soothing music is in order.

James Horner’s soundtrack CD to ‘House of Sand and Fog’ has just started playing and will be followed by Hans Zimmer’s ‘The Wings of a Film’ CD

And I am enjoying my second glass of a Kaestler Stonehorse 2008 Shiraz Grenache Mouvedre, a bottle of which was kindly given to me by my elderly (mid-80s) neighbours for helping with ther computer and TV/DVD/Video systems.

Septimus

10 Dec 12 at 7:54 pm
Has Labor announced some half assed scheme to lower the voting age? Just seeing stuff along those lines appearing on Facebook…

Driftforge

10 Dec 12 at 8:02 pm
Viva, did that guy talking about the EU ever mention that flexibility in the labour market would help, or was that just a derisory reference to “elites”?

Rafe – here is the relevant quote from the article:

“EU policy elites blame “labour rigidities”. The United Nation’s economic arm UNCTAD counters that the EU demand for “wage compression” is itself perpetuating the crisis.

“The labour share of total income has fallen to a 60-year low, eating away at demand. This is a formula for perma-slump. In a thinly veiled attack on Berlin, Frankfurt, and Brussels, the UN decried the “political blockade” against any solution to the crisis. It mocked the “discredited mantra” of flexible labour markets. Well, at least somebody is exposing the lie.”

Viva

10 Dec 12 at 8:14 pm
Got a mate that has high blood pressure.
The quack prescribed some pills but warned ” Don’t have this medication with grapefruit, grapefruit enhances your bodies ability to absorb it and you could overdose ”
I asked ” why didn’t she prescribe a much smaller dose + grapefruit juice ? ”
Is there a floor in that reasoning?

jumpnmcar

10 Dec 12 at 8:15 pm
Septimus!

Put on Amon Amaranth’s ‘Twilight of the Thunder God‘

loud.

Your tinnitus will run screaming into the middle distance from sheer embarrassment.

Mk50 of Brisbane

10 Dec 12 at 8:21 pm
Anyone listened to the prank call? It’s ridiculous that someone could be punked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BC63B6WXdc

JC

10 Dec 12 at 8:21 pm
Pimf. Amon Amarth

Mk50 of Brisbane

10 Dec 12 at 8:23 pm
That’s Kaesler (without a ‘t’) Stonehorse 2008 Shiraz Grenache Mouvèdre. Third glass now – very tasty

Septimus

10 Dec 12 at 8:23 pm
Just a brandy here, Septimus.

And a stack of books to get thru….

Mk50 of Brisbane

10 Dec 12 at 8:25 pm
Sorting through my library and deciding which books to get rid of as I have far too many and really how many times can you read the same book? Still, it’s a painful process, almost as painful as getting rid of shoes. *sigh*.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 8:28 pm
I’m still loving IT’s truckie link.

“Well, what does that mean?”

“Well, that means you’re a pencil-pushin’ fuckin dickhead who doesn’t know what you’re talkin’ about.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAH2eQtoE2U

C.L.

10 Dec 12 at 8:31 pm
Sacrilege, Gab.

Just finished putting up bookshelves for my better half, all her books are out now (about 62 shelf-metres) and got my first 8 shelf-metres up. Glassed in about 5 shelf metres so the antique books are now on display.

Only about 35 more shelf-metres to go and all my books will be sorted!

Mk50 of Brisbane

10 Dec 12 at 8:34 pm
Still, it’s a painful process, almost as painful as getting rid of shoes. *sigh*.

Say what, Gab?

Mmm?

C.L.

10 Dec 12 at 8:37 pm
Put on Amon Amaranth’s ‘Twilight of the Thunder God‘

loud.

Your tinnitus will run screaming into the middle distance from sheer embarrassment.

Thanks Mk50, but I think I’ll go quietly tonight.

No work, and maybe round out the evening with Zimmer’s ‘House of the Spirits’ soundtrack at just enough volume to balance out the tinnitus.

Septimus

10 Dec 12 at 8:38 pm
However it doesn’t take me 20 years to dispose of shoes and I actually do throw them out. I don’t have them stuffed and mounted and build a shrine to them…unlike some people.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 8:41 pm
Jump

Is there a floor in that reasoning?

The flaw is that the dose is for a normal metabolisation of a drug and for it to do the job it’s prescribed to do, if you change the dose you must know the exact amount of grapefruit juice being taken and there are too many variables.

kae

10 Dec 12 at 8:46 pm
I asked ” why didn’t she prescribe a much smaller dose + grapefruit juice ? ”
Is there a floor in that reasoning?

It’s a while since I worked my GP rotations, but the flaw is that the effect on bioavailability (how much active drug is absorbed) due to grapefruit is unpredictable, so that the doctor would not know how much of the drug the patient is actually getting. A tablet is formulated and tested so that the prescribing doctor has a reasonable idea of the amount of active ingredient that the patient will actually receive. Plus, dosages are not easily titratable- tablets come in specific sizes, and not all tablets can be split (plus it’s an annoyance for the patient to have to do so, causing compliance issues). Grapefruit can interact with quite a few drugs through multiple mechanisms, so it’s generally safer and more efficient to eschew grapefruit rather than try and tailor a dose taking it into account.

Cold-Hands

10 Dec 12 at 8:48 pm
It’s nice to read about someone else who measures their books by the meter. People look at me oddly when I talk about book-metres.

boy on a bike

10 Dec 12 at 8:48 pm
… I actually do throw them out.

No you’re lying.

C.L.

10 Dec 12 at 8:49 pm
Those medications have destroyed the market for grapefruit in Florida and other southern states, where grapefruit used to be a commonly eaten food by older people.

dd

10 Dec 12 at 8:50 pm
I’d not gotten around to wishing Sinc a happy birthday, so here’s my late contribution.

Enjoy, Doomlord!

nilk

10 Dec 12 at 8:52 pm
What cold hands said.

Tell me about the annoyance of splitting tablets…. Tambocor. Must use a pill cutter.

kae

10 Dec 12 at 8:54 pm
I’ve kept a large text book on quantitative analysis for the last ten years or so…never looked at it in that time….do I keep it? Yes! I may need it one day for some unforeseen reason. And my Vogel! It’s like a bible…but I haven’t opened it in years….better keep it just in case….

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 8:55 pm
Book metres? Not odd at all.

I’ve had to get rid of metres of books.

Harder to do than get rid of shoes (yes, too right, Gab!).

kae

10 Dec 12 at 8:56 pm
Drive wasn’t the usual roo in the spotlight on that little prank, the DJ was. Drive thought he was fair dinkum and just fed it to him.

No fear at all about ripping some public servant regulator. He argued the definition of “avoid” well and then trampled him. Hats off.

Pickles

10 Dec 12 at 9:03 pm
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!

The Lying Slapper’s not in a dunny, she’s flushed around the S-bend.

Mk50 of Brisbane

10 Dec 12 at 9:08 pm
kea

too many variables.

Yes, and other fruit? Veg ?
Talk about variables.
There are how many new foods or meds that may have effect on that particular treatment?
Their stabbing in the dark with impunity.
Some foods block absorption.

jumpnmcar

10 Dec 12 at 9:08 pm
@mk50 the beauty of that poll is Greens support dropping to 8%. A bit more Milne come election time and they’ll be losing those senate seats in short order. Then they’ll lose party status, and the rot will set in. Secretly I hope for a ‘peoples front of Judea/Judean Peoples Front’ schism, with SHY against Milne and the old commie in between.

A poll doesn’t make me smile unless Labor primary vote has a 2 in front of it.

brc

10 Dec 12 at 9:12 pm
Mk50,

Have bookmarked Amon Amarth’s ‘Thunder of the Twilight Gods’ and will check it out when the head noise calms down. Thank you.

Cold-Hands,

eschew grapefruit

Excellent advice. Grape juice (fermented of course) is much tastier, and helps keep the veins clean, too.

BTW. I too have Raynaud’s Disease. Longitudinal ridges on all fingernails on both hands, ring finger left hand brittle and splits down to the nail-base, left hand middle and ring fingers often get the all white, no-blood flow, numb, coldness symptom that needs to be alleviated in luke warm water. Not fun really.

Septimus

10 Dec 12 at 9:13 pm
Shoes wear out, Kae books never do.
I’m certainly keeping The Groundwork of British History (Warner & Marten) and and Churchill’s The World Crisis: The Aftermath (1929 ed.,)as well as the Eclectic Medical Journal (1914)which has some real gems for treating disease and offers insights into the lack of shocked sensibilities when discussing gonorrhea in open classes of male and female students at Stanford! Apparently, not one student withdrew from the class.

Can’t recall ever buying this book but I’ll keep it anyway – An Introduction to the History of Western Europe by James Harvey Robinson, 1902. Okay, that little lot was easy. perhaps I need to muster some dutch courage with a tipple or twoof something sweet and alcoholic before I tackle more.

Gab

10 Dec 12 at 9:18 pm
My Dear Friend and Partner,

If anyone needs some spare cash for xmas, I’ll be happy to pass your contact details over so you can collect.

An email I just received, how comical! Pity Mrs. Gina had trouble with spelling and grammar at school.

Greetings to you my Dear Beloved, my name is Mrs. Gina Rinehart, a great
citizen of Australia,born in Perth, Western Australia,i have a mission for
you worth ($200,000,000.00) Two Hundred Million Dollars which I intend to
use for CHARITY.Pls reply if intrested.

God Bless You.
Mrs Gina Rinehart

Biota

10 Dec 12 at 9:27 pm
The Lying Slapper’s not in a dunny, she’s flushed around the S-bend

I have faith in the good judgement of the common people, Mark, but we live in strange times. I’ve never known an era where a government was pitching so shamelessly for the fascist subversion of democracy. Sounds extreme, but I am genuinely nervous.

Tom

10 Dec 12 at 9:31 pm
How pleasant is the blog without those nutters like mOron and SfB, etc etc?

Tiny Dancer

10 Dec 12 at 9:34 pm
BTW. I too have Raynaud’s Disease.

Commiserations, Septimus. It seems that the manifestations I experience are not as severe as your’s, although my toes are affected as well. Not fun at all.

Cold-Hands

10 Dec 12 at 9:39 pm
Isn’t it just.

Fat boy is lying low since the earlier Doris Day stupidity.

No Steves.

It’s like Christmas.

JC

10 Dec 12 at 9:42 pm
I have faith in the good judgement of the common people, Mark, but we live in strange times.

Well I don’t. It wouldn’t shock me if they won the next election. There’s a great deal of mooching going on in the West these days.

JC

10 Dec 12 at 9:44 pm
Too many variables.

Same thing as cold hands said.

There are many drugs which interact with certain foods, there are many drugs which shouldn’t be taken with certain foods – for example, blood thinners shouldn’t be taken with broccoli and other green vegies rich in vitamin K – vitamin K is a treatment for problems with blood which won’t clot.

These are usually mentioned on the information sheet in with the drugs or that the chemist is supposed to supply to you.

kae

10 Dec 12 at 9:45 pm
And I have heard that if you always have broccoli if you then start with the blood thinners you can still have broccoli. But I don’t think I’d like to test it.

kae

10 Dec 12 at 9:47 pm
That Essential poll was interesting in that both leaders are basically loathed by the electorate.

MK50 at 9.08pm.

We are truly under served by our elected members.

More an observation than anything else.

Now I’ll go back to my ad free 2DAY FM

DaveF

10 Dec 12 at 10:01 pm
Another chapter from the law of unintended consequences:

People now pre-loading with alcohol before heading out to avoid exorbitant costs of piss in this deranged toilet of a country.

Infidel Tiger

10 Dec 12 at 10:07 pm
”Drinking levels are clearly increasing, pre-loading is a bigger issue, venues are open later than they used to be and an issue for us all to look at is off-licence premises and the sale of packaged liquor.”

Not true at all. Alcohol consumption per head has been in decline for decades.

The nazis who inhabit Australia’a health lobbies will now be aiming to make the piss we consume in our manor more expensive.

No wonder our airports are full of people heading OS for fun.

Infidel Tiger

10 Dec 12 at 10:10 pm
Not a biggie IT

”We spent a lot of time trying to think of other ways to deal with pre-drinking and simply couldn’t,” Associate Professor Miller said.

This funded by the National Drug Law Enforcement Fund (NDLERF).
Special thanks to: Inspector Bill Mathers

The chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund, Detective Superintendent Tony Cooke, said there had been a shift in drinking culture, contributing to the violence. ”Culturally we have to look at why we’re going out to get sauced up, rather than to enjoy the night out,” he said.

Funded for conclusions mate. Funded by the cops no less. Which was not mentioned in the article.

DaveF

10 Dec 12 at 10:16 pm
IT
I had a boarder living here in 2001. She and her friends used to load up on alcohol before they went out. It was cheaper to drink at home and then they’d got out rotten drunk already.

She was a binge drinker, as I suspect he friends were.

kae

10 Dec 12 at 10:27 pm
Two weeks ago, New South Wales Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione said he was “appalled” and “frightened” by the number of drink-related fatalities, injuries and crimes.

FMD. Who are these people?

sdog

10 Dec 12 at 10:28 pm
Another chapter from the law of unintended consequences:

People now pre-loading with alcohol before heading out to avoid exorbitant costs of piss in this deranged toilet of a country.

Didn’t we go through all this in the early 1900′s already? And why are we working on safe and secure places to shoot up while forcing boozers to get smashed in the gutter?

SOLUTION: rename all pubs “Safe Intoxication Rooms” and subsidise them heavily as a harm minimisation measure.

It’s like how the “subsidy” for farm fuel use disappears if we rename all fuel taxes but GST as “Congestion levies” aimed at cleaning up our urban and suburban areas by incentivising people to not drive cars there.

TLDR: people are crushingly stupid.

wreckage

10 Dec 12 at 10:34 pm
They started for the smokers, but I didn’t like the smell..

And so it goes.

I watch those prohibihionist Nanny staters and it always starts with epidemiology. Never trust it, always check the original docs. And epidemiology in general.

And the funding, always the funding.

DaveF

10 Dec 12 at 10:38 pm
sdog: FMD. Who are these people?

Fond’them! Turns out larry Kramer once wrote a book about ‘em… (or not)

Mk50 of Brisbane

10 Dec 12 at 10:38 pm
found…

Mk50 of Brisbane

10 Dec 12 at 10:39 pm
I had a boarder living here in 2001. She and her friends used to load up on alcohol before they went out. It was cheaper to drink at home and then they’d got out rotten drunk already.

I knew people who did that in the 90s. Pre-gaming, we called it back then. College students have been doing it for ages.

sdog

10 Dec 12 at 10:40 pm
Uhm, listening to headphones is not a good idea if you have tinnitus…

Abu Chowdah

10 Dec 12 at 10:46 pm
OK MK I had a link for you in revenge of yours but it was not allowed.

Pre drinking? Are these people Baptists? Of course young people do that.

Hell, does having dinner with wine then boozing at karaoke count for us middle aged people?

DaveF

10 Dec 12 at 10:49 pm
A change of pace. Funniest death scenes.

Poor Old Rafe

10 Dec 12 at 10:53 pm
Spot, oops. It was 2006 she was here!

It’s not new, though. But we never drank before going out when I was going out in the 70s and 80s.

kae

10 Dec 12 at 10:58 pm
Late to the Doomlord’s party but wishing Sinc a very happy birthday!

I measure book metres as well, and find them impossible to cull. Make a token effort once a year but my heart’s not in it.

