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Meta
Sorry MHR not Senator
I lived in Darwin then, Helen. It was Senator Bob Collins.
Thanks Tom.
This is an Epic episode of Free to Choose
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb6aqitTgOM
Token, don’t you know that warmening causes coolening?
Caught out. The UK Met Office ‘adjusts’ not only its current predictions about the future, but also its past predictions.
I’m sure David ’52C’ Jones of our own BoM would appreciate this ‘trick’.
These people are truly pathetic.
the amount of carbon emissions is dependent on the economic mix for one and of course the energy mix.
The US uses nuclear whereas we don’t. The US has more hydro whereas we don’t.
The US going forward will “burn” even less carbon because they now have loads and loads of gas which is for them at a more competitive price than coal.
The simplicity of their observations is astounding.
Melanie Phillips
I think this is what is called a slam dunk. Barack Obama has now proposed filling the three positions in the US administration most concerned with the security of the nation and the defence of the free world, those at State, Defence and the CIA, by three men who have all taken up positions which can only strengthen those who threaten the security of America and the survival of the free world.
Helen, Collins was leader of ALP in the NT in the 1980s.
A good review of Obama cheerleader, Lena Dunham’s TV show:
Ouch. Gawker is part of the same left leaning infotainment sites as jezebel.com.
When are people in the UK going to stop thinking Australia is a big death bowl? I was on the phone last night with someone in the UK and they were concerned with my safety. About the only problem with fire I’m going to have is overcooking my steaks on the bbq. It’s a big country, and people from a little country can never absorb that completely.
All that crap in those Guardian comments about ‘fires are the new normal’. Such emotive rubbish. Are these people just lefty warriors, or are they really that ignorant of well-documented history? I can understand English people swallowing the line that the country has burst into flames because of Global Warming, but apparently Australian readers tip in not to douse the speculation and brush the readers up on history, but to further whip up the frenzy.
Bushfires happen regularly in Australia, always have, always will. The predominant native species is a fireball looking for a spark. The only defense is sensible planning policies and emergency services response.
I pray never. It’s the only thing keeping those filthy hunchbacked yobs from invading us en masse.
Look upthread to my post 3:24pm 10/1. You’ll see this is what Gawker thinks is a responsible act:
There is no way they could ensure that the names & addresses of law enforcement officials, stalking victims, etc were removed from that list…
LOL.
You’ve got more chance of being bombed by a ‘British’ Muslim than you have of being killed in an Australian bushfire.
My sister emailed to ask if we were okay given the fires and I had to explain how far they are away from me. Obviously the UK media has the entire continent on fire. The next time there is fire in France I’ll email her to find out if she’s okay
Somebody asked me via telephone if I was OK during last year’s floods.
I explained that we have hills in Australia.
Zombie commenter at The Drum:
Yes, yes we do. So proud.
Ah Yes CL, Collins leader of ALP.
I remember when Katherine River was a big flood back about 20 years ago and I had visitors coming from Oregon (I lived south of Alice then) and they asked was there any supplies they could bring, that we might be short of. They thought we were cut off by the Katherine Floods. Bless ‘em.
More people died during the floods that ravaged Britain last year than died during our extreme catastrophic head to the beach week.
I notice people were still playing cricket etc last week.
Noticed reading wiki how dishonest left wingers are (see the Reaganomics article).
US payroll taxes are described as proportional whereas they are regressive.
The increase in payroll tax paid is described as regressive (they assume it is proportional) as it shifted out of “progressive” taxation that had so many loopholes the top EMTR was basically non existent.
Carter’s payroll tax hike raised the payroll tax liable by 45%. Of course, Reagan ought to have repealed this – look at when it starts collecting revenue – just before the 1982 recession.
The left won’t admit this awful tax destroys jobs, or that in the US it is actually a regressive tax – all on its own.
I just double the margarita intake when it’s hot,very refreshing
This weather is great for drying the washing quickly.
There is one Pom I’d like to invite to our Super Freaky Dooper Catastrophic summer to get all hot and bothered.
Strange- when I try to look at your Nigella link C.L., Chrome decides to download it for me.
I don’t think so CL. Last Nigella was in Oz she wore an Islamic spacesuit to the beach.
http://www.mediaite.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Picture-517-300×219.png
dot, that is a fair review of Dunham’s Girls. We tried watching the series over the last month but really couldn’t stomach it.
Oh, BTW, thanks for the ‘Nigella talks dirty’ link, CL; I never tire of it.
No no. That’s good. I don’t want her to lose that beautiful pale skin.
with this song I hope tal…
m0nty, if you’re out there somewhere looking for your pants, I think you left them upthread around about the 12:31am mark.
I reckon it’s sarc.
Jesus Joe I haven’t heard that song in years
Sorry if this has been posted prior but i cannot find any reference to it in the MSM, wonder why that is?