Megan

10 Dec 12 at 10:58 pm
Nothing sums up Australia better than at 7:30 on Channel 7 there is a show called Motorway Patrol and on Channel 9 there is a show called RBT.

We are fascism loving filth.

Infidel Tiger

10 Dec 12 at 11:04 pm
”There are many people drinking around the corner from the pub, in their cars or in their homes, and it is so difficult for venues to detect that, unless someone is very obviously intoxicated when they arrive.”

It’s best if somebody has an apartment a stop of two from the city – that way the liqour has a chance to gain maximum effectiveness before reaching the clubs. The fun police might need to be informed that people happen to enjoy the pre-night gathering in addition to getting a nice healthy buzz up on cheap booze before going out. Plus there’s nothing worse than reaching the city at 10pm stone cold sober then having to waste the next hour and $50 to get started.

twostix

10 Dec 12 at 11:14 pm
I measure book metres as well, and find them impossible to cull.

How do you measure book metres on a shelf when your paperbacks are two deep and stacked on top as well?

Cold-Hands

10 Dec 12 at 11:17 pm
I had a boarder living here in 2001. She and her friends used to load up on alcohol before they went out. It was cheaper to drink at home and then they’d got out rotten drunk already.

I knew people who did that in the 90s. Pre-gaming, we called it back then. College students have been doing it for ages.

sdog, this has been going on since alcohol (and teenagers) were invented. Does Stones ginger wine still offer the best alcohol/cost ratio for the nondiscriminating 16yo?

squawkbox

10 Dec 12 at 11:18 pm
Very interesting article. Couple of sheilas get invited to XXXX Island under the impression that it will be a Lord Of the Flies style Thunderdome full of drunken bogan men…. preconceptions are smashed.

Infidel Tiger

10 Dec 12 at 11:22 pm
We are fascism loving filth.

We are also perpetually shocked! and appalled!. And frightened!. Even our fucking police commissioners.

Australia, you’re broken. Your new crest should feature a red frog ~~rampant~~ with a compassionately tilted head and your new motto should be “Help! I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!”

sdog

10 Dec 12 at 11:23 pm
Does Stones ginger wine still offer the best alcohol/cost ratio for the nondiscriminating 16yo?

Gives you a much better buzz than hopping into the Claytons as a young boy from Perth did once.

Infidel Tiger

10 Dec 12 at 11:25 pm
How do you measure book metres on a shelf when your paperbacks are two deep and stacked on top as well?

One word…mathematics. Although I’ve never, ever used calculus for anything since my last exam in year 11.

Megan

10 Dec 12 at 11:29 pm
sdog, this has been going on since alcohol (and teenagers) were invented.

Plus ça change…

sdog

10 Dec 12 at 11:32 pm
The nazis who inhabit Australia’a health lobbies will now be aiming to make the piss we consume in our manor more expensive.

No wonder our airports are full of people heading OS for fun.

Wait until they find out that half the city bound taxis and trains and nightclub toilets in Australia are looking like a cross between a pharmacy and the cocaine scene in scarface on a Friday and Saturday night.

Pearls will be clutched and Police Commissioners will be stern when that study is done!

twostix

10 Dec 12 at 11:42 pm
Nothing sums up Australia better than at 7:30 on Channel 7 there is a show called Motorway Patrol and on Channel 9 there is a show called RBT.

We are fascism loving filth.

Indeed.

This is more like it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LMKBuGvGUo

C.L.

10 Dec 12 at 11:44 pm
Does Stones ginger wine still offer the best alcohol/cost ratio for the nondiscriminating 16yo?

As nice as it tastes you don’t even have to wait until the next day before you’re paying for doing that.

John Mc

10 Dec 12 at 11:48 pm
That xxxx island looks and sounds awesome.

brc

10 Dec 12 at 11:52 pm
That xxxx island looks and sounds awesome.

Yeah! You also get to travel there by schooner.

nic

11 Dec 12 at 12:02 am
A Xmas gift for CL:

Nigella works out in bra and trainers only.

Infidel Tiger

11 Dec 12 at 12:06 am
It’s Sinc’s birthday. Thank you to whomever wished for no Monty or Steve as he blew out the candles.

nic

11 Dec 12 at 12:08 am
Nigella’s 52? Cripes. Age really doesn’t matter.

nic

11 Dec 12 at 12:10 am
Nigella works out in bra and trainers only.

Fastest link ever clicked.

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 12:14 am
You know the Gillard ‘government’ is a stark-raving mad collection of communists, closet lesbians and fruitcake fascist cockheads when the boss of the ABC sounds a warning.

Yes, being offensive will soon be illegal.

ABC chairman Jim Spigelman slams ALP laws that make it illegal to be offensive.

ABC chairman and former top jurist Jim Spigelman has warned that a planned overhaul of discrimination law will impose unprecedented restrictions on free speech, including making it unlawful to offend people, leaving the nation isolated from international norms.

The Gillard government’s planned consolidation of all federal discrimination laws would significantly redraw the line between permissible and unlawful speech and open the way for the banning of publications, said Mr Spigelman, the immediate past chief justice of NSW.

“I am not aware of any international human rights instrument or national anti-discrimination statute in another liberal democracy that extends to conduct which is merely offensive,” Mr Spigelman said.

“We would be pretty much on our own in declaring conduct which does no more than offend to be unlawful. The freedom to offend is an integral component of freedom of speech. There is no right not to be offended.”

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 12:24 am
If being offensive is illegal they’ll have to wrap Nicola Roxon’s head in plain packaging.

Infidel tiger

11 Dec 12 at 12:28 am
ALP laws that make it illegal to be offensive.

what I don’t get is why the fuck people aren’t up in arms about this? Where’s David Marr, Julian Burbside and others?

OK maybe not – staist assholes that they are. But surely someone apart from the IPA and the ABC boss must think this is a very, very bad thing?

papachango

11 Dec 12 at 12:30 am
what’s the fuss about Nigella Lawson – anyone?

papachango

11 Dec 12 at 12:32 am
Huge rack, nice face, good food, smart Dad.

Infidel tiger

11 Dec 12 at 12:33 am
Cut&Paste. No giant leap, just many first steps.

“First first step. The Age, December 17, 2006:

PRIME minister Kevin Rudd has pledged to work closely with Chinese leaders, India and the US to get a climate-change agreement by the end of 2009. Professor Neville Nicholls, a Melbourne environmental scientist, said the talks had been an important first step.

Second first step. The Age, December 14, 2007:

MR Rudd said he was surprised by the reaction to his announcement of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. “This is an important first step. We have a determination to resurrect the good name of Australia in the world,” he said.

Third first step. The Sydney Morning HeraldFebruary 5, 2008:

CLEAR reporting of corporate greenhouse gas emissions is an essential first step in an emissions trading scheme, an Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner, Tony Mohr, said.

Fourth first step. Christine Milne, November 10, 2008:

THE green car package is an important first step towards a green New Deal.

Fifth first step. The Guardian, December 19, 2009:

THE UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen broke up last night with Gordon Brown hailing the night a success on five out of six measures . . . “It is not sufficient to combat the threat of climate change, but it’s an important first step,” a US official said.

Sixth first step. Chris Evans, September 13 last year:

THE Clean Energy package is an important first step in the transition to a clean energy future.

Enough with the first steps! Fran Kelly on Radio National’s Breakfast yesterday:

BEFORE Doha occurred, we could have choreographed how it would end, with the same form of words essentially being used by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the European climate (action) commissioner Connie Hedegaard , our own minister Greg Combet — all described it as an important but essential first step. How do you change this dance?

Christine Milne: It’s not going to change the dynamic until the US and China decide they’re really going to get serious.

Last straw! RT News, December 7:

THE 18th climate change summit in Doha is drawing to an end after once again failing to find common consensus on what it calls a major threat to human existence. Failure seemed inevitable after climate sceptic Lord Monckton crashed the event . . . disguising himself as a delegate from Myanmar. Monckton switched on a microphone and said, “In the 16 years we have been coming to these conferences, there has been no global warming at all . . . . . . (We should) review the science to make sure we are all on the right track. Shukran iktir,” before he was escorted out for “violating the UN code of conduct” and “impersonating a party” amid confused murmurs and boos filling the hall.”

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 12:34 am
yeah I get that – and she does that thing with caressing the eggplants – but she’s not that much of a stunner.

papachango

11 Dec 12 at 12:35 am
There is a toxic psychological illness in the Gillard government. They are filled with hatred – hatred of Australian everyman for not supporting them; indeed, for longing to have at them with the psephological baseball bat. Much of this is traceable to Julia Gillard’s personal malice towards men, the working class, her betters, marrieds, the fecund, successful careerists, scrappers who made it without affirmative action, etc etc. She is quite fundamentally batty, you know.

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 12:40 am
You left put Aborigines. gillard uses them for political point-scoring.

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 12:49 am
out…not put

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 12:49 am
She is quite fundamentally batty, you know.

You just made me laugh out loud CL !!

Am currently also enjoying ABC1 “For the Bible Tells Me So” ………….

hzhousewife

11 Dec 12 at 12:50 am
There is a toxic psychological illness in the Gillard government. They are filled with hatred – hatred of Australian everyman for not supporting them; indeed, for longing to have at them with the psephological baseball bat. Much of this is traceable to Julia Gillard’s personal malice towards men, the working class, her betters, marrieds, the fecund, successful careerists, scrappers who made it without affirmative action, etc etc. She is quite fundamentally batty, you know.

This year is going to be very dangerous for Australia. It’s the perfect storm for the unreconstructed commie Gillard to go full retard: unremovable by her party, unelected, hated and unshackled.

Her war on the Australian “experience” as she labeled it will be turned up to 11 over the next few months.

twostix

11 Dec 12 at 1:05 am
Potemkin’s Village

I try to think of the Labour movement… here

Grigory Potemkin

11 Dec 12 at 4:35 am
I welcome Jim Spigelman”s speech on the dangers looming under the wider application of racial vilification legislation. The Bolt case has already shown that interpretation by the bench and activism among both complainants and legal advocates can tilt the playing field to a worrying degree.
It is a human characteristic to be offended when the truth hurts, but the inability to handle the truth is no excuse for failing governments to seek to blot it out of the public record, or for individuals to use the courts as a vehicle for base and misapplied vengeance.
This has gone quite far enough without further miscarriage of justice and suppression of truth. There is already an undersupply in our media.

Blogstrop

11 Dec 12 at 6:57 am
Just as phone hacking is already illegal, there is legal redress available if you are defamed untruthfully. We are seeing beat-ups drafted into service for thepurposes of suppression, not for the benefit of creating a better informed public.

Blogstrop

11 Dec 12 at 7:02 am
what I don’t get is why the fuck people aren’t up in arms about this? Where’s David Marr, Julian Burnside and others?

Crowing loudly now that the people they can’t actually defeat in open debate are going to be forced to shut up or go to jail. The boot will be on the other foot when Abbott gets in. Then they will be screaming, not crowing – and the answer will be a resounding:

“Where were your precious objections when these very laws were passed by the government whose ideological cock you were busy sucking?”

perturbed

11 Dec 12 at 7:14 am
what I don’t get is why the fuck people aren’t up in arms about this? Where’s David Marr, Julian Burnside and others?

Related: QOTD (stolen from Ace’s overnight open fred):

It is remarkable the amount of ire you collect nowadays, like lint, simply by being insufficiently worshipful of the State and its gentle intentions.

It’s been a while since I saw a QUESTION AUTHORITY bumpersticker.

–James Lileks

sdog

11 Dec 12 at 7:25 am
Of course. The sort of person who would stick a QUESTION AUTHORITY sticker on their car back in the day are, of course, now TEH AUTHORITEH!

Entropy

11 Dec 12 at 7:38 am
Update to the Nice Numbers post: <a href="UPDATE Interesting to see how John Quiggin picked up a different message from the poll (down the bottom re ownership of power plants).”>What John Quiggin pulled out of the Essetial Poll.

The people love public ownership!

Poor Old Rafe

11 Dec 12 at 7:48 am
Related: Jim Treacher back in ’09:

Shilling in the name of!
Shilling in the name of

And now we tell ya to shut up (x 4)
And now we tell ya to shut up, we’re the ones in control (x 7)
And now we tell ya to shut up!

Those who yelled were so compelled, but now it’s all wrong ’cause the throng is white
We now condemn the lot of them, yeah, now it’s all wrong ’cause the throng is white
Those who yelled were so compelled, but now it’s all wrong ’cause the throng is white
We now condemn the lot of them, yeah, now it’s all wrong ’cause the throng is white

Shut up!

[GUITAR SOLO THAT SOUNDS LIKE EVERY OTHER GUITAR SOLO THIS GUY HAS EVER DONE]

Yeah!
Shut up!
Ughh!

Thank you, I will do what he tells me (x 8, gradually becoming a shout)
Thank you, I will do what he tells me! (x 8, shouted)

Gosh, he’s handsome!
Uhhnn!

sdog

11 Dec 12 at 8:00 am
So, in history’s first draft, our first female PM will be remembered as an unpopular communist ratbag who ran the economy into the ground and it took a conservative coalition years to neutralise the damage she caused.

Tom

11 Dec 12 at 8:01 am
Lileks and Treacher. All we need now is an Iowahawk link and it will be like a Blairsville old home week.

sdog

11 Dec 12 at 8:02 am
Thanks for the link Sdog, I love that song but it did need to be updated from the old anarchist theme to suit the time and the Treacher did the trick.

Lileks astounds me in the way he turns a phrase.

Token

11 Dec 12 at 8:09 am
Will this do?

nilk

11 Dec 12 at 8:09 am
This is a nice Blair link, Finnish racing car driver puts on a good act and shows up the dull Roxon merry xmas message.

Poor Old Rafe

11 Dec 12 at 8:10 am
Is mass media programming ‘us’ to be narcissistic?

The Austereo DJs, crying all over the morning news, ‘We’re people too’… Public emoting (eg condemned in the Bible, Look at me!) instead of stoic acceptance which was previously the norm, up till post WWII.

An infantile culture which rewards narcissism.

one old bruce

11 Dec 12 at 8:13 am
Thanks Nilk

sdog

11 Dec 12 at 8:17 am
Yes I was a Blair commenter starting ten years back (9/11 got me reading blogs) and remember meeting CL there, among others. We had quite a night on the comment lines for the 2004 Aus election.

one old bruce

11 Dec 12 at 8:19 am
Gereard Henderson attempts to appeal to noble sentiments in a rather shallow industry:

From experience, I know even some of the seemingly most confident media personalities are remarkably sensitive to criticism or ridicule. That’s why we all have to be so careful in the modern age about the feelings of others. Perhaps the best way to prevent improper media behaviour is to encourage a sense of self-awareness among presenters, editors and managers alike.

He also has notes why the calls for further regulation is unnecessary in this matter:

The tragedy should not be used by the regulators in our midst to introduce even more controls over the media. There are more than enough in this area already. As Professor Barbara McDonald pointed out on ABC News Breakfast on Monday, it is possible the incident has involved breaches of the NSW Surveillance Devices Act. Also, 2DayFM may have breached the commercial radio code of practice, which is monitored by the Australian Communications and Media Authority. The relevant authorities will determine these matters under the existing law.

Advertisement In the final analysis, the private sector media is dependent on public support – that of those who advertise and those who choose to purchase advertised products and/or pay for newspapers or subscriber TV. The managers of 2DayFM and other similar outlets are just as capable of reading the public mood as was Rupert Murdoch when he saw the need to close down the News of the World in London following the phone hacking scandal.