Hit submit too soon. Link.
How do the QLDers rate Powers Bitter?
Yes, but by the night-shift. It was probably past your bedtime
No actually, that was am and not pm. You have no excuse Rudi! lol
Yes. And believe me, I need all the beauty sleep I can get.
Doh!
Doncha love technology.
Iphone app emails any new photos back to the owner.
Police are looking for the now photographed couple.
Some people are really stupid, especially these two munters
Well NZ blogs are following the “Australian sexual abuse thing ”
( this bloke is no catholic )
I can’t recall having seen it here for a long time. Do they still make it?
Did anyone watch that you tube thing?
“Designed by athiests so you know it is safe with kids”
Wow. The superiority complex and naivety of these people is mind blowing.
How do the QLDers rate Powers Bitter?
I’ve never had it.
Wow, was watching a vid about Milt and found this classic from the archive where he gets a question from a young Michael Moore.
It proves how dopey Moore is and what the skinny kid looks like that that is trying to get out of that Michael Moore suit.
Dot, it’s satire, I had a giggle.
Military Drawing Up Plans for Nation-wide Gun Confiscations
Didn’t they have cheeseburgers back in the 1800s?
Gillard-McTernan lay another landmine for an Abbott Government:
Tom
The new government can screw around with the terms of reference anyway it pleases.
If there’s a problem, then they can be sacked and a new inquiry started.
In any event there’s going to be a lot of sackings in the first year, so I wouldn’t be too worried.
That’s right, Tom, and when asked how much it would cost (we’re talking six commissioners and hundreds of hangers-on, plus consultants, travel, etc etc) she just waved her hand and said effectively “whatever.”
Oh, and in the Telegraph, Nicola Roxon has apologised for saying she could live on $35 a day, because some people might perceive it as insensitive.
They truly live in fairyland.
Me neither.
Been drinking Arvo 34 lately, prefer it over the 51.(scroll down)
I get spoilt with one of these Darwin stubbies every now and then, excellent.
Tom, yes typical.
I can’t remember any snakes that Howard placed in front of ALP.
I can think of a few ladders.
Joanna, that’s Macklin.
What is the point of this royal commision?
All of the recommendations have been done before.
NOW THEREFORE We do, by these Our Letters Patent issued in Our name by Our Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia on the advice of the Federal Executive Council and under the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Royal Commissions Act 1902 and every other enabling power, appoint you to be a Commission of inquiry, and require and authorise you, to inquire into institutional responses to allegations and incidents of child sexual abuse and related matters, and in particular, without limiting the scope of your inquiry, the following matters:
what institutions and governments should do to better protect children against child sexual abuse and related matters in institutional contexts in the future;
what institutions and governments should do to achieve best practice in encouraging the reporting of, and responding to reports or information about, allegations, incidents or risks of child sexual abuse and related matters in institutional contexts;
what should be done to eliminate or reduce impediments that currently exist for responding appropriately to child sexual abuse and related matters in institutional contexts, including addressing failures in, and impediments to, reporting, investigating and responding to allegations and incidents of abuse;
what institutions and governments should do to address, or alleviate the impact of, past and future child sexual abuse and related matters in institutional contexts, including, in particular, in ensuring justice for victims through the provision of redress by institutions, processes for referral for investigation and prosecution and support services.
AND We direct you to make any recommendations arising out of your inquiry that you consider appropriate, including recommendations about any policy, legislative, administrative or structural reforms.
AND, without limiting the scope of your inquiry or the scope of any recommendations arising out of your inquiry that you may consider appropriate, We direct you, for the purposes of your inquiry and recommendations, to have regard to the following matters:
the experience of people directly or indirectly affected by child sexual abuse and related matters in institutional contexts, and the provision of opportunities for them to share their experiences in appropriate ways while recognising that many of them will be severely traumatised or will have special support needs;
the need to focus your inquiry and recommendations on systemic issues, recognising nevertheless that you will be informed by individual cases and may need to make referrals to appropriate authorities in individual cases;
the adequacy and appropriateness of the responses by institutions, and their officials, to reports and information about allegations, incidents or risks of child sexual abuse and related matters in institutional contexts;
changes to laws, policies, practices and systems that have improved over time the ability of institutions and governments to better protect against and respond to child sexual abuse and related matters in institutional contexts.
AND We further declare that you are not required by these Our Letters Patent to inquire, or to continue to inquire, into a particular matter to the extent that you are satisfied that the matter has been, is being, or will be, sufficiently and appropriately dealt with by another inquiry or investigation or a criminal or civil proceeding.
AND, without limiting the scope of your inquiry or the scope of any recommendations arising out of your inquiry that you may consider appropriate, We direct you, for the purposes of your inquiry and recommendations, to consider the following matters, and We authorise you to take (or refrain from taking) any action that you consider appropriate arising out of your consideration:
the need to establish mechanisms to facilitate the timely communication of information, or the furnishing of evidence, documents or things, in accordance with section 6P of the Royal Commissions Act 1902 or any other relevant law, including, for example, for the purpose of enabling the timely investigation and prosecution of offences;
the need to establish investigation units to support your inquiry;
the need to ensure that evidence that may be received by you that identifies particular individuals as having been involved in child sexual abuse or related matters is dealt with in a way that does not prejudice current or future criminal or civil proceedings or other contemporaneous inquiries;
the need to establish appropriate arrangements in relation to current and previous inquiries, in Australia and elsewhere, for evidence and information to be shared with you in ways consistent with relevant obligations so that the work of those inquiries, including, with any necessary consents, the testimony of witnesses, can be taken into account by you in a way that avoids unnecessary duplication, improves efficiency and avoids unnecessary trauma to witnesses;
the need to ensure that institutions and other parties are given a sufficient opportunity to respond to requests and requirements for information, documents and things, including, for example, having regard to any need to obtain archived material.
AND We appoint you, the Honourable Justice Peter David McClellan AM, to be the Chair of the Commission.
AND We declare that you are a relevant Commission for the purposes of sections 4 and 5 of the Royal Commissions Act 1902.
AND We declare that you are authorised to conduct your inquiry into any matter under these Our Letters Patent in combination with any inquiry into the same matter, or a matter related to that matter, that you are directed or authorised to conduct by any Commission, or under any order or appointment, made by any of Our Governors of the States or by the Government of any of Our Territories.
AND We declare that in these Our Letters Patent:
child means a child within the meaning of the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 20 November 1989.
government means the Government of the Commonwealth or of a State or Territory, and includes any non-government institution that undertakes, or has undertaken, activities on behalf of a government.
institution means any public or private body, agency, association, club, institution, organisation or other entity or group of entities of any kind (whether incorporated or unincorporated), and however described, and:
includes, for example, an entity or group of entities (including an entity or group of entities that no longer exists) that provides, or has at any time provided, activities, facilities, programs or services of any kind that provide the means through which adults have contact with children, including through their families; and
does not include the family.
institutional context: child sexual abuse happens in an institutional context if, for example:
it happens on premises of an institution, where activities of an institution take place, or in connection with the activities of an institution; or
it is engaged in by an official of an institution in circumstances (including circumstances involving settings not directly controlled by the institution) where you consider that the institution has, or its activities have, created, facilitated, increased, or in any way contributed to, (whether by act or omission) the risk of child sexual abuse or the circumstances or conditions giving rise to that risk; or
it happens in any other circumstances where you consider that an institution is, or should be treated as being, responsible for adults having contact with children.
law means a law of the Commonwealth or of a State or Territory.
official, of an institution, includes:
any representative (however described) of the institution or a related entity; and
any member, officer, employee, associate, contractor or volunteer (however described) of the institution or a related entity; and
any person, or any member, officer, employee, associate, contractor or volunteer (however described) of a body or other entity, who provides services to, or for, the institution or a related entity; and
any other person who you consider is, or should be treated as if the person were, an official of the institution.
related matters means any unlawful or improper treatment of children that is, either generally or in any particular instance, connected or associated with child sexual abuse.
AND We:
require you to begin your inquiry as soon as practicable, and
require you to make your inquiry as expeditiously as possible; and
require you to submit to Our Governor-General:
first and as soon as possible, and in any event not later than 30 June 2014 (or such later date as Our Prime Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, fix on your recommendation), an initial report of the results of your inquiry, the recommendations for early consideration you may consider appropriate to make in this initial report, and your recommendation for the date, not later than 31 December 2015, to be fixed for the submission of your final report; and
then and as soon as possible, and in any event not later than the date Our Prime Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, fix on your recommendation, your final report of the results of your inquiry and your recommendations; and
authorise you to submit to Our Governor-General any additional interim reports that you consider appropriate.
IN WITNESS, We have caused these Our Letters to be made Patent.
Gillard couldn’t give a shit about kids.
It’s a ruse bash Abbot, Catholics and shut down the idea of a Royal Commission into union corruption.
I see
I still stand by what I said about Gillard. It’s about the last priority, the first terms of reference have been addressed by about 20 years of legislation and best practices.
As a kid who was ‘different’ and bullied in school himself, an interesting post from E.M. Smith
Heard Rudd on radio saying (my translation ) ” Well, there’s no surplus promise {Swan ya loser} now so how bout a pay rise for the dole bludgers {gillard ya cow}”
And on someone else’s money, ya suckers!
It’s not Michael Moore…
This is just great. Piers Morgan the smug limey CNN anchor telling Americans what they should with their guns and bullying anyone who doesn’t agree with him gets destroyed by this kid, Ben Shapiro from Breitbart.