Token

11 Dec 12 at 8:31 am
Gawd, everyone in the media is trying to put their own spin on the 2DAY incident. They are like a series of dogs pissing on a pole.

The core of the issue is not about jokes, or about media regulation, or about declining standards among the young. The core is the privacy and confidentiality of people’s medical issues.

That the radio station’s lawyers and management thought it was OK to intrude on and publicise a person’s medical information without their knowledge and consent is at the heart of this. That this fancy private hospital was so utterly negligent, by not screening inquiries properly, ditto.

The rest is just fluff arising from the particular circumstances.

johanna

11 Dec 12 at 9:01 am
Sorry I’m late to the party, Sinc, but it is still Monday over here; Happy Birthday you old rascal!

dover_beach

11 Dec 12 at 9:13 am
A Xmas gift for CL

What about me,
It isn’t fair,…

Nigella works out in bra and trainers only.

Lovely thought.

Fastest link ever clicked.

Quite. I didn’t even bother right-clicking open in new tab.

dover_beach

11 Dec 12 at 9:30 am
Anyone notice the cat lady Alice?

If you disagree with me you don’t work and you must be 15 or demented.

Sure Alice. I’ve met a lot of nurses who don’t know what the blood barrier is as well and who are basically illiterate and reckon they have a post grad degree in econ. and came “11th out of 3000” undergrad commerce students (no uni in Australia has had a graduating class this big so far).

I think she’s pissed off she tried to justify fluoridating water in terms of preventing dental caries, I then pointed out that WHO found in the mid 1980s there is no actual effect – and she is a slack jawed yokel with the hygiene of a crack house den mother.

.

11 Dec 12 at 9:39 am
blood-brain barrier

.

11 Dec 12 at 9:56 am
The Sun Herald appeared to have a scoop on the weekend with its report that Liberal MPs had been instructed to close their Twitter account to limit “stuff ups and scandals”. So it was strange to see the Liberal website still carrying a feed of “recent Liberal tweets”. It turns out, the edict only applies to Liberal candidates not already in the parliament. Sources told Capital Circle that prospective Liberal MPs had been advised to concentrate on local campaigning rather than social media, which held traps for the inexperienced.

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 10:08 am
Speed Camera Executed in WA

Woolfe

11 Dec 12 at 10:22 am
…that prospective Liberal MPs had been advised to concentrate on local campaigning rather than social media, which held traps for the inexperienced.

This is all so confusing.

Is that ALP thug from Bendigo deemed experience or inexperiened? He seems a gun at calling people “bimbo’s” and “douchebags”.

Token

11 Dec 12 at 10:27 am
Anyone notice the cat lady Alice?

We call her “Catfish”.

sdog

11 Dec 12 at 10:30 am
Feel-good story of the day, Woolfie.

sdog

11 Dec 12 at 10:36 am
Abu Chowdah @ 10.45pm

Uhm, listening to headphones is not a good idea if you have tinnitus…

One of the treatment therapies for when tinnitus is bothersome is to listen to quiet music through headphones at a volume just sufficient to mask or balance out the noise. Alternatively, there are ‘white noise’ machines that can be used for the same purpose (they mimic and cover the sound made by the tinnitus).

In my case the music seems to help.

Septimus

11 Dec 12 at 10:38 am
sdog,
Cool Hand Luke?

Woolfe

11 Dec 12 at 10:52 am
Thieves cut down red light camera.

Well, thieves erected it so it’s all good.

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 10:54 am
You know, is it just me, or have Monty and Steve and Co been VERY quiet this morning?

MDMConnell

11 Dec 12 at 10:54 am
Feel-good story of the day, Woolfie.

Are speed cameras a sustainable resource? Do they grow faster than they can be cut down?

Driftforge

11 Dec 12 at 10:57 am
MDM
Being poll-axed while celebrating the ‘year of decision and delivery’ will do that to you. Fear not, Compulsive Justification Disorder will kick in soon enough.

Rousie

11 Dec 12 at 11:05 am
Let’s hope that it too sinks:

New Sea Shepherd boat in Hobart.

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 11:07 am
Thieves cut down red light camera.

Now that’s social justice!

kae

11 Dec 12 at 11:12 am
That camera got me once when they first installed it.

I’m very proud that my fellow Sandgropers are standing up for liberty.

Infidel tiger

11 Dec 12 at 11:16 am
Alleged Melbourne terrorist – charged with four counts of collecting documents for the engagement of a person to assist in a terrorist act – granted bail by judge:

Justice David Beach found there wer exceptional circumstances to warrant his release because Karabegovic’s wife is heavily pregnant with their first child…

He was ordered not to have any association with the Al-Furqan Islamic Information Centre.

He is charged with trying to orchestrate a terrorist act but Justice Beach wants him beside wifey during her confinement.

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 11:19 am
“FREEEEEDOM!”

sdog

11 Dec 12 at 11:22 am
DSK has settled out of court with the hotel maid accusing him of r4pe...

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 11:22 am
The gaffes, the vanity and the foreign affairs mismanagement of the lime-light seeking Bob Carr, CWB.

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 11:36 am
#WaronWomen

No ‘Fluke’

The real war on women:

The acting director for women’s affairs in the northeastern province of Laghman was shot and killed by two gunmen Monday morning as she was on her way to her office.

(Her) death came a week after a 22-year-old student named Hanisa was shot and killed by gunmen on two motorcycles as she reported for her first day as a volunteer for a polio immunization effort in neighboring Kapisa Province.

Myrrdin Seren

11 Dec 12 at 11:45 am
So Gillards “plan” to cut $250 a year off the price of the average families electric bills is out.

Is it a welfare payment? A subsidy?

No.

She’s going to reduce the average electricity bills by forcing us not to use electricity in the first place.

The third leg of Gillard’s plan requires the roll-out of so-called smart meters and the introduction of time-of-use charges designed to make consumption of electricity very expensive between 2pm and 8pm and much cheaper at other times in an effort to lop the top off peak demand.

As pointed out last week by academic Lynne Chester, with whom I sat in 2011-12 on Martin Ferguson’s energy white paper reference group, how many households can or will shift 20 per cent of their power demand out of the 2pm to 8pm period?

If they don’t, under ToU pricing, their bills will shoot up.

One of the biggest political problems with ToU is its impact on consumers who, for whatever reason, can’t change their electricity consumption pattern…

Her rabid and bitter hatred for Australia’s working families knows no bounds.

twostix

11 Dec 12 at 11:47 am
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/no_thats_no_plan_for_250_cuts_in_power_bills/

twostix

11 Dec 12 at 11:47 am
You kids are going soft on Spigelman, what gives? He endorses the proposition that your freedom of speech should be curtailed:

“Laws restricting hate speech should aim to protect people’s dignity against assault. Dignity in that sense may need protection against attack, particularly against group-directed attacks. However, I do not believe that it should be the aim of these laws to prevent people from being offended. Protecting people’s feelings against offence is not an appropriate objective for the law.”

I agree with Waldron. His detailed analysis supports the proposition that declaring conduct, relevantly speech, to be unlawful because it causes offence goes too far. The freedom to offend is an integral component of freedom of speech. There is no right not to be offended.

…

When rights conflict, drawing the line too far in favour of one degrades the other right. Words such as “offend” and “insult” impinge on freedom of speech in a way that words such as “humiliate”, “denigrate,” “intimidate”, “incite hostility” or “hatred” or “contempt”, do not. To go beyond language of the latter character, in my opinion, goes too far.

This is just a lawyer’s trick. Certain adjectives warrant abrogating your fundamental human right to free expression, others don’t.

Remove the “offend” or “insult” provisions and I’m pretty certain Bolt will be in court next time on charges of “hate speech”. How many will rally to support Bolt’s right to “hate speech”?

New Gold Dream

11 Dec 12 at 11:53 am
2-II

Not hard to imagine the Emily’s Listers retreating to the bathroom to dry heave after they have been forced to press the flesh of the proles out in the ‘burbs – at least until this tedious electoral process can be safely dispensed with.

Myrrdin Seren

11 Dec 12 at 11:53 am
C.L. I have never understood these bail let-outs because the accused, or the accused’s wife/partner, is pregnant. It is getting close to the plea for leniency by the parent-killer because they are an orphan.

Why should someone who is unfortunate enough not to be pregnant or have a pregnant partner be subject to harsher bail conditions?

The same provisions often apply to sentencing. I cannot see why a person without dependents should have a stricter penalty than one who does for the same offence, but that is what happens.

johanna

11 Dec 12 at 12:01 pm
You kids are going soft on Spigelman, what gives? He endorses the proposition that your freedom of speech should be curtailed:

You’re a serial troll and an economic protectionist, so fuck off with your set ups and double barrelled questions.

It is beneath dignity to even consider we’d agree to that.

You dishonest shitbag.

.

11 Dec 12 at 12:12 pm
Famous last words:

The poor Newspoll result for Labor comes as Ms Gillard was named as Australia’s most influential female voice for 2012 by Fairfax website Daily Life.

”Throughout a difficult and turbulent year she has taught many of us an important lesson in how to stand up to sexism. It’s not an understatement to call her misogyny speech a watershed moment for women in this country,” the site said.

Last night Ms Gillard hosted about 25 female bloggers and web writers – whose sites reach about 2.5 million people – at Kirribilli House, as she gears up to use gender issues to maximum advantage in the coming election year.

Labor strategists increasingly see gender working for Ms Gillard and against Mr Abbott, especially since the PM’s ”misogyny” speech in October, which received international coverage.

Tom

11 Dec 12 at 12:13 pm
Johanna, I suspect if he was a white Anglo the judge wouldn’t have granted bail

—————————————————————————————-

NGD makes a good point. Spigelman makes clear that he strongly supports laws to ‘protect’ people’s ‘dignity’ and ‘minorities’ in ‘genuine’ cases. He is really using Gillard’s extremism to mainstream something that is itself extreme and unnecessary. This is an old trick. What you’re left with in the end is extreme leftism being treated like middle-of-the-road common sense.

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 12:17 pm
Johanna, I very much doubt he would be released on bail had he been a Christian.

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 12:17 pm
Hamish McSporran is going to have a real problem with what to do with Gillard when the election is finally called. They’ll practically have to empty the shopping centres and bus in some Labor rusted-ons – let’s hope they do a better job than the Australia Day race riot they tried to orchestrate.

At least Gillard won’t have to worry about WA. They can’t get her in and out of the place quick enough whenever it is simply unavoidable, like the US Secretary of State visit.

It will be interesting to see where Labor draws its Brisbane Line in what would ordinarily be considered safe seats. A lot of backbenchers are going to find themselves thrown under the bus as they try and save the furniture (to mix a metaphor).

H B Bear

11 Dec 12 at 12:19 pm
”Throughout a difficult and turbulent year she has taught many of us an important lesson in how to stand up to sexism.”

Ahahahahahahaha.

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 12:20 pm
introduction of time-of-use charges designed to make consumption of electricity very expensive between 2pm and 8pm and much cheaper at other times in an effort to lop the top off peak demand.

Already have gas BB-Que on the patio just outside the kitchen, so minimal use of electric hotplate and oven.

Once I know what the very expensive charges will be, a cost analysis will be done to maybe look at installing batteries, charger and inverter next to off-peak HW system. That should get the house lighting, entertainment and fridge through the expensive period.

~~Her~~ My rabid and bitter hatred for Australia’s ~~working families~~ ALP knows no bounds.

Rudiau

11 Dec 12 at 12:22 pm
“… Ms Gillard was named as Australia’s most influential female voice for 2012 by Fairfax website Daily Life.”

That’s right up there with the Nobel Peace Prize, Time Person of the Year and the Sydney Peace Prize.

H B Bear

11 Dec 12 at 12:23 pm
It’s even below all those things. What does that tell you.

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 12:24 pm
NGD makes a good point.

He does but he could have just said Spiegleman is a deadshit.

He gave us all a sly rabbit punch.

We don’t need to put up with that crap.

.

11 Dec 12 at 12:24 pm
gillard’s campaign platform: vote for me, I’m female.

LOL

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 12:30 pm
“… she has taught many of us an important lesson in how to stand up to sexism.”

Ranting like a mad fishwife, only to suffer a humiliating back-down less than 2 hours later?

H B Bear

11 Dec 12 at 12:31 pm
Gillard 2013: “I’ve got one and I am one”

Infidel Tiger

11 Dec 12 at 12:32 pm
Johanna, I very much doubt he would be released on bail had he been a Christian.

Of course he wouldn’t have been.

Australia’s luvvie judges do this sort of thing all the time. What they’re doing is showing off for their confreres on the bench. ‘See, despite the howling mob [us], I will not be deterred from my exquisite and heroic compassion.’

And if it results in tragedy when a bailed or paroled animal kills somebody?

‘Shut-up,’ they explain.

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 12:33 pm
The issue was the Speaker Slipper’s misogynist texts. gillard decided that it was okay for Slipper to refer to female genitalia as mussels, among other things, that it was okay for the Speaker to send lurid texts to a subordinate. These she did not attack preferring to defend Slipper by attacking Abbott in a pointless childish rant not befitting any woman let alone one that is prime minister.

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 12:35 pm
Gillard’s desperate ploy: at least I’m a woman

What a lovely pair.

Rudiau

11 Dec 12 at 12:36 pm
Having accused Tony Abbott of hating his wife and daughters, Gillard also says – accepting her Female Voice (!) of the Year Award – that…

Speaking to Daily Life at the end of a bruising parliamentary year, Ms Gillard revealed that while she was able to ”compartmentalise” the criticism directed at her, her partner Tim Mathieson felt it deeply.

”Sometimes we have a discussion about whether he’s watching it too closely, in the sense that he’s more at risk that it emotionally affects him than it emotionally affects me,” Ms Gillard said.

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 12:42 pm
C.L. and Gab – residing as I do in the People’s Democratic Republic of the ACT, I can attest that these excuses are applied across the board. And accepted.

Lowlifes of impeccable Anglo/Celtic heritage are granted leniency because they have knocked someone up. Apparently, they are model parents despite his or her 37 previous convictions.

Instead of seeing it as an opportunity to give these kids a chance to learn something other than serial crime, the enlightened judiciary sees it as an opportunity to strengthen family ties.

johanna

11 Dec 12 at 12:45 pm
You’re a serial troll and an economic protectionist, so fuck off with your set ups and double barrelled questions.

Dot, your crackpot ideas do enormous damage to the cause of free markets and limited government in this country. You are the strawman Rudd railed against in his stupid essay and do us all a massive service by actually existing.

In my experience you guys don’t defend freedom of speech when it gets hard.

New Gold Dream

11 Dec 12 at 12:45 pm
The poor Newspoll result for Labor comes as Ms Gillard was named as Australia’s most influential female voice for 2012 by Fairfax website Daily Life.

Who would’ve thought the PM of Australia could be influential?

It must’ve been a tough decision considering the competition Gillard face in these days of rampant mysogony:

The Governor General of Australia
The Governor of NSW
The Speaker of the House of Reps
The Atorney General, etc…

Token

11 Dec 12 at 12:47 pm
Yes, she’s really influenced the polls.

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 12:48 pm
In my experience you guys don’t defend freedom of speech when it gets hard.

Isn’t it unfortunate that no-one else can be as pure in their beliefs as you are NGD.