The smugness begins to fade through the interview.
http://www.therightscoop.com/masterful-breitbarts-ben-shapiro-torches-piers-morgan-and-his-straw-men/
being a “limey” I remember when Morgan was in charge at the Mirror when he published the fake british soldier pictures of Iraqi torture. The prick was out the door, and for some reason the yanks took him on?
It wouldn’t be difficult to give Piers an intellectual hiding.
jump, thanks – Roxon, Macklin – it’s easy to mix them up.
Reading the RC’s ToRs, what strikes me is that not only have they lumbered an incming government with tens of millions of dollars worth of costs for the Commission itself – they have explicitly asked for recommendations on compensation. It’s a poison pill for many Budgets to come.
I wouldn’t want to be an Aboriginal kid in a remote community hoping for anything to change as a result of this loathsome grandstanding, though. Zero result there.
from Myrdin’s link… right at the end.
That’s the way to end school bullying, all right. Bring back some sense of discipline into schools. Don’t let the students run the place.
JC, a good debate. It’s good to see someone defending the Second Amendment as intended by the Founders.
He should have just finished by saying “You’re right! You don’t a Second Amendment in the UK because the place is fucked, a backwater that’s becoming more and more so by the day. You don’t have any rights worth defending anymore!”
In short, the way to fix this is just to stop letting kids run the social order and stop running the schools the same way prisons are run.
Do prisoners run prisons? Discipline is not going to stop bullying because bullies are smart enough to know when to bully. Is there any data to indicate that bullying has increased in recent years or is this just more media manufactured?
Bullying is not just about schools. We live in a verbally aggressive culture where denigrating people is acceptable behavior in some circles. Monkey see, monkey do. You wanna do something about bullying, set an example.
John H
I think there’s a good point there. American schools more so than our public schools are huge monstrosities which are run like prisons and feel like prisons.
Choice would mean decentralization and obviously smaller schools.
These days, not including a kid in a game at play lunch is referred to as bullying.
Make your kiddies do a self defense course.
Problem solved.
Oh man, Piers got bitch slapped by Shapiro’s pimp hand!
Just when you thought Australia’s nanny-staters couldn’t get any more ridiculous…
Lethal Russian lollies!
I think there’s a good point there. American schools more so than our public schools are huge monstrosities which are run like prisons and feel like prisons.
Choice would mean decentralization and obviously smaller schools.
JC,
Zimbardo. If you make the place like a prison how do you think the inmates will act? If the USA has driven itself into a situation where the schools are like prisons then let it be on their own heads the idiots. Fme, there is even an argument that such an environment will detrimental to learning.
This comes back to a point I was making on another forum about this issue. If you have to keep “reinforcing schools” against attacks you are creating an environment that is not conducive in bringing out the best in people.
Make your kiddies do a self defense course.
Nearly all bullying is verbal. If you strike a person for verbal insults it is “inappropriate” under the law. Fuck the law. But we can’t do that …. .
About the 1 metre fire thing.
I live in a rural residential area on 1.5 acres.
If I wish to burn off and the “bonfire” is larger than 1m diameter or 1m height I must notify the local Bushfire Brigade and get permission and tell them when I’ll be burning off.
If I don’t I can be fined thousands of dollars.
Problem is where I live there are too many people who are clueless about rural living, about farm animal requirements (and regulations for the health and welfare of farm animals*), and fire.
One idiot decided to burn off his 1.5 acre block years ago and we nearly lost a few houses, and my neighbours lost all their plants. Their grass wasn’t long as they mowed regularly but the ground fire was enough to set fire to their mulch and kill their trees.
*1.5 acres is NOT enough for a couple of horses, a few head of cattle, cats and five dogs!
(Why are Indians calling me about the federal solar rebate? I keep hanging up but they keep ringing. Interesting how they have names of famous Aussie cricketers!)
Thanks for that Abu. Interesting discussion. The leftards appear to target Ford for releasing onto the market a cheap car, a car that didn’t have the safety level of more expensive vehicles. It is assumed by the leftard that, as Ford is a multinational corporation, it is evil and did this for the purpose of killing people. This was from ‘Mother Jones”, that as evidence of evil cited the expectation from Ford that it would incur $x millions in liability suits. This forgets that, in the insane US Tort system, all new products (and old products too) are subject to litigation for any perceived injury.
The Ford model was cheap (was it the Pinto?) and sold cheaply. It was meeting a market need for cheap cars. The design and or fuel tank components were not of a high standard, and they tended to burst into flames on impact in an accident. Ford was held liable for substantial damages for bothering to meet a market need for cheap small cars.
Now they import them, I believe.
God I hate this country.
Notice how the complainants are always anonymous lobby groups?
Getting an error when I try to post a comment. Grr.
A matter of concern is that the regular burn offs which occur in winter on the range below Toowoomba have not happened for the past two years.
With all the rain before and after the floods of 10-12 January 2011 the fuel load is huge and the threat is there.
I haven’t noticed the annoying smoke for the past two years. I have seen fires up on the range in December and there’s been a bit of smoke around.
There have been electrical storms here at night for the past two days, no rain to speak of, but spectacular displays.
Just fart, same thing.
Stay safe Kae.
JC and Abu convinced that a smirking, libertarian kid talking up the old paranoia defence of the second amendment, but who didn’t know Ronald Reagan supported getting assault rifles, “destroyed” Morgan? What a joke. Put down your ideology goggles and watch it again.
Ironically, for a kid crapping on about possible future tyrannical government, his youthful serious earnestness sure made him look like the one susceptible to being convinced by a leader to do something stupid in defence of ideology.
I strongly suspect that the Parents Jury of Australia, the Cancer Council Australia, Diabetes Australia and The Australian and NZ Obesity Society, are all the same organisation with the same membership – one man, a fax machine and several different letterheads.
Sorry: “Reagan supported getting assault rifles out of public hands…”
I have and you are wrong.
You’ve admitted as much previously that there is no proof that gun regulation works, it just makes you feel good.
On the same basis, I could demand legislation that Joanna Krupa must be my mistress, but it would be just as banal and asinine.
t’was indeed the pinto.
ford also sold another legendary car, the edsel, which had a grille that resembled a bleep.
I hope 4 corners does a show with footage of Australian livestock ( tens of thousands of em ) being burnt to death due to the greens anti-burn off laws.
Meanwhile farmers are doing what they always do, help thy neighbour and his animals.
Greens help? = zero.
Correct. US schooling is stuck in the 1950s. Reform from an economists point of view will only go so far.
That’s why it is good kids play sport. You’re all equal wielding a hockey stick.
Well, nothing other than how many years without a mass shooting in Australia since 1996.
The libertarian Right, truly, has no common sense at the moment.
You forgot the “Australian Pedestrian Council“, the original ‘one man and a fax machine’ outfit.
Kae
I was told that the ground combustibles in SE NSW was up to 8 tonnes per hectare and considered waay too dangerous. This was a couple of years ago so the lack of hazard management is seeing the fire-chookies coming home to roost.
A class action against the greens and their fellow travellers would be nice if it could be arranged – a certain firm of ambulance chasers springs to mind.
And there is the proof that Shapiro smashed Piers right there at 8;05pm.
I watched it and now I realise I
wantneed a gun.Apart from an oxymoron, we have no common sense, because we are quite uncommon.
It isn’t the guns that are the problem SOB, it’s the rejection of individual rights that is. The support of human rights is an outright rejection of individual rights, and only brain dead lefties could come up with such a stupid concept.
The US public education system generates people who believe in human rights, not individual rights.
The clayton campus shooting was foiled by an economics lecturer.
Do we need more economics grads?
There has been other mass murders, like Childers. The method simply changes. Mc Veigh wouldn’t have cared if he couldn’t have accessed firearms for example (Robert Long certainly didn’t at Childers), neither did the underworld murderers in Melbourne – and most of them were ineligible for a gun licence.
Why din’t gun laws stop them?
Gun laws are simply part of an overall package to dominate and humiliate the political opponents of urbanised US liberals.
That is it. No more, no less.
US Senators Boxer, Feinstein and Kennedy however were/are massive flapping hypocrites on the issue of gun control.
Threads are getting knotted, so am repeating it here, because it is important…
David O’Byrne, Tasmanian Government minister just on Their ABC News saying that 80% of the land affected is privately owned. So hazard reduction was their responsibility, nothing to do with the government.
Meanwhile, from a Dunalley farmer: “But what’s the point of that now when the hills and trees they told me I couldn’t burn off, because there were protected eagles and swift parrots there, are now all burned and the fire it created was so hot we had dead swans dropping out of the sky?”
Blame the victim. Greenfilth scum, just scum…
For those with minds that are still open to evidence, Beckie notes that the media have been ignoring other school massacres by guns in the world.
Only if its a right-winger or the US does it get media coverage; otherwise zip, nada.
Lazlo, got a link to that quote ? I have a Henry article looming and it’s on topic.
Thanks – LH
Wasn’t there a bloke that did clear his land around his house and it was one of the only ones left unburnt, couple years back, only to be fined thousands of dollars for breaking tree clearing laws?
Lazlo, these pricks are evil, plain and simple.
Here, jump
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/column_did_green_faith_turn_a_fire_into_an_inferno/
You mean the O’Byrne quote LH? Will search for it. But it should appear on an ABC 7pm News transcript some time soon (maybe)..
More here
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/column_those_warning_we_failed_to_heed/
JC, Ben Shapiro made Piers Morgan look second rate, and Piers didn’t like it at all.