Token

11 Dec 12 at 12:49 pm
Isn’t it unfortunate that no-one else can be as pure in their beliefs as you are NGD.

LOL, yes.

New Gold Dream

11 Dec 12 at 12:50 pm
I don’t support any legislation. I was saying there are already means to redress wrongs, and media control is only being talked about because some of our politicians cannot handle the truth.
Racial or religious vilification laws should be scrapped, not amended or added to.

Blogstrop

11 Dec 12 at 12:51 pm
”Sometimes we have a discussion about whether he’s watching it too closely, in the sense that he’s more at risk that it emotionally affects him than it emotionally affects me,” Ms Gillard said.

So our PM is in a lezzo relationship?

Infidel Tiger

11 Dec 12 at 12:53 pm
The issue was the Speaker Slipper’s misogynist texts.

When history is written about PM Gillard, her legacy for the ages will be the fact the country’s # 1 Emily’s Lister got the ALP, Greens and independents (i.e. Agrian Socialists) all to vote to endorse the mysoginistic texts by Slipper.

Token

11 Dec 12 at 12:53 pm
Dot, your crackpot ideas do enormous damage to the cause of free markets and limited government in this country. You are the strawman Rudd railed against in his stupid essay and do us all a massive service by actually existing.

Like what?

Deregulating taxis? Getting rid of payroll tax? Paying off debt? Setting a lower but more flexible inflation target? Getting rid of $100 billion of welfare churn, or 8% of GDP in WASTE?

It does nothing but promote laissez faire to bring these issues up.

The fact that you give any credence to the psychotic Rudd speaks volumes. Here is a man who sought to end philanthropy in Australia but you believe has credibility.

All you have is rhetorical bullshit.

What’s that? You reckoned once that unregulated power utilities would make 48% return on equity?

The only crackpot here is you.

.

11 Dec 12 at 12:55 pm
These are not made up. These are the entries accompanying the photographs at the SMH’s 20 Loudest Women of the Year awards…

No 2. Anne Summers.

It is Summers’ past and present research and writing on misogyny that helped create the fertile conditions for Julia Gillard’s speech. Her report ”Her Rights at Work: The Political Persecution of Australia’s First Female Prime Minister” was widely reproduced, debated and quoted in publications across the country. It perfectly articulated our discomfort with, not only the sexism directed at Gillard, but its presence in our own lives.

No 3. Ann Caro.

”Humour takes the power away from the powerful,” Caro says and that’s exactly what she did when she responded to another of Alan Jones’s sexist outbursts by starting the hashtag that united Australian women this year #destroyingthejoint…

She was nominated for her unflinching support of women’s rights and public education in Australia, her moderation in the face of moral panic and, not least of all, for saying ”vagina” loudly and repeatedly on Q&A.

No. 5 Leigh Sales.

The Walkley-award winning journalist and 7.30 Report anchor made headlines across the nation after her interview Tony Abbott in August, where she took him to task on the Opposition’s stand over mining tax and carbon tax. This led to Abbott’s admission that he had not read key statements from BHP boss Marius Kloppers. The misogynistic reaction to her hard-hitting interview opened up a wider debate about sexism in Australia and shed light on the Coalition’s attitude towards woman.

No 6 Germaine Greer.

It’s impossible to talk about Germaine Greer, patron saint of modern feminism, without acknowledging her unnecessary and disappointing comments about the size of our Prime Minister’s derriere. Yet …

No 7. Celementine Ford.

Before the dictionary broadened the definition, before the Prime Minister made her speech, Ford articulated with flashing brilliance exactly what it meant to be a misogynist, and in doing so, changed the national conversation.

No 13. Nicola Roxon.

As minister for health last year, Roxon spearheaded a majority decision to reject an appeal against introducing plain packaging for cigarettes. It was the High Court ruling that echoed around the world, with New York mayor Michael Bloomberg calling her a “rock star”.

No 16. Marieke Hardy.

And it wouldn’t be a lefty wank without – *drum roll* – squeaking in at No 20…

Susan Carland… Has long been a positive voice for Muslim women within Australian society…

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 12:57 pm
Racial or religious vilification laws should be scrapped, not amended or added to.

Right. NGD’s point was to beware of the lefty ‘moderate’ trying to mainstream the extreme by insincerely criticising one smidgen of extremism.

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 1:01 pm
What’s that? You reckoned once that unregulated power utilities would make 48% return on equity?

Remind me again we should remove price controls for natural monopolies, abolish intellectual property rights and privatise roads.

You breath fresh life into that numbskull Rudd by existing. Your doctrinaire extremism damages the cause you seek to advance.

It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.

New Gold Dream

11 Dec 12 at 1:04 pm
From that old Age link that Myrrdin put up (‘I’m not stupid’)

Ms Gillard was in Brisbane for a people’s forum on the carbon tax package, announced on Sunday.

Remember wearing out the shoe leather, going around Australia, talking to people, holding peoples forums?

Fun times, fun times.

The election campaign will be the most stage managed event ever. Mixing with ordinary people who might get their voice heard – that will never happen.

In the meantime, Labor will fill a bus full of screeching idiots to follow Abbott around and screech at him whenever they can.

brc

11 Dec 12 at 1:08 pm
Ah, Susan Carland… Mrs. Walid Aly. Funny that they never seem to advertise that bit.

As for misogyny in the workplace, I’m the only female in the immediate vicinity and have never noticed any. I must be working for the wrong company.

nilk

11 Dec 12 at 1:08 pm
You give credit to a psychopath hated by his colleagues who tried to end philanthropy.

You are not debating the issues. I brought some up, you could attack them.

No. You are trotting out more left wing rhetoric.

What % of GDP do you think the Government should be in Australia?

Remind me again we should remove price controls for natural monopolies, abolish intellectual property rights and privatise roads.

Yes we should. Theory and evidence suggests so.

Private roads are better and safer. Natural monopolies underpricing leads to underinvestment in infrastructure. No one respects IP law as it stands.

You’e lying as well. To get rid of legislated IP would not end IP in toto.

.

11 Dec 12 at 1:10 pm
I like the fact that the legal system has a working definition of “Reasonably Likely” based upon an objective scale:

Racial hatred is defined in section 18C of the RDA. Section 18C of the RDA covers acts which have occurred in public that are:

• done, in whole or in part, because of the race, colour, or national or ethnic origin of a person or group AND

• are reasonably likely in all the circumstances to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate that person or group.

The words “reasonably likely” mean that the test for offence, humiliation and intimidation must be an objective one. It is a question of fact in every case, depending on the context in which the allegedly offensive comments were made. The Commission has held that the act in question must have “profound and serious effects, not be likened to mere slights”.

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

Kind regards

(Name redacted)
Complaint Information Officer
Australian Human Rights Commission

In case you were not aware, it appears the Australian bureaucracy has created the worlds first ordinal scale for hurt feelings.

When, in the name of transperency, do you think they will publish the ordinal scale so we can understand how to rank the hurt feelings of an Indian Student v an Aghani illegal immigrant?

[H/t Bolta]

Token

11 Dec 12 at 1:11 pm
Fantastic news. US retailers targeting Australia.

“They were very cute but the pricing was extortionate,” about $300, Ms Teh said. Back at her desk in an office overlooking David Jones’s entrance, she bought an identical pair for $160 from Shopbop.com, a website owned by Amazon.com.

Infidel Tiger

11 Dec 12 at 1:22 pm
US retailers targeting Australia.

AMEX sent advertising to my wife to advise her if she purchases from the US using her AMEX card, they’ll provide a delivery address in the US to beat the mark up, then ensure the goods got to us pronto.

Token

11 Dec 12 at 1:38 pm
Tim Blair has advice for Tim Mathieson.

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 1:38 pm
comedy gold

http://www.dailylife.com.au/photogallery/news-and-views/dl-opinion/the-20-most-influential-female-voices-of-2012-20121205-2av5y.html

1. Julia Gillard: Our first female Prime Minister had kept silent on sexism directed at her and entrenched in Australian politics since her election but when she finally spoke it wasn’t just Australia, but the world, that stopped and listened. For many of the thousands of women who nominated her she is an inspiration . Throughout a difficult and turbulent year she has taught many of us an important lesson in how to stand up to sexism. It’s not an understatement to call her misogyny speech a watershed moment for women in this country.

.

11 Dec 12 at 1:42 pm
Sorting through my library and deciding which books to get rid of as I have far too many and really how many times can you read the same book?

Gab, that’s a tragedy. The only time it’s even remotely OK to consider abook cull is when moving home.

Derp

11 Dec 12 at 1:42 pm
Expert has solution to so-called “loading up” drinking trend…

There are calls for bottle shop prices to be increased after a study found young people are fuelling up on alcohol before heading out so they can save money…

Lead author Peter Miller says many people told the researchers that they drank heavily before heading out in order to avoid high prices at pubs and clubs.

He says one possible solution is to make the practice less affordable by charging bottle shops a levy and increasing their prices.

The chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund, Detective Inspector Tony Cooke, says the fund has commissioned more research into the impact of bottle shop sales.

“What is very concerning is the preloading – the drinking of alcohol before they get there,” he said.

Now, how to sell this new idea. Mmm. Yes, you guessed it! Communism!

Paying their fair share

Associate Professor Miller says a floor price would not achieve what a tax or levy on packaged liquor outlets could achieve.

“I think it’s very much about packaged liquor outlets paying up their fair share of the costs that they incur on society,” he said.

“I think it’s really important for people in the community to think about when they’re paying for alcohol, that’s not the only time they actually pay for alcohol.

“We pay for alcohol through our taxes, through every time we have to wait for the police to turn up on a Saturday night or have to wait in an emergency department on a Saturday or Friday night.

“So we need the packaged liquor outlets to start contributing to the costs of the liquor they sell.”

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 1:45 pm
That’s right, Derp stick the knife in my heart and then give it a good twist.

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 1:45 pm
The latest Roy Morgan research shows Australians are drinking less, smoking less and gambling less. And still they harass us from arsehole to breakfast.

Fuck this country.

Infidel Tiger

11 Dec 12 at 1:49 pm
Entry for SMH award winner (No.16), Marieke Hardy:

She describes herself on twitter, (where she has over 80,000 followers) as a ‘bon vivant’ but the hilarious writer, producer and some time actor is being modest. Her Women of Letters project, which she co-produces with Michaela McGuire, has raised tens of thousands of dollars for charity and illustrated that if you create a female-friendly literary space for us, we will come.

Marieke Hardy – hilarious and female-friendly:

On her website, she notes how The Age attacked the editor of the student newspaper Farrago, Miranda Airey-Branson, 20, whose social sin is to vote Liberal.

“Is there some slutty sweary ladybird on-line who is an out and proud Liberal,’’ Hardy jeers, before describing how she would sexually abuse Airey-Branson, whom she calls an “ugly ignorant c…’’… “Then I’m going to p… on her.’’

Elsewhere she wishes she’d told the Liberals’ Bronwyn Bishop to die, and asks readers what to do with Treasurer Peter Costello’s home number, which she’s found.

• Tony Abbott finds the burqa ‘confronting’. OH YEAH? I FIND YOUR F**KING FACE CONFRONTING, DOUCHEBAG.

• Tony Abbott said no, and I thought he meant it. But he didn’t, so I just went ahead and sexually assaulted him.

Female-friendly literary space:

I agree with Lawrie. You should have “glassed the c..t” Nelson. You should have taken a piece of glass and torn his face to shreds, only leaving trails of bloody skin dripping from his ugly face and then you should have glassed his ass and balls so much, you castrate him so he could never procreate with his wife. Furthermore, glass the c..t wife and their children, while you’re at it, because they don’t deserve to procreate and have any children themselves, those blood-sucking Liberal c..ts!

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 1:51 pm
That’s just ridiculous C.L.

What these pencil necked fucks don’t realise is they are bringing us closer to cigarettes and hence intervention from organised crime.

We pay for alcohol through our taxes, through every time we have to wait for the police to turn up on a Saturday night or have to wait in an emergency department on a Saturday or Friday night.

I have never gone to or sent anyone to an emergency dept. because of liquor.

Let me guess: we can’t send Jimmy to prison for assault because he had a bad childhood, but we can tax everyone so we can make people like Jimmy’s wife harder to balance the family budget.

I’m almost leaning to a rule where you must work in the private sector before becoming a public servant.

The shit these kids who have never grown up come up just gets more and more bizzare as they years go by.

.

11 Dec 12 at 1:52 pm
“Is there some slutty sweary ladybird on-line who is an out and proud Liberal,’’ Hardy jeers, before describing how she would sexually abuse Airey-Branson, whom she calls an “ugly ignorant c…’’… “Then I’m going to p… on her.’’

• Tony Abbott finds the burqa ‘confronting’. OH YEAH? I FIND YOUR F**KING FACE CONFRONTING, DOUCHEBAG.

Does she find Gillard’s anti-misogyny speech inspiring?

.

11 Dec 12 at 1:54 pm
The SMH’s Jacqueline Maley para-glides over the shark…

Gillard appears to have gone troppo:

I give as good as I get: Gillard.

She had done a little bit of preparation. She is a former lawyer, after all, and knows the importance of briefings. She had compiled a dossier of key Tony Abbott quotes she thought were ‘‘objectionable’’. She had dashed them off as Abbott himself was speaking.

But the sense of righteous anger Julia Gillard brought to Parliament the day she delivered her now-famous tirade against misogyny – that was something she had been working up to for a while.

‘‘I could not, I could not take the hypocrisy of the Leader of the Opposition trying to talk about sexism,’’ the Prime Minister says. ‘‘I was not going to sit silent.’’

For many women, it wasn’t really about Abbott.

As Gillard drawled out those memorable words ‘‘I will not be lectured …’’ the object of her anger faded away. He became a symbol, and the speech itself took on its own symbolism.

Speaking to Daily Life in her parliamentary office, Gillard is friendly and vital, despite the bruising year she has had. She looks fresh in a white jacket with black piping and simple pearl-drop earrings. The bling is her own but she does receive jewellery from women around Australia, as well as scarves, flowers and notes.

‘‘They want me to know they have been thinking about me and how supportive they are of me and of having a woman in this job,’’ she says.

‘‘I swung my chair back to face the Opposition and I thought about it and thought, ‘Yeah, that must have been harder hitting than I thought, to react that way.’ ’’

‘‘I give as good as I get. I am not precious about criticisms but I am also not going to pretend when those criticisms are sexist that they something other than sexist.’’

Closet lesbianism gone beserk:

If the Prime Minister had a day off and was able to grab a group of girlfriends for lunch and a bottle of wine, she would head to a waterfront restaurant, she says, ‘‘on a balmy but not too hot day’’, on account of the peaches-and-cream Prime Ministerial complexion, so easily sunburnt.

Gillard would take her best ‘‘long-term mates’’, her sister Alison, Hillary Clinton (‘‘a fascinating person and a great discussion’’), Cate Blanchett for the Hollywood gossip she could supply, and some of the ‘‘wise ones’’, Labor women such as former Victorian Premier Joan Kirner and feminist Anne Summers.

Anything for young women?

Asked what advice she would give to a woman who wants to cultivate her own inner toughness, Gillard doesn’t pause.

‘‘What I’d say is it’s only that woman who truly knows who she is and she should keep very strongly that sense of self,’’ she says.

‘‘You don’t have to let others define you.’’

But you do have to set up slush funds when ordered to by men.