I liked the faked indignation about standing on the graves of the children of Sandy Hook.That’s exactly what Piers Morgan has been doing, and for the purpose of increasing ratings, IMO.
Lazlo,
Oh, OK – just that since you “quoted” it I assumed you had a link or similar.’
ABC 7PM news you say? I’ll wait for it to appear then.
Thanks
Just to be fair and balanced, here is the story from the Silly Moaning Hilmer
http://www.smh.com.au/national/fined-for-illegal-clearing-family-now-feel-vindicated-20090212-85bd.html
SNIP
I watched the Piers Morgan/Alex Jones interview yesterday – magnificent! Jonesy took no prisoners.
That’s im, thanks dot.
My loathing for the greens grows by the day.
Stepford.
You seem to be obsessed with banning semi automatics. You do realize that hand guns are semis too, right?
Question for brigade firefighters and rural firefighters:
Let’s say I own a 4 bdr tin roof home on a few acres. Or a few hundred.
How far would you recommend a firebreak for?
50 metres? 100 metres?
How would you built a windbreak? Would you recommend the 100 m to be of lush, mowed lawns and other non woody type greenery?
This says as big as possible, but at least 20 metres.
http://www.dfes.wa.gov.au/safetyinformation/fire/bushfire/BushfireManualsandGuides/FESA_Bushfire-Homeowners_Survival_Manual.pdf
Pay no attention to SfB; he is of diminished responsibility.
Louis
Are you feeling okay? Alex Jones is a fucking lunatic.
He thinks the US government did 911.
I see they recommend you build a brick, masonry or earthen wall as a heat shield.
The WA Fire Service document is the best that civilians can access. Well worth a read, I reckon.
Dot, I would say ember attack depends on wind conditions and the fuel involved, but could be a lot more than 100m. Having cleared paddocks (with some shade trees) for at least 200m would be my idea, but the more the better.
Radiant heat attack (like setting your curtains on fire from a distance) I can’t really comment on, but again expect it would have to be within 200m and a pretty fierce blaze.
Louis: here
Nothing about what the government has/has not done. Clearly aimed at blaming the victims and absolving the greenslime. Your ABC at work… scum.
Lazlo, thanks
LH
Private property ownership doesn’t any longer mean you can do what’s sensible!
My pleasure. Let it be recorded in stone:
Nothing to do with greenslime guvmint totalitarianism
The advice on growing green crops around any dwellings such as potato, tomato or lucerne would seem to be fairly practical.
You could even use a series of pivot irrigators as some sort of ack ack system with the firefront hits.
That plus a masonry or earthen wall as a shield should see a dwelling remain safe if it was fireproofed.
More or less, the point is made: Victorian and Tasmanian environmental regulations make it illegal to adequately fireproof your property.
Damn the Australian Greens, it would be wholly moral to (legally) conspire against them so they lose all their seats in any Parliament or local council.
Any prudent property owner would act clandestinely, or operate a mineral exploration licence…
————————————————-
However, this implies radiant heat can kill or endanger people, property or livestock from 10-30 metres away, and it says that embers can travel up to a MILE from the firefront.
http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-30301_30505_30816-24040–,00.html
ABC News is becoming bloody irritating – they are ramping up the fire catastrophe warnings every news announcement. I have the vaguest of impressions that this is a bit of directed propaganda to put us into a frame of mind that might choose to re-elect the doctrinaire socialist Ms J. Gillard soon.
In other words, a March election methinks.
The conditions are actually getting better, in NSW at least.
.
But monty said the NBN was an “ace in the hole”.
Did I miss some comments?
Did Numbers get banned?
Dot, embers travel a bit more further than a mile – and I have had the weirdest experiences with bushfire smoke in the Kimberleys as well – one time we smelled smoke, abandoned the drilling for the day and went back to camp. Odd thing was that the smoked had travelled as a coherent cloud from a far distant place, but nearby there were no fires.
So smoke from fires does travel a lot further than most understand, especially laterally. Usually one assumes hot fires rise vertically but once your mind has been introduced to plasma physics, and burning vegetation is plasma, the electrical forces have to be included in any scientific analysis.
NBN is an ace in the hole? Much like bankrupting me, building a NBN, and then expecting me to then, as an undischarged bankrupt, to fund the connection of the NBN to my dwelling and thereafter pay to use it.
Mind you the NBN is a guvmint operation, so the cheapest quote is accepted, which means the NBN cables are above ground – which suggests that lack of fire hazard reduction will tend to cause frequent and costly destructions of the cable network from fire. And as it is made of optical fibre, it will burn magnificently (I guess).
Idiots.
Mark – it depends on the fuel – grass or timber – the slope of the hill, the temperature and the wind-speed on the day.