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 2:06 pm
Marieke Hardy and Clemntine Ford – “Surely you can’t be serious?”

Tiny Dancer

11 Dec 12 at 2:11 pm
God these women are giving the rest of us a bad name

Tal

11 Dec 12 at 2:13 pm
“She had dashed them off as Abbott himself was speaking.”

I don’t believe that for a moment. The whole speech was written probably by mcternan and rehearsed in front of a mirror, for maximum effect.
Does that woman ever say anything honest.

candy

11 Dec 12 at 2:15 pm
‘‘wise ones’’, Labor women such as former Victorian Premier Joan Kirner

This is like getting Comical Ali (Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf) to be your mentor in your career as a all conquering military commander.

This woman is beyond parody. FMD.

.

11 Dec 12 at 2:15 pm
From IT’s link: shoppers have had enough of the Australian retail club, which has been ripping them off for 200 years:

The isolation has long helped Australian retailers and their suppliers churn out fatter profits. David Jones’s
operating margin over the past two decades has averaged 5.6 per cent, versus 3.1 per cent for the comparably upscale Saks over the same period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

So DJs and the rest have set up websites with the intention of bending over their customers like they’ve always done:

The price differential between Australian and overseas vendors can be substantial. On David Jones’s website, Micca sandals from shoemaker Merrell sell for $149.95, versus about $60 at the Amazon store of Comet Footwear. Though the American site charges $53.52 for shipping and David Jones will send the sandals for free, the Australian store is still a third more expensive.

While many stores have agreements with vendors that bar them from sending some products overseas, companies such as i-Parcel have sprung up to help. A 100 millilitre bottle of Dior’s ‘J’Adore’ perfume, $180 at Myer’s and David Jones’s online stores, costs $106.33 on Nordstrom’s US website.

Nordstrom says it can’t send the Dior perfume to Australia, but i-Parcel has developed a way around that problem. The company charges Aussie shoppers about $26 to receive the perfume from Nordstrom at a US address and then forward it Down Under.

Treat your customers like farm animals and they’ll eventually repay you in kind.

Tom

11 Dec 12 at 2:18 pm
She had done a little bit of preparation. She is a former lawyer, after all…

LOL.

Yes, former.

Why was that again?

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 2:18 pm
That US retailers targeting australia article is full of funny quotes:

“In less than three years’ time, the top 10 internet sites in Australia will be dominated”

Yeah, that’s what you think. Hint: it’s not the products, nor the site performance. It’s the prices, stupid.

“Domestic retailers weren’t prepared and got caught out,” said Andrew McLennan, a Commonwealth Bank analyst in Sydney.

“You have retailers that have been fat for decades because they have this market that they completely controlled,”

Fat lazy retailers are fast finding out that the captive market of Australia just found a massive hole in the fence. Sucks to be you, retailers.

I would type more but I just heard the doorbell. Another delivery just arrived I would guess. Who would be stupid enough to step into a shopping centre before Christmas, when you can buy everything you need between browsing threads on the cat?

brc

11 Dec 12 at 2:19 pm
The Cat ladies should have a little coffee morning and invite the PM

Tal

11 Dec 12 at 2:22 pm
If liquor companies need to pay their fair share for the damage inflicted by drunks, to whom do we send the bill for the reckless damaged caused by university arts departments for turning out class after class of deranged proto-communists?

I’d rather risk a night drinking in a rough bar than a life living in a socialist paradise.

brc

11 Dec 12 at 2:25 pm
I admit that I would not be able to control my impulse to spit in her face, Tal. Very bogan of me, I know, but it would feel great.

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 2:27 pm
Heh. I’ve never actually done that to anyone, ever, let alone had thoughts of doing so but for some strange reason it popped in my consciousness at the mere thought of meeting her.

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 2:30 pm
No. The way to treat Ms Gillard if you happen upon meeting her is to smile and be friendly, make out your one of the sistahood.

Then, once pleasantries exchanged, pause for effect and ‘why did you lie to us, and why do you continue to lie’.

Never fails to derail an entire prime ministership, and to define a politician as a liar, a backstabber and to prevent them from ever setting foot in public again.

Of course, I would vary that somewhat, I would ask ‘Which year did you decide that communism was a bad idea, and do you apologise for your association with communism in your younger years’.

brc

11 Dec 12 at 2:34 pm
Pointless asking her any questions, BRC as she has demonstrated an inability to actually answer questions directly, preferring instead to blame Abbott for everything that has gone wrong – ever. Additionally, she lies.

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 2:37 pm
She had done a little bit of preparation. She is a former lawyer, after all, and knows the importance of briefings. She had compiled a dossier of key Tony Abbott quotes she thought were ‘‘objectionable’’. She had dashed them off as Abbott himself was speaking.

Is this clown having a laugh?

In any case the PMO’s office “compiled” that dossier of Abbott quotes under direction and in line with a strategy devised totally by male petty thug and illegal immigrant John Mcturnen. Antony “Piggy” Albanese read out the pre-scripted points before parliament.

The lefty wymyns movement can’t even run their own smear campaign without taking direction then credit for a mans work FFS.

Julie Bishop on the other hand singlehandedly reduced Gillard to a trembling mess and smashed the misogynist attack – which had been orchestrated and worskhopped by dozens of the ALP’s “finest” for all time. Now Gillard is left only with “memories” of how great that two minute mental breakdown was and how Jezebel.com took a minute out from telling young girls to hop on the cock carousel 24/7 to say how cool she is.

twostix

11 Dec 12 at 2:38 pm
and some of the ‘‘wise ones’’

\

Five easy letters, coven.

nic

11 Dec 12 at 2:42 pm
God these women are giving the rest of us a bad name

Decent and competent women had better start standing up then because the brand of neo-victorian crypto-feminism that these harridan lesbians are agitating for is starting to infect young girls ensuring that they too will endure a life of lonely, bitter, misery.

twostix

11 Dec 12 at 2:47 pm
http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/alabama-teens-charged-murder-firing-fatal-shot-17847907

That really stretches the common law definition of murder.

I think it is outrageous and wrong. Someone defended their property.

How does it satisfy actus reus, mens rea or an unbroken chain of causation?

.

11 Dec 12 at 3:05 pm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2240527/Summer-Moody-Teenage-boys-charged-murder-girl-accidentally-shot-dead-homeowner.html

More here.

It smacks of the boys being blamed for what the girl did.

Some of the commenters there note “in the commission of a crime”

So hypothetically if Jarrah and I rob JC’s house, and JC shoots me dead, Jarrah is guilty of murder?

I thought I basically would have got what’s coming.

I’ve never heard of such charges being made in Australia.

.

11 Dec 12 at 3:09 pm
It’s nothing to do with idealogy, it’s just pure hate:

Sky News host David Lipson tweeted that Abbott was a liar about him reading the mammmmia blog as the blog “was axed more than a month ago”.

Trouble is, the blog is still operational and will be until February next year.

Lipson gets the award for Dumb Cluck of the Year.

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 3:12 pm
Fat lazy retailers are fast finding out that the captive market of Australia just found a massive hole in the fence. Sucks to be you, retailers.

It is not always the retailers (though their local websites often do really suck) – with cameras for example the local retailers often can’t buy from the manufacturers for as low as a price as you can buy off eBay from overseas retailers because the manufacturers have different prices depending on the country they are selling into. Whilst there’s still a significant number of people who don’t buy online there’s still significant incentive for manufacturers to keep doing that because they make more money. The local retailers get screwed but the manufacturers are still selling just as many cameras. It’s going to take some of the major retailers to revolt against the manufacturers and demand equivalent wholesale pricing to change the situation.

Chris

11 Dec 12 at 3:17 pm
Gab – the site you link to is correct, but don’t confuse the mamamia blog with Mia Freedman’s column. They’re totally separate things and the blog (which i think might be owned and run by her) has not been axed, only Mia’s newscorp column.

Chris

11 Dec 12 at 3:22 pm
It’s nothing to do with idealogy, it’s just pure hate:

Sky News host David Lipson tweeted that Abbott was a liar about him reading the mammmmia blog as the blog “was axed more than a month ago”.

Trouble is, the blog is still operational and will be until February next year.

Lipson gets the award for Dumb Cluck of the Year.

What an absolute spastic.

People think you’re exageratting when you tell them about the unhinged hate towards the Libs, Abbott and suburban and rural Australia expressed on Twitter day in, day out by what they believe are unbiased news reporters and journalists.

twostix

11 Dec 12 at 3:23 pm
‘‘wise ones’’, Labor women such as former Victorian Premier Joan Kirner

Ah Mother Russia – Emilys List founder and the beacon guiding all failures who follow behind.

H B Bear

11 Dec 12 at 3:30 pm
It is not always the retailers

And let’s not forget the landlords in this large, sparsely populated and ridiculously expensive country.

Frank Lowy has made the Lowy clan wealthy and the Westfield shareholders happy by squeezing the choice out of the regular tenants sitting between his cornerstone tenants.

And given the planning restraints and rampant nimbyism of modern Australia, the centre owners are likely to be able continue on their merry way with barriers to entry pretty high.

( Good luck to Frank, by the way. It is the lack of competition that makes Westfield ‘rents’ possible )

Myrrdin Seren

11 Dec 12 at 3:36 pm
squeezing the ~~choice~~

juice.

Seriously – nothing for Dr Freud to worry about.

Myrrdin Seren

11 Dec 12 at 3:37 pm
Australia will be a much better place when Westfield is bankrupt.

Infidel Tiger

11 Dec 12 at 3:39 pm
I think inviting Gillard to a luncheon with the Cat girls (ladies? women? boganettes?) would be a great idea.

I’m in lol.

nilk

11 Dec 12 at 3:41 pm
“She had dashed them off as Abbott himself was speaking.”

LOL.

No way. Those lefty trolls who write for fauxfax are regugitating failed gimmics.

Gillard tried this trick and was caught during the last election campaign.

Remember how the “off the cuff” speech at the election launch was exposed by a cameraman who took a picture of the podium.

Token

11 Dec 12 at 3:42 pm
Picture of the notes Gillard read from during her “off the cuff” speech

Token

11 Dec 12 at 3:47 pm
That really stretches the common law definition of murder.

Felony murder has been around for a while in quite a few US jurisdictions. Participation in types of felonies is regarded as demonstrating a reckless indifference to human life should anyone be killed during the commission of said crime. This applies regardless of individual intent, contribution to or even knowledge of the death. As in this case the rigid definition and automatic application of reckless indifference can be extremely problematic.

badm0f0

11 Dec 12 at 3:55 pm
Participation in certain ~~types of~~ felonies …

badm0f0

11 Dec 12 at 3:57 pm
Picture of the notes Gillard read from during her “off the cuff” speech

Her entire PMship has been lie after lie after lie.

You’d think some of the people she lies directly to in order to abuse their positions in the media such as the Fairfax losers who gush over her relentless fabrications would start getting annoyed at being lied to all the time.

twostix

11 Dec 12 at 3:59 pm
has not been axed, only Mia’s newscorp column.

Yes, her column in the Sunday Telegraph is still running. It will be axed in February 2013.

The Sky News host Lipson said the column was axed months ago so how on earth could Abbott still be reading her column in the Telegraph, he asked in his tweet, paraphrased.

Here’s one column she wrote in December 2012.

Freedman announced the end of her column with News on the Mamamia website on Monday and said she will finish writing for News “in a few months.”

That was in November this year. So Lipson was wrong. His hate clouding his judgment of Abbott.

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 3:59 pm
Thanks mofo. I assumed they had written extra leglisation on top of the common law.

I know that that cannot apply for example to drink driving and vehicular manslaughter. I’ve seen caselaw on that.

It’s a bizzare law to me. Two guys rob a shop, one of them gets killed by the owner in legitimate self defence and the survivor is a murderer?

I can see a deterrence effect for all violent crimes but it seems otherwise illogical and unjust.

If someone could justify it in the original terms of common law murder, I might be won over.

.

11 Dec 12 at 4:01 pm
There are probably many cases where participation=reckless indifference should apply but I’m not convinced that this should always simply be assumed, especially. This is especially so in cases where the initial crime might be wholly non-violent and/or where one of the participants is killed. The Alabama case is a good illustration of the problems with applying it so rigidly as there was no intent to kill by anyone, it was an accidental killing.

badm0f0

11 Dec 12 at 4:19 pm
She had done a little bit of preparation. She is a former lawyer, after all, and knows the importance of briefings.

Very former in fact. Just ask Nick Styant-Browne.

H B Bear

11 Dec 12 at 4:21 pm
Konnichiwa Carpe sama,

For you and all the other Cat folk who recently discussed the benefits of the Japanese spa:

Kampai!

Septimus yori.

Septimus

11 Dec 12 at 4:35 pm
She had done a little bit of preparation. She is a former lawyer, after all, and knows the importance of briefings.

Very former in fact. Just ask Nick Styant-Browne.

About the fact she is a former lawyer, or her history of making and keeping notes?

Token

11 Dec 12 at 4:39 pm
It is not always the retailers (though their local websites often do really suck) –

Cry me a river, retailers, wholesales, whoever. All of them along the chain have been gouging Australia for 2 centuries, and it’s all falling apart.

The amount of cash gouged out of Australians and into the pockets of retailers is outrageous. They’ve used successive decades of government protectionism to keep their prices high and their employees lazy and useless. But the dam has busted wide open, and there’s no patching the hole.

Two 777s a week full of retail goods from one single site. This is the tip of the iceberg, I can assure you. A mere trickle compared to where it will be by the end of next decade. David Jones and Myer can merrily throw up online catalogues of their overpriced goods, but they will be summarily ignored as the lipstick on a stinking pig of a business they are. ‘Free shipping’ they will bleat ‘but still 3 times the price’ the consumers will retort.

If we could get the car industry protectionism cracked, the amount of car carriers docking at our ports would probably double. Allow parallell grey imports and it would be a flood of new vehicles heading down under, and a very happy set of consumers wondering why they paid Aston Martin prices for Porsches, BMW prices for Hondas, and so on down the line.

brc

11 Dec 12 at 4:47 pm
Ironic that the lectern notes weren’t supposed to exist but did, and the letter to the WA Commisioner was supposed to exist but doesn’t.

I guess that suits a Labor world where surplus means deficit, freedom of the press means regulation, and fair work is anything but.

brc

11 Dec 12 at 4:48 pm
Two 777s a week full of retail goods from one single site. This is the tip of the iceberg, I can assure you.

In the last 2 months I have bought a windscreen wiper motor for 200 Euro that retailed for $1700AUD and a light globe for $55USD that retailed for $400AUD over the net. They can whack a 200% tax on imports and I’m still better off talking Hans, Chuck or Jing.

Infidel Tiger

11 Dec 12 at 4:57 pm
After only sixteen mostly relentlessly negative comments, the 20 Most Influential Harridans comments section is now closed. LOL.

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 5:02 pm
In the last 2 months I have bought a windscreen wiper motor for 200 Euro that retailed for $1700AUD and a light globe for $55USD that retailed for $400AUD over the net

Is this a new bragging game?

I bought a new set of 4 wheels for my car, shipped from the USA, for $700. My local dealer had the same wheels in stock for $900 each, and had the temerity to advertise them as a ‘special’.

brc

11 Dec 12 at 5:02 pm
IT – same deal getting parts for Lady Jugulums 207 Cabriolet, roof switch worked out to about $40 Aust and a Left blinker switch assembly roughly $50 Aust delivered by International Post.

This was $280 and $420 Aust each in Melbourne, (prices varied among the Pug dealers in Aust) & i couldn’t find a wrecker that had the parts so in don’t know their cost.

Either way it still worked out a bucket load cheaper for two parts that fit in an A4 sized enveloope.

Carpe Jugulum

11 Dec 12 at 5:07 pm
Jesus. What a pack of sea hunters.

.

11 Dec 12 at 5:07 pm
Isn’t it funny how Australian retailers complain about the cost of shipping, but a bloke sitting around in his undies can ship it here cheaper and quicker than they can?

Infidel Tiger

11 Dec 12 at 5:08 pm
but a bloke sitting around in his undies can ship it here cheaper and quicker than they can?

It seems unreal, the prices charged in Australia. I bought a Paslode framing Gun (timber framing), it costs between $650 to $750 in Aust, i can buy the same thing on Ebay out of the US for $420 delivered with the same worldwide warranty.

Carpe Jugulum

11 Dec 12 at 5:13 pm
After only sixteen mostly relentlessly negative comments, the 20 Most Influential Harridans comments section is now closed. LOL.

If only getting rid of the rest of Failfax was that simple.

H B Bear

11 Dec 12 at 5:15 pm
Ha!

The chick from the retailers lobby was on the wireless the other day and said we ought to be concerned about a lack of consumer protection!

.

11 Dec 12 at 5:18 pm
Konnichiwa Carpe sama,

Konbanwa Septimusu

Carpe Jugulum

11 Dec 12 at 5:27 pm
The chick from the retailers lobby was on the wireless the other day and said we ought to be concerned about a lack of consumer protection!

The other day I emailed an enquiry to an ebay seller about an item I’d bought a month ago but hadn’t received yet to see if it had been shipped. They replied that it had, but have in the meantime offered to return the money I paid and that I could just resend it and give them good feedback when the item arrived. Its not registered or insured mail so they have no real way of knowing if I’m telling the truth. Can you imagine a local retailer doing that sort of thing?!

If a purchase is not time critical and last minute then most of what I buy with the exception of groceries is online now. It’s often faster (in terms of my time used up), cheaper and you get better customer service if you’re careful about who you buy from.

Gab – I agree I was just responding to this statement of yours:

Sky News host David Lipson tweeted that Abbott was a liar about him reading the mammmmia blog as the blog “was axed more than a month ago”.

The blog seems to be going really well – would be interested to find out how profitable it is, but I’d guess it is rather influential which is why the government ministers are giving its owners the sort of access that only newspapers/TV in the media world are used to.

Chris

11 Dec 12 at 5:35 pm
brc @ 1647

Have you noticed the great increase in unmarked delivery vans on city and suburban roads – delivering Internet-sourced goods from airport to you!!

Mike of Marion

11 Dec 12 at 5:35 pm
If Ms Gillard is Australia’s most influential female voice for 2012 we’re totally screwed.

And so’s yer husband.

kae

11 Dec 12 at 5:37 pm
@mike, despite getting several deliveries a week, I don’t recall ever seeing the same delivery guy. In my area that must mean the new growth small business is in self-employed white delivery vans. This is even more so in this time before christmas when the christmas shopping starts pouring in from all corners of the globe.

Imagine what the taxi regulators would say – all these little couriers popping up everywhere to drive stuff around – won’t someone think of the children! /pearlclutch /pearlclutch

I think the problems with delivery costs in Australia seem to be related to Ausrtalia post. It is often cheaper to ship something from London than Melbourne. I have no idea why but I assume unions and regulations have something to do with it.

brc

11 Dec 12 at 5:42 pm
I think the problems with delivery costs in Australia seem to be related to Ausrtalia post. It is often cheaper to ship something from London than Melbourne. I have no idea why but I assume unions and regulations have something to do with it.

There are international postal agreements to which Australia post is bound. In many cases (book delivery from book depository UK for example) Australia post does the transport and delivery in Australia but has little flexibility in pricing. They have claimed that due to the high australian dollar they now actually make a loss on international packages sent from the UK that weigh less than 2kg.

@mike, despite getting several deliveries a week, I don’t recall ever seeing the same delivery guy. In my area that must mean the new growth small business is in self-employed white delivery vans.

Thankfully I get the same Australia post guy consistently now because newbies never both ringing the doorbell because unless the know otherwise they always seem to assume that no one is around during the day. Its quicker for them (especially during peak times) and they don’t seem to be penalized for non delivery. Just forces the work on to the receiver to turn up to the post office the next day

Chris

11 Dec 12 at 6:11 pm
Isn’t it funny how Australian retailers complain about the cost of shipping, but a bloke sitting around in his undies can ship it here cheaper and quicker than they can?

I bought summer clothes at perhaps 75% off what I would pay here last month.

It’s amazing. There are two sites wifey put me on that have really big discounted sales. 80% of the stuff is shit, but the rest isn’t. She buys all sorts of crap there and I helped her with the re-shipper if the can’t ship here seeing retailers are up to all sorts of crap tying down their suppliers so they can screw us more.

Fuck’em. I can’t care if they all went bust.

JC

11 Dec 12 at 6:17 pm
>If Ms Gillard is Australia’s most influential female voice for 2012 we’re totally screwed.

Really, I have no problem with Gillard being awarded this, erm, whatever it is.

There is little doubt she is Australias most influential female, so it’s a fair thing to say.

If they had nominated her for Australias most honest female, well, that would be a different story.

brc

11 Dec 12 at 6:21 pm
You do realise, all ‘y’all, that the online shopping advantage will inevitably be destroyed by politicians and our dole-bludging business groups via new ‘fairness’ taxes and ‘Aussie jobs for Aussies’ campaigns etc.

I mean, this is inevitable.

This is Australia, remember – a country where cigarette counters are disguised.

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 6:36 pm
LOL. Tim Blair calls Gillard’s girlie blogger get-togather a “Tupperware party.”

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 6:39 pm
You do realise, all ‘y’all, that the online shopping advantage will inevitably be destroyed by politicians and our dole-bludging business groups via new ‘fairness’ taxes and ‘Aussie jobs for Aussies’ campaigns etc.

Yep and that’s why I’m buying massive amounts of consumer goodies online while the buying is still good!

Rabz

11 Dec 12 at 6:40 pm
So I went over to check out the comments mentioned at the 20 Most Influential Wymmyn list. I see Stella Show Me The Wheelchair Young is in there, even though I’d never heard of her before this year, and of course Penny Wong. She covers most diversity bases except the one-legged niche.

Anyway, this exchange struck me:

The Most Influential Female Voices”. Something seems to be missing here a doctor who advanced research against cancer, an engineer who helped build better roads or equipment essential for health, economy, etc. All the marvelous women who advance education.
Also someone like my wife (a hero to me and my son). She gives my son the principles to be a better citizen of the world and teaches him about who he. She fights for a strong family every day and consequently a strong nation.

Commenter: Mich
Location: Sydney

@Mitch Yes, these are all admirable women but they did not use their *voices* to *influence* and that was the criteria I think. This is not about who is the smartest or kindest or most inventive -there are other awards and lists for those. This is about using your voice and that voice having an impact. I am sure your wife is a very nice lady and @David Julie Goodwin is great at cooking but I do not see how either of them influenced the national conversation.You also have to remember that the people voting are readers of Daily Life so it’s expected that they would vote for women who write for Daily Life.

Commenter: Sheba
Location: Date and time

Influence a family, influence a nation. I understand @Sheba your point and I gave my wife as example but there are millions like her. I would like just to point out the need to celebrate the role of the mother as an educator and her importance in teaching children to respect difference. Isn’t that influential? And please no body tell me that we have mothers day for that because it is so commercial I don’t know whats the point anymore, I think mothers and their roles are marginalized and I would like to give the backlash against Carla Bruni as example.

Commenter: Mich
Location: Sydney

Mich, while I appreciate your passion for motherhood and its role in influencing families and therefore society (it’s the premise of why women’s education in the developing world is so important), I think it bears pointing out that at least 7 of the women on this list have children. Presumably, we can assume they are influential in this regard also.

Commenter: mothers can be other things too
Location: Melbourne

Wow, talk about condescension. It speaks volumes when the only person to stick up for motherhood as a valid choice for women is a man.

I’m reminded of my friend who is a stay at home mum. She has gotten so used to being dismissed for doing that that now, when people ask her ‘what she does’ she tells them ‘nothing much.’

I’ve told her she needs to spin it differently:
She now spends her days providing and maintaining an excellent atmosphere of comfort that enhances the wellbeing and activity of her family (or some such drivel).

nilk

11 Dec 12 at 6:40 pm
You do realise, all ‘y’all, that the online shopping advantage will inevitably be destroyed by politicians and our dole-bludging business groups via new ‘fairness’ taxes and ‘Aussie jobs for Aussies’ campaigns etc.

I mean, this is inevitable.

This is Australia, remember – a country where cigarette counters are disguised.

Not A problem CL. Not A problem.

Buy the junk you want online, then send it to a re-shipper who omits all details of the purchase on the new package.

Failing that, I’ll send the shit to my daughter in NY who will then re-send it to me.

There’s no fucking way in the world I will ever pay retail Aussie for some stuff again.

As they say in the classics, they can go and get fucked. The whole lot of of them. The government, the retailers and all the hangers on.

I’m wide eyed aware that the Libs could shut this down. I wouldn’t put it past them.

You can actually buy cigs online from a reputable American-Indian reservation , have the stuff sent to a re-shipper and get American cigs at your door step for huge savings. The other advantage is that you will be smoking out of a pack un-tampered by Fatty Von Roxon.

As I said. Fuck’em all

JC

11 Dec 12 at 6:53 pm
Question

Is Von Roxon using her maiden name? I presume the asshat is because all the female critters in that pig of a poltical party seem to keep their maiden name.

(Hey you asshats, the maiden name’s you’re keeping belong to your fathers you degenerates.

JC

11 Dec 12 at 6:58 pm
I bought a new set of 4 wheels for my car, shipped from the USA, for $700. My local dealer had the same wheels in stock for $900 each…

F.M.

Incredible.

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 7:05 pm
Nilk, the Child Bride is in the same position. Having worked her guts out as a nurse for the last 43 years, she now gets to work with her mates in outback NSW when she feels the need for some mad money.
And if others don’t like it, tough shit.

Winston Smith

11 Dec 12 at 7:07 pm
JC, got a link for the Indian tobacco folks?

Sounds interesting.

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 7:10 pm
Jamie Foxx

“my new movie comes out next month. I get to kill all the white people in the movie. How great is that”

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/12/10/jamie-foxx-jokes-about-killing-all-white-people-his-new-movie

Imagine that being said the other way around.

Hey, no problem Jamie … black on white murder rate is at a pretty respectable high, so all you’re doing is copying what a lot of American blacks do anyway brother.

JC

11 Dec 12 at 7:13 pm
Yep and that’s why I’m buying massive amounts of consumer goodies online while the buying is still good!

I’m heading to the States on holidays next month and will be filling my boots while I’m there. After that, mail order here we come for pretty much everything, because I’ll have all my sizing sussed out.

tbh

11 Dec 12 at 7:13 pm
Here CL… last year I bought a carton as a trial and it got through.

I think I used these guys.

http://www.dutyfreedepot.com/BrandList.aspx?BrandSection=1

tell your friends to avoid the Asian online sellers because a lot of that crap is made in the Philippines and of dubious quality.

American made cigs are of course first rate. Euroweenie cigs are too of course.

Indian reservations are don’t get hit with duties in the US as they are considered separate countries or some shit like that. I used to buy all my cigs from a reservations for around 1 buck 50 in those days when they were retailing for 4 buckeroos in Manhattan.

JC

11 Dec 12 at 7:18 pm
Oh I almost forgot. Britain could be transformed too, like the US. They have freaking loads of the stuff.

Boris Johnson should be PM. No Question.

Our nukes are so high-maintenance that the cost of disposing of their spent fuel rods is put at about £100 billion – more than the value of all the electricity they have produced since the Fifties. The hills and dales of Britain are being forested with white satanic mills, and yet the total contribution of wind power isstill only about 0.4 per cent of Britain’s needs. Wave power, solar power, biomass – their collective oomph wouldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding. We are prevented from putting in a new system of coal-fired power stations, since that would breach our commitments under Kyoto. We are therefore increasingly and humiliatingly dependent on Vladimir Putin’s gas or on the atomic power of the French state.

And then in the region of Blackpool—as if by a miracle—we may have found the solution. The extraction of shale gas by hydraulic fracture, or fracking, seems an answer to the nation’s prayers. There is loads of the stuff, apparently—about 1.3 trillion barrels; and if we could get it out we could power our toasters and dishwashers for the foreseeable future. By offering the hope of cheap electricity, fracking would make Britain once again competitive in sectors of industry—bauxite smelting springs to mind—where we have lost hope.

The extraction process alone would generate tens of thousands of jobs in parts of the country that desperately need them. And above all, the burning of gas to generate electricity is much, much cleaner—and produces less Co2—than burning coal. What, as they say, is not to like?

JC

11 Dec 12 at 7:28 pm
Throughout a difficult and turbulent year she has taught many of us an important lesson in how to stand up to sexism. It’s not an understatement to call her misogyny speech a watershed moment for women in this country.

More of a watercloset moment.

blogstrop

11 Dec 12 at 7:39 pm
It’s going to take some of the major retailers to revolt against the manufacturers and demand equivalent wholesale pricing to change the situation.

Oh yeah? While they’re at it are they going to go the shipping companies for free shipping and the warehouse owners for for free warehousing, the TV and radio people for free advertising and the trucking companies for free interstate delivery. And let’s not forget the employees who’ll work for nothing.

blogstrop

11 Dec 12 at 7:43 pm
More of a ~~watercloset~~ guarderobe moment.

I like that better.

Carpe Jugulum

11 Dec 12 at 7:56 pm
A “dunny moment” for the Bogan.

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 7:59 pm
Potemkin’s Village

Back to the future… here

Grigory Potemkin

11 Dec 12 at 8:23 pm
And the latest news from the Islamic world – cyborg Jewish vultures!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/9734674/Vulture-spying-for-Israel-caught-in-Sudan.html

squawkbox

11 Dec 12 at 8:36 pm
You can actually buy cigs online from a reputable American-Indian reservation , have the stuff sent to a re-shipper and get American cigs at your door step for huge savings.

I dunno about that. Customs have jumped on it. They often send you a letter demanding duty. It’s a lottery. Get a US friend to do it and put it in a larger, less obvious box.

I’ve been stung, and that’s before the new duty free rules.

DaveF

11 Dec 12 at 8:41 pm
Mk50,

Twilight of the Thunder God

I LIKE IT . . . !?

Oops … sorry … I like it.

Heh

Septimus

11 Dec 12 at 8:43 pm
Hedley Thomas writes a diary for the (UK) Spectator. I wonder what the Poms make of it all? Probably what Sir Terry Pratchett said in his Discworld satire on Australia, The Last Continent.

“We put all our politicians in prison as soon as they’re elected. Don’t you?”
“Why?”
“It saves time.”

Cold-Hands

11 Dec 12 at 8:46 pm
After that brief interlude with Amon Amarth at 8.43pm, it’s back to the quieter music – Zimmer’s ‘House of the Spirits’ soundtrack CD now playing, not sure what will follow.

Last night’s therapy worked well. Rounded out the evening watching the DVD of ‘Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight 1970′, where he calmed the chaos of the unruly crowd of 600,000.