And also your house – if the gutters are clear (and full of water) and there is no fuel lying around your garden (grass clippings, bark) that is half the battle. In any ordinary fire, 20 metres clear around your house is going to be fine – if there is no fuel to burn, embers won’t strike.
But on a 45 degree day with strong winds and a hot fire with a big timber fuel load roaring up the hill toward your house, nothing is going to stop it. In this case what matters more is reducing fuel 100′s of meters from the house. No trees. Or a better designed house that won’t burn no matter what.
Classic:
A glance at any human being should be enough to dispel the notion it is the work of an intelligent being.
The Immortalisation Commission.
Louis Hissink, Nitrogen plasma in a bushfire? Based on colour temperature, I’d say a bushfire wouldn’t get past 3000K at the very most — not hot enough to ionize.
At Kilmore East on the 7 Feb 2009 Victorian fires, fuel loads were 40 to 50 tonnes per hectare or 5 to 6 times higher than what you are calling dangerous (as reported in the Royal Commission report, with senior CFA officers inspecting the area 4 weeks before the fire).
I might go on to say there were 119 fatalities at Kilmore East and 1242 homes destroyed.
Not if some bureaucrat is telling you you can’t do something on your own property you don’t. That’s the whole point dickhead.
It’s very hot and lonely, the life of a geologist, and a man’s mind gets to wandering…
On Black Friday, Jan 1939, my Dad was covered in ash from the fires in the Dandenngs when walking a pony home from a cattle sale in Korumburra South Gippsland. He said the smell of fire and smoke was so fresh that he was fearful for the farmhouse even though the fires were over 50 miles away. It was dark at 3pm in the afternoon.
Oh really?
Dandenongs !!
Potemkin’s Village
Dante Alighieri’s third ring of hell is… here
Gillard all over the news announcing the Royal Commission. Six commissioners and two years (before the inevitable extensions). Anyone want to hazard a guess at what this will cost?
Net result will be right up there with KRudd saying sorry to the black fellas.
Note the reported Melbourne temperature
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Thursday_(1851)
The year preceding the fires was exceptionally hot and dry and this trend continued into the summer of 1851. On Black Thursday, a northerly wind set in early and the temperature in Melbourne was reported to have peaked at 47.2 degrees C (117 degrees F) at 11:00am.
Yes the article goes on to dispute the temp…but five million hectares burnt out is five million hectares burnt out.
Not as impressive as Sturt’s exploding thermometers and 53.9 degrees…but it raises questions about alarmism…about the same alarmists who refuse to engage in fuel reduction.
Can’t Yabbott simply abolish the fucking ridiculous circus after the next feral election?
FFS.
He should, but he won’t though as I think he’s becoming a little bit of a soft cock since the attacks.
Jon Stewart summarizes gun lobby paranoia:
Meanwhile, gun nut puts up Youtube threatening to “start killing people” if gun laws go “one inch further” and invites all “patriots” to load up.
Paranoia runs deep in an unusually high proportion of the US population. Sorry, it just does.
And, by the way, it’s reported that the shotgun shooting by a 16 yr old at a Californian school was at a school that has a deputy on site routinely.
So steps,
You get your US news from Jon Stewart… a comedian?
Heavy duty stuff you watch, steps.
In the land of Howardian gun laws:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/man-shot-in-the-head-after-running-into-old-rival/story-e6frf7jo-1226551468038
You can ban all guns and yet the criminal element, the rapists, the home invaders will not stop using guns.
How would you know? Unless the disability pension has had a dramatic increase you’ll never be able to get there.
Savage, and very funny, Colbert Report takedown of NRA response.
Abbott can’t shut down the Royal Commission – the bleating would be deafening. David Marr would pop his butt plug. Just another Flaming Edgar left by Gillard for after the election.
Colbert is paid to be a TV comedian isn’t he?
Why would anyone take a paid clown/jester seriously?
Cackle away, clown boy, earn your money.
Those who get all of their “news” from The Comedy Channel are what are known in the States as “Low Information Voters” (LIVs).
Gab, this sentence makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to the utterly loathsome, lobotomised semenblogger shitferbrains, who’s back, Baby, BACK!
The dick head.
Jon Stewart is a supercilious entertainer, only occasionally amusing.
Try Thomas Sowell for his considered view on the subject, a view not trotted out for closely tracked applause meter readings and advertising placement.
For an objective, substantiated analysis on local defence expenditure or primary industry marketing policy do you prefer Vacuous Mellie on 7 or MsszzzMrs Peter Fitzsimons on 9?
The people who get all their ‘news’ from The Comedy Channel, and whose opinions are all borrowed from cable-TV comedians, are fond of self-identifying as “the reality-based community”.
Amazingly, they are also among the most humorless people on the planet.
Rabz, he’s nuttier than a squirrel poop.
Tel, who mentioned Nitrogen plasma?
Steve from Brisbane, astute observations from your cage in urbanland; computerised or from brekkie cereal boxes.