Septimus

11 Dec 12 at 9:10 pm
1000th!

Megan

11 Dec 12 at 9:20 pm
Oh yeah? While they’re at it are they going to go the shipping companies for free shipping and the warehouse owners for for free warehousing, the TV and radio people for free advertising and the trucking companies for free interstate delivery. And let’s not forget the employees who’ll work for nothing.

All they’d be asking for is the ability to buy at the same price as retailers in other countries (not including shipping overhead). Something they often can’t do because manufacturers charge more for goods destined to retailers in Australia simply because they can. If retailers don’t manage to negotiate even that then they’re doomed (not that I particularly care).

Chris

11 Dec 12 at 9:25 pm
@cl : the dealer – well, let’s just say they are a brand that has gotten so used to gouging customers because of restrictions on personal parallel imports that they think parts gouging is par for the course as well. I wont name names, but once upon a time they made engines for the Luftwaffe.

As for the pollies and retailiers – well, they can prise my online shopping out of my cold, dead hands. As JC says, it’s unstoppable unless you want to hit it at the internet censorship level, which I wouldn’t put past Conroy, the milk-loving red-underpants wearer.

These days it’s not just online shopping.
Because of semi-frequent US bound trips, 3 or 4 hours at a decent outlet mall and I’ve got myself and the extended family all fitted out with clothes for pennies on what you would pay here. 2 x 32 baggage weight limit on the way back – no problems at all.

I prefer wearing Levis as a wardrobe staple in the cooler months, and I have an embarrasment of a selection now. Never paid more than $40 for a pair. Running shoes? Anything over $50 is outrageous and I won’t pay it.

In fact I don’t even remember the last time I bought clothing in an Australian store.

With cheaper flights to LA now the new normal (surprise! another Australian government granted monopoly removed and prices fall!) you can easily fly to LA, stay for a few days, and mostly offset the cost of the flight by doing a year or twos worth of shopping in one hit. Pick up a classic car or a caravan while you’re there and really save some money.

brc

11 Dec 12 at 9:35 pm
I dunno about that. Customs have jumped on it. They often send you a letter demanding duty. It’s a lottery. Get a US friend to do it and put it in a larger, less obvious box.

I’ve been stung, and that’s before the new duty free rules.

Shit. See what I mean?

Yeah, brc – it’s great. That’s why I know this fucked up country will do anything and everything to shut it down.

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 9:46 pm
Hedley Thomas writes a diary for the (UK) Spectator. I wonder what the Poms make of it all?

Is that for real? This is comedy gold.

The beer is cold at the local hall. I down a few quickly while trading insults with my unionist mate. ‘You work for Rupert Murdoch – you hack phones!’ he says. ‘Yes! That’s how I know you’re still calling Brisbane hookers and charging them to your union credit card,’ I retort. He is warming to my plan for a modest share in a racehorse. I’m going to name the nag ‘Slush Fund’. I want a mare with a reddish mane and a powerful kick. I tell my unionist mate he can’t use the members’ money to pay for his share in Slush Fund: that would be illegal. I stress it has to be his money. He stares at me.

Token

11 Dec 12 at 9:50 pm
I prefer wearing Levis as a wardrobe staple in the cooler months, and I have an embarrasment of a selection now. Never paid more than $40 for a pair. Running shoes? Anything over $50 is outrageous and I won’t pay it.

Where? This is fountain of youth type stuff.

.

11 Dec 12 at 9:51 pm
I’ve been an avid catalogue shopper long before the arrival of the internet for the reasons listed above…cheaper prices, larger range, better quality fabrics/materials..and even with postage, and back in the eighties, custom charges as well..it was a better deal than buying in retail stores here.

The internet has removed the one negative from those heady days…the long wait for arrival. I order my winter boots from the UK at the end of their winter when they are on sale. I order Friday and they are at my door by the following Wednesday. And in styles and sizes I just can’t find here.

I won’t be spending that money here if the retailers get their way and have the GST added. I’ll do what brc suggests and take a trip every couple of years purely to stock up.

Megan

11 Dec 12 at 9:53 pm
Can someone recommend a good online shoe vendor?

Infidel Tiger

11 Dec 12 at 9:57 pm
If it’s dress shoes or really smart casual European stuff you’re after you could try these guys: shopthefinest.com

I’ve bought a few items of clothing from them and they’ve been good. Based in California.

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 10:01 pm
Where? This is fountain of youth type stuff.

Hahaha. The discount mall I discovered during my last trip happens to be in St Augustine, FL… which coincidentally also happens to be the location of Ponce de Leon’s famous Fountain of Youth.

LOL.

But seriously, next time you go to the States take almost nothing with you. Buy it all there and haul it back.

sdog

11 Dec 12 at 10:02 pm
I dunno about that. Customs have jumped on it. They often send you a letter demanding duty. It’s a lottery. Get a US friend to do it and put it in a larger, less obvious box.

I’ve been stung, and that’s before the new duty free rules.

I tried it last year and mine got through. Look, get it through a re-shipper. The other thing is they may be aware of are say parcels coming in from the Philippines or Malaysia in the region, which are known to ship cigs.

The US reservation racket isn’t as well known, so try that next time. Imagine the parcels coming through from the US. Just experiment with a carton and see what happens.

As I said I trialed it early this or late last year and it worked.

JC

11 Dec 12 at 10:03 pm
Septimus – good, innit?

Half the tracks on that album, imagine Nightwish with Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen singing ‘em…

Gotta run, in the boonies for work.

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Dec 12 at 10:04 pm
WTF? Why are you dudes buying clothes in Cal. People from that shithole state aren’t exactly known for their fashion sense.

Go to NY and Stock up. Lord Jesus… Cal.. Florida. Where next … the Sudan for cheap turbans?

Freshen up the fashions fellas.

JC

11 Dec 12 at 10:07 pm
My policy with tobacco is to bring in really small quantities multiple times. Firstly, if it’s lower amount than what you can bring in your suitcase, traditionally they’ve left you alone. Secondly, if they do send you a bill it’s for three cigars or 50g of tobacco and therefore going to cost them more to process it than it will cost you. Make sure there’s no paperwork or invoices with it, not that it really makes much difference with tobacco as it’s based on quantity or weight.

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 10:08 pm
We can’t all be rockin’ Armani crocodile skin loafers and pleated Gucci Jeans, JC.

Infidel Tiger

11 Dec 12 at 10:09 pm
Alternative to LA. Head for Hawaii. Go to the Waikele Centre at Waipahu. Lots of factory outlets, and again, incredibly cheap.

Mk50 of Brisbane

11 Dec 12 at 10:09 pm
DaveF

Don’t overdo it and get greedy. Don’t go ordering 10 cartons at a time as that may attract suspicion.

Just order enough for say 2 or 3 weeks supply and keep doing it.

JC

11 Dec 12 at 10:11 pm
Piss off, JC!! It’s Italian clothing from that joint!

What do you think of these stores, Mr Shopping:

Brookes Brothers
Orvis
LL Bean

and have you done any mail order from them?

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 10:11 pm
Yeah, brc – it’s great. That’s why I know this fucked up country will do anything and everything to shut it down.

Take a look what they did to grey imports of cars in the late ’90′s. All of a sudden you could buy the sweetest, most kickarse, luxurious, well built for the Japanese / European market Japanese cars. Skylines, Supra’s, GTO’s etc were coming in for for next to nothing. Then the second tier cars started coming: 4wd’s like Surfs, people movers like Delicas, family sedans like Chasers, etc. So Toyota Australia has a major whinge to the government and lo-and-behold! Almost immediately the burgeoning industry was all but strangled. They started by arguing that Japanese cars made for the Japanese / European market weren’t as “safe” as the cars made for Australia. Yes you heard that right, they were arguing that an R33 Nissan Skyline GTR was less “safe” in an accident than a piece of shit aussie market Corolla or Pulsar.

And that was under Howard.

Incidentally we got to see that the makes and models of cars that they send to Australia and charge eye watering prices for is the same shit that they send to the third world countries.

twostix

11 Dec 12 at 10:12 pm
Jezz, JC. The Florida outlet mall isn’t selling clothes made in Florida FFS. It’s the same shit you can get in NY, without the NY sales tax.

http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=55

sdog

11 Dec 12 at 10:12 pm
Go to the Waikele Centre at Waipahu.

My wife filled 3 suitcases there. Poor thing had a panic attack because it was so cheap compared to Australia. I drank a lot of Mai Tais.

Infidel Tiger

11 Dec 12 at 10:13 pm
Or moisturizers, IT.

Any man that moisturizes as you once claimed should not be trying to make fun of other people’s fashion sense.

JC

11 Dec 12 at 10:14 pm
I would grow my own tobacco, but…

RESCUED FROM ELSEWHERE. FOR POSTERITY.

This is an outrage

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ea190180/s28.html

EXCISE ACT 1901 – SECT 28

Only licensed producers to produce tobacco leaf etc.
(1) A person who does not hold a producer licence must not intentionally produce material that is tobacco seed, tobacco plant or tobacco leaf knowing, or being reckless as to whether, the material is tobacco seed, tobacco plant or tobacco leaf.

Penalty:

(a) for tobacco seed or tobacco plant–2 years imprisonment or 500 penalty units; and

(b) for tobacco leaf–2 years imprisonment or the greater of:

(i) 500 penalty units; and

(ii) 5 times the amount of duty, worked out under the regulations, being the duty that would be payable if the tobacco leaf had been manufactured into excisable goods and entered for home consumption on the penalty day.

At that stage it is virtually impossible without intimidation or being co-opted by the mafia. Several people have been murdered in Australia based only on dodging excise.

The penalty for growing tobacco in Australia can be two years imprisonment and a $55 000 fine.

EXCISE ACT 1901 – SECT 117C

Unlawful possession of tobacco seed, plant or leaf
(1) A person (other than a licensed producer, licensed dealer or licensed manufacturer) must not, without permission, intentionally possess, or have custody or control of, material that is tobacco seed, tobacco plant or tobacco leaf knowing, or being reckless as to whether, the material is tobacco seed, tobacco plant or tobacco leaf.

Penalty:

(a) for tobacco seed or tobacco plant–2 years imprisonment or 500 penalty units; and

(b) for tobacco leaf–2 years imprisonment or the greater of:

(i) 500 penalty units; and

(ii) 5 times the amount of duty, worked out under the regulations, being the duty that would be payable if the tobacco leaf had been manufactured into excisable goods and entered for home consumption on the penalty day.

Note: See section 4AA of the Crimes Act 1914 for the current value of a penalty unit.

(2) A person (other than a licensed producer, licensed dealer or licensed manufacturer) must not, without permission, possess, or have custody or control of, tobacco seed, tobacco plant or tobacco leaf.

Penalty: 100 penalty units.

(3) Strict liability applies to subsection (2).

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ea190180/s117c.html

.

11 Dec 12 at 10:15 pm
Dog

I know, but they cater to the locals and I love Floridians to death, their fashion sense isn’t at the top of the curve.

JC

11 Dec 12 at 10:16 pm
JC, also Filson. Primarily interested in whether mail order is worthwhile.

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 10:17 pm
JC I was doing a carton or two. Plenty for me for a while.

I figured the shape of the parcel was the thing.

But I’ll say the Indian guys I used didn’t dud me. Honest Injuns they were.

DaveF

11 Dec 12 at 10:17 pm
What’s Filson John Mc?

JC

11 Dec 12 at 10:18 pm
They started by arguing that Japanese cars made for the Japanese / European market weren’t as “safe” as the cars made for Australia. Yes you heard that right, they were arguing that an R33 Nissan Skyline GTR was less “safe” in an accident than a piece of shit aussie market Corolla or Pulsar.

Greedy pricks. There was only supply of a vent for surplus to us anyway because of the Japanese registration rules which act as a proxy for industry welfare. (They even enforce rules for you to tape up or repair seats with tears in them).

.

11 Dec 12 at 10:19 pm
Dave F

Indian guys as in Indian or American Indian? Don’t buy any cigs from Asia. You’ll get lung cancer at the blink of an eye, or just after you light up.

JC

11 Dec 12 at 10:20 pm
JC, my face is my meal ticket.

Ever go to one of those Century 21 stores in NYC? My God, it was like an all in brawl over 5 levels.

Infidel Tiger

11 Dec 12 at 10:20 pm
JC, all of those places are US clothing stores that do mail order. If think they’re all east coast if not New York.

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 10:21 pm
They started by arguing that Japanese cars made for the Japanese / European market weren’t as “safe” as the cars made for Australia

Seriously, in a just and fair world 95% of Australian government workers should be on death row. They are such fucking arseholes. I had a run in with a council worker today.

JC

11 Dec 12 at 10:22 pm
Dot, there is no shortage of illegal tobacco in Australia, and I’m pretty quite a bit of it is grown ‘rough’ i.e. locally.

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 10:22 pm
2 years for growing your own, huh?

What is it for dope, nothing?

And homebrew is ten bucks for 60 beers or so at the supermarket.

Fuck I love this government for protecting me.

DaveF

11 Dec 12 at 10:23 pm
What do you think of these stores, Mr Shopping:

Brookes Brothers
Orvis
LL Bean

Yes, those are more my style as well, plus Land’s End & Eddie Bauer. No offense to the Armani crocodile skin loafers and pleated Gucci Jeans wearers amongst us.

I just get it sent to my parents’ house – that’s still the address on my US-based credit cards – and they on-ship it, so I wouldn’t know about those stores’ international delivery services.

sdog

11 Dec 12 at 10:24 pm
Moisturizer? That’s a startling admission.

Pickles

11 Dec 12 at 10:24 pm
JC – no they were Amerindians. I forget the site.

John Mc I’d love to find the ‘bag men’ with the non taxed tobacco but have no idea how to.

DaveF

11 Dec 12 at 10:25 pm
Ever go to one of those Century 21 stores in NYC? My God, it was like an all in brawl over 5 levels.

Wifey used to go until she graduated to “sample sales”. I’m not kidding there’s some sort of female bush telegraph in that fucking city with bimbos calling each other about the latest sample sales.

She went to three her friends told her about when we were there. She refers to it as a “saving”…as in this sweater costs x in the regular store and I got it for x- 60% so I saved 60%

JC

11 Dec 12 at 10:26 pm
Indian guys as in Indian or American Indian?

Feather, not dot.

sdog

11 Dec 12 at 10:27 pm
Find a hard core smoker. Do you have any friends or family hell bent on lung cancer?

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 10:27 pm
This was a really interesting documentary, as part of the Pearl Harbor commemorations.

Killer Subs in Pearl Harbour

The blurb doesn’t do the programme justice, they seem to come to quite a compelling landing that one of the two-man Japanese mini-subs entered Pearl Harbor and launched torpedoes during the aerial attack.

This famous photo of Battleship Row taken from a Japanese bomber supposedly shows the moment when the shockwave from a torpedo strike on what – I think – is the “West Virginia” causes the midget submarine to breach the surface in the centre left of the photo.

Apart from the incredible odds of this photo been taken at the moment of the torpedo strike, the finding of the submarine, and the recollections of servicemen still alive from both sides makes for an amazing addition to the history of the day, even after all these years.

Myrddin Seren

11 Dec 12 at 10:27 pm
Dog

LL Bean?

Dude.

Brookes bros as really smarted up over the past few years.

JC

11 Dec 12 at 10:29 pm
John Mc it isn’t lung cancer, it will be general ill health. But no I don’t know any guys who smoke who know those cheap guys.

DaveF

11 Dec 12 at 10:30 pm
You know the ‘Silk Road’ which is apparently dark internet that sells drugs. I wonder if there’s dark net or deep net tobacco merchants, or one about to emerge. I have a relative who receives quite decent sized packages of illegal tobacco through the mail, but that was coordinated through people they knew. Maybe have to pay with BitCoin!

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 10:31 pm
If I encouraged people to vote informally, would I be committing a misdemeanour or indictable offence?

IT and CL are right. What a pathetic shithole of nancies.

.

11 Dec 12 at 10:31 pm
I like to think we are helping everyone go Galt with all this online sales action.

I might add you can pick up some spectacular wives frome Eastern European outlets at a fraction of the cost of a local one.

Infidel Tiger

11 Dec 12 at 10:33 pm
Yes Dot it would be a crime re: Langer in Vic c1990?

You can’t encourage non approved votes.

You can however do it yourself. I certainly have.

Get unenrolled. It isn’t hard.

DaveF

11 Dec 12 at 10:35 pm
JC, I’m going to do an order from Brookes Brothers I think. I appreciate it’s not top tier, but I had some meetings with the CEO of a big American helicopter manufacturer and he was wearing their stuff and full of praise for them.

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 10:36 pm
I might add you can pick up some spectacular wives frome Eastern European outlets at a fraction of the cost of a local one.

Until the divorce!

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 10:37 pm
John Mc

Yea, I said Brooks has improved a lot of the past several years. I have a few sweaters and shirts from them.

JC

11 Dec 12 at 10:38 pm
LL Bean?

Dude.

In fact I still wear an LL Bean field coat (with a Pendleton wool liner which I rarely need use in WA) that I got for Christmas my freshman year. LOL.

sdog

11 Dec 12 at 10:40 pm
We laugh about ‘Going Galt’ but I think it’s quite relevant. It’s not about living in a capitalist commune, but perhaps more like this and using technology to trade with people you want to below below the surface rather than on top of it.

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 10:41 pm
IT:

I told my sis-in-law she was a punchline.

In heaven
your house is American.
your butler is English.
your chef is French.
your wife is Japanese.

In hell:

your butler is French.
your chef is English.
your house is Japanese.
your wife is…

She loved it.

DaveF

11 Dec 12 at 10:41 pm
She’s from the US if anyone didn’t get it…

DaveF

11 Dec 12 at 10:43 pm
My God… dogs driving cars. Really.

Infidel Tiger

11 Dec 12 at 10:46 pm
There’s something about sweating over one of borats however distant rellies that price can’t compensate.

Pickles

11 Dec 12 at 10:49 pm
Greedy pricks. There was only supply of a vent for surplus to us anyway because of the Japanese registration rules which act as a proxy for industry welfare. (They even enforce rules for you to tape up or repair seats with tears in them).

Stories abounded of cranky Toyota and Nissan spare parts managers abusing people who came in to dealerships to ask about buying spares for their imports. Lists circulated throughout the forums of the dealerships that it was “safe” to say you had an import at.

So then people figured it was easier to also import spares too. I’ve owned two imports and never stepped foot in a local dealership for spares because of those stories.

And they wonder why they’re going broke, who the fuck abuses their customers while simultaneosly gouging the shit out of them? Australian businesses – that’s who.

twostix

11 Dec 12 at 10:49 pm
John Mc

I think you’re right.

If I was a wealthy libertarian benefactor, I’d set up education centres where the average bloke could go for tax advice, tax planning, advice on how to be a PT, how to get out of onerous and petty fines and regulation etc. They’d be an element of a co-op system where people could lay down issues they have in starting businesses and people could exchange labour and accreditation in an honest manner.

We’d also take on minor traffic fines, prosecution of victimless crimes etc just because.

The aim would be to castrate, starve and choke onerous Government.

.

11 Dec 12 at 10:52 pm
In hell:

your butler is French.
your chef is English.
your house is Japanese.
your wife is…

…Australian?

*ducks*

sdog

11 Dec 12 at 10:53 pm
JohnMc its hard for Yanks to do this I think they pay US tax whether or not they live there.

Australia is ok, 6 months +1 day and you’re non taxable.

DaveF

11 Dec 12 at 10:53 pm
There’s a great market for aftermarket car parts as well, which are every bit as good as the OEM stuff and you can often get them online.

There is a fellow near me who sells secondhand Mercedes, been around a long time, and he specialises in providing aftermarket parts for Mercedes, or oversees sourced original parts. My mechanic is right near him and says he has a lot of customers who maintain 5 to 10 year old Mercedes using him as the source, and it’s the same as running any other cheap car. This mechanic is also a whiz at sourcing Ford parts for me, either aftermarket or online.

I think in many areas theres a whole new economy forming due to technology. It’s not the black economy, but it’s not white either.

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 10:55 pm
DaveF, I’m aware of that fact. I used to dream – pie in the sky stuff – of becoming a US citizen. But their extremist tax collection regime, no matter where you work in the world, has made me think twice. I actually think being a Canadian citizen living in the US might be a better option.

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 10:57 pm
Yes, you’d be right to duck there, Puppy Boy

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 10:58 pm
I think they pay US tax whether or not they live there.

Yes. You have to renounce your citizenship to ever get free of the IRS’s claims on all your earnings and assets. Something more and more people have been doing in the last few years, by the way. And expect more of it.

sdog

11 Dec 12 at 10:58 pm
Dot, I like it. We need the Koch brothers!

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 10:59 pm
The Death Taxes in the US shitted me off as well. I may never be particularly rich but I do want to leave pretty much all of it to my wife and kids.

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 11:00 pm
My laptop has a sticky ‘a’ key, won’t work on bttery, and is now three years old. I paid someone $200 to ‘overhaul’ it recently but it is still prone to distress (or I am, hard to pinpoint blame here).

Da Ape’s dvice is to go out and get a new one and throw this one out and be more careful with my drinks in future. I am shocked at the disposble society.

He is sick of me swearing under my breath, and sometimes not so under it, becuse things are very annoying.

I hve not even strted my Christmas shopping yet.

Tht is why the economy is even more cactus than ever.

Of course, it is all Tony bbott’s fault.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

11 Dec 12 at 11:02 pm
JohnMc its hard for Yanks to do this I think they pay US tax whether or not they live there.

Not just yanks but green card holders. I even had
the fucking arsehole IRS representative in their Melbourne consulate office calling wanting to claw tax out of me, despite having left 6 months or so before the 10 year rule off date ( in which case you have to have to pay US taxes or they go after you through the Australian courts.

It’s the most rapacious government ever.

Imagine, they even have a IRS schlep in their consulate offices.

JC

11 Dec 12 at 11:02 pm
I wouldn’t marry a Yankee either, if that helps, Gab.

Southerners may well be the last, best, most civilized people on earth.

::raises flak shield::

sdog

11 Dec 12 at 11:02 pm
Lizzie, it’s three years old – that’s like 100 in dog years. Get a new laptop, otherwise people may mistake you for Alice as her spelling sucks big time.

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 11:06 pm
I still love the Yanks (greatest nation in human history) but there’s so many areas where the American model has been corrupted beyond recognition.

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 11:06 pm
John Mc

I’d also add in setting up self managed super.

Imagine if it was free minus Governmental fees, you just had to contact my head office…

I had the idea once of a lottery for paying fines as well. You pay $x where x is equal to the amount of demerit points on a particular fine. Winners are drawn every week on Friday at 7 pm.

.

11 Dec 12 at 11:06 pm
The Death Taxes in the US shitted me off as well. I may never be particularly rich but I do want to leave pretty much all of it to my wife and kids.

I;m betting the Liars Party introduces death taxes next year over a certain level in the interests of fairness of course. Watch.

JC

11 Dec 12 at 11:07 pm
Yep, $200 to overall a three year old laptop can’t be worth it, Liz. If you must hang on to it get an external keyboard, either Bluetooth or USB.

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 11:08 pm
Don’t marry a Yank sdog before how much is owed on student loans.

DaveF

11 Dec 12 at 11:09 pm
Southerners may well be the last, best, most civilized people on earth

Hmmmm…with the odd exception.

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 11:11 pm
Puppy Boy

I just laughed out loud.

Don’t cross the Gabster.

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 11:12 pm
That could be one of the best ideas of ‘Going Galt’ that I’ve heard. Basically a charity type service that will assist you to legally starve the government that tries to rule your life.

If you incorporated something like that, a bit of LDP action, IPA and CIS getting into the media, it can’t lead to nothing.

And it might be only a minority that supports all these things, but it will be a meaningful minority.

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 11:15 pm
Regular commuters from Canada or Mexico. Do not count the days on which you commute to work in the United States from your residence in Canada or Mexico if you regularly commute from Canada or Mexico. You are considered to commute regularly if you commute to work in the United States on more than 75% of the workdays during your working period.

So a few days from Montreal in the US becomes totally taxable.

man, these guys have really done it now.

Example.

Maria Perez lives in Mexico and works for Compañía ABC in its office in Mexico. She was assigned to her firm’s office in the United States from February 1 through June 1. On June 2, she resumed her employment in Mexico. On 69 days, Maria commuted each morning from her home in Mexico to work in Compañía ABC’s U.S. office. She returned to her home in Mexico on each of those evenings. On 7 days, she worked in her firm’s Mexico office. For purposes of the substantial presence test, Maria does not count the days she commuted to work in the United States because those days equal more than 75% of the workdays during the working period (69 workdays in the United States divided by 76 workdays in the working period equals 90.8%).

DaveF

11 Dec 12 at 11:16 pm
I still love the Yanks (greatest nation in human history)

No, that title belongs to Britain. Sure the last 60 years have been a shameful embarrassment but the preceding millennia was stellar.

The US burned brightly but not for long enough to win. And now it’s a European style toilet.

The search continues.

Infidel tiger

11 Dec 12 at 11:17 pm
She meant it in an affectionate sense, CL.

At least that’s what I’m choosing to believe.

So shut up.

sdog

11 Dec 12 at 11:17 pm
Speaking of civilisation and nations, for the first time I’ve watched snippets of Geordie Shore. Conclusion: I see no down side in a re-timelined history in which Hitler won the Battle of Britain.

C.L.

11 Dec 12 at 11:17 pm
If the year is the period it could be possible to keep it below 75% though.

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 11:20 pm
Actually that example is crap.

I apologise. Blame the IRS however.

DaveF

11 Dec 12 at 11:20 pm
I’ve been saying WWII was a waste of time for a while now.

Infidel tiger

11 Dec 12 at 11:20 pm
She

Damn misogynists are everywhere.

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 11:21 pm
Shoes, shoes, did I hear someone upthread mention shoes? Yes!!

I have been busy tody breking in aaa couple of new pairs of new high heels in readiness for the festivities till Christmas. Walking around home wering them with my gym outfit.

Man instlling new washing machine was quite interestsed in them. Gardeners also complimentary as I went out to the garage. Delivery man with parcel from Japan also looking down to my feet as I signed. Then man came to mesure up new curtins nd I helped him hold the tape measure. He ws quite grateful and admired my shoes too and their helpful extr height.

It can get quite busy around here on a quiet day when I think no-one will be there to notice. I put my thongs bck on before Ape came home; wouldn’t want himn to think I waas flirting ataall.

‘a’ key seems better now too. I think and hope.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

11 Dec 12 at 11:23 pm
No, that title belongs to Britain. Sure the last 60 years have been a shameful embarrassment but the preceding millennia was stellar.

I look at the US as an extension of Britian. All the New World inherited the best government, commerce, legal, education and even religious systems of the day from Britian. The US took it, refined it, got it right and went higher.

Then fell grace like all the others.

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 11:23 pm
Racist.

sdog

11 Dec 12 at 11:24 pm
Sorry, that was directed at Gab. Misogynistically.

sdog

11 Dec 12 at 11:25 pm
I must stop this tom foolery. Goodnight!

John Mc

11 Dec 12 at 11:25 pm
My laptop has a sticky ‘a’ key, won’t work on bttery,

Lizzie, it sounds like the battery will no longer retain a charge. If your laptop is more than three years old, odds are that you won’t be able to get a replacement battery. I’d have to agree it’s time for an upgrade.

Cold-Hands

11 Dec 12 at 11:26 pm
Perhaps I will go to Harvey Norman and buy a new computer before Christmas.

Will I hve to lern Windows 8 though?

Windows 7 ws tough enough for me.

And don’t mention the filing. I’d hve to sort out all of my files somehow and decide wht to tke with me. Just like packing.

But probably better than looking nd sounding like Alice, I must agree.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

11 Dec 12 at 11:32 pm
For Gab

She

On behalf of sdog

Septimus

11 Dec 12 at 11:41 pm
Speaking of civilisation and nations, for the first time I’ve watched snippets of Geordie Shore. Conclusion: I see no down side in a re-timelined history in which Hitler won the Battle of Britain.

Even Hitler would have eventually decided against invading/occupying that filthy toilet for a country. A permanent blockade, quarantine, and irreversible ban on UK emigration was the parallel universe outcome of WWII. Sounds good to me.

Fisky

11 Dec 12 at 11:50 pm
Ahh, so romantic. Time for an avatar change.

Mrs Septimus is one very lucky lady

Gab

11 Dec 12 at 11:58 pm
Lizzie, tying the thread together, don’t reward those lazy price gouging slobs at Harvey Norman. Order your new laptop direct from the USA. Either amazon, or try b&h photo and video in new york. You’ll save a heap and get the latest gear.

Or just buy an apple at the high prices. They are much better build quality than most else.

brc

11 Dec 12 at 11:58 pm
Lizzie, it sounds like the battery will no longer retain a charge. If your laptop is more than three years old, odds are that you won’t be able to get a replacement battery. I’d have to agree it’s time for an upgrade.

Ebay – chances are Lizze would be able to find a replacement battery for her laptop even if its 6 years old on eBay. It’d just be a 3rd party one (and much cheaper too).

Will I hve to lern Windows 8 though?

Avoid Windows 8 if you can.

Chris

12 Dec 12 at 12:04 am
I will consult HIA about what to buy. He knows a lot about such t’ings in general but refuses to ‘reverse shop’, ie. do a purchase comparison once a purchase has been made. If I buy something, that’s it. We live with my mistakes or successes.

Unfortunately, he is flat out at work right now, up early and thus early to bed, and has little time for long discussions about minor purchases like mine. Get whatever you want darlin’ is his usual response. I don’t know what I want, I complain.

I have an Amazon account so may try them, thanks BRC. Otherwise I will wait for a week until HIA can help me with the purchase or at least send someone else to my rescue with some sensible advice.

If I hit the ‘a’ key hard it works, and who needs a battery?
I will manage for a while longer.

I am off now to recharge my own personal batteries in the Land of Nodd.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

12 Dec 12 at 12:23 am
Lizzie, it’s three years old – that’s like 100 in dog years. Get a new laptop, otherwise people may mistake you for Alice as her spelling sucks big time.

LOL Gab.
Lizzie, I know what that’s like. My old laptop has a sticky e, out of warranty and about three years old it’s sitting idle until I can put the things I want to save from it into a spare memory gadget.

My work computer, still under warranty, has a sticky 4, which is interesing as my print code has a 4 in it. Leads to very annoying things happening. I should let the IT peeps get me a new keyboard, huh?

kae

12 Dec 12 at 8:35 am

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