Dogshit, you have no idea what is going on in America. And being an ignorant peasant prone to fascist fantasies, you think you know more about democracy than the people who wrote the US Constitution.
You keep hanging around here trying to manufacture approval. Let me tell you: you are a piece of human garbage. And you are incapable of learning. You are a troll. Fuck off.
from the intellectual shackles of dogma that limit the behaviour of those content with the minima of life, to wax lyrically of things unknown, but to confuse such mortalities with existence.
Man, this week has been a really bad week for lefties at the cat. There’s feathers flying everywhere.
Thanks, Helen. I should be OK, I’m miles from the range, but I have friends who are close to the range.
Louis
My father, brother and mother helped a National Sparks and Wildfire mate fight a fire in late 70s or early 80s at Glenbrook. His house was in the park so couldn’t get insurance (it was provided by his employer). The house at the end of the street, next door, burnt down and they lost pets ahd horses. His house was saved.
My father said it was terrifying. The fire through the crowns of the trees was like a train, burning embers blowing everywhere and falling from the treetops. He had one go down under the brim of his hat and onto his neck and it burnt him. Dad said he’d never been so frightened! He also said that the crown fire sucked the air away for a few seconds and that was frightening.
After the fire passed over, through the crowns of the trees, with trees exploding from the eucalyptus oil brought to combustion temperature, the ground fuel began to burn.
I wasn’t there. I was in my 20s. I’m also not that brave.
There was a grassfire up the hill from me several years ago. I drove up to see if I could help, but I was useless as the smoke from the grassfire burned my eyes and throat and I couldn’t do anything. I went home and left the men with garden hoses to save my friend’s home. (They put the fire out in the grass and it didn’t reach the house and garden.)
Yes. They sit in reverent silence while watching Stewart and Colbert.
Who, incidentally, provide commentary, not “news”.
That degenerate heading up her half hour publicity service tonight at 7pm with an attack on an institution which is important to me was sickening. How dare that lying scum preach with such contrived sincerity about morality.
I saw Bob Collins’ name further up the page here, beloved of the Comrades and feared for good reason by children. All the others came to mind – Wright, Orkopoulos, D’Arcy – and I wondered why she doesn’t put that splendid ALP central-to-party-platform policy up for public examination too.
For the next year or two this will be a festival for the “journalists”, another dissolute cadre which ever so successfully protects its own filthy brothers from scrutiny.
What a rotten, festering disease these parasites bring to daily life in Australia.
Shitfer learnt everything he knows about France from ‘Allo ‘Allo.
Right stepford, those two comedians don’t talk about anything that’s topical at that time.
Amazingly, they are also among the most humorless people on the planet.
By whose bloody standard? They make a fortune being comedians. They must be funny to millions of people ipso facto they are funny. Fine, you don’t think they are funny but who made you Lord and Chief of Comedy?
Good God. You may be a “genius” but your comprehension is borderline retarded.
Read my comment again – slowly this time – and find out to whom I was referring — who was the subject of my sentence?
By the way, speaking of “borderline retarded”, any plans to retract your claim above, that “most people” want to see guns banned, which I handily debunked?
If you look at the original comment, it’s the audience of po-faced progressives who are humourless, not the artistes…
Jon Stewart’s comedy is an echo chamber for lefties. It’s smug central and a complete circle jerk.
No wonder the north Brisbane nob gobbler loves it.
More prosaically I’m listening to Glenn Miller on the Hi Fi, supping water contaminated by Irish Whisky, and reading the comments on the CAT.
So what force drives Steve from Brisbayne?
Oh, you treat money as applause?
Mike Tyson was paid more than any other boxer during the period that he damaged the sport more than any other before or after.
Your prime minister earns – oops – is paid more money than the US president’s job pays. She made it possible for one of her ex boyfriends to make a lot of dough too. It belonged to other people but “make a fortune” he did.
What’s to not like about that? Or about her man Comrade Craig Pantsdown pulling a fortune owned by other people, for whom he served. Comrade Slippery Pete has his hand deep in your pocket too, enhancing his fortune still – good on him I say.
Fat Al has jagged millions in income peddling a lie to the feeble minded and impressionable young.
Yeah, making good coin is the measure alright.
Hey, I hear that the antioxidants we were last year ordered to take in order to prevent cancer, now make cancer worse.
But aspirin and vitamin C. W00T. They’re the ticket this year. Oh yes they are.
Yay pop-sci.
Bob Brown pontificates on the Whitehaven Fraud.
Well clearly we’ve got a living prophet in our midst, ready to be martyred by the forces of Big Coal. Obviously Bob’s ocean voyage hasn’t affected his sense of proportion.
H/T Tim Blair
Any chance of Nicola Roxon taking a careless stroll during the Caulfield Cup?
Roxon would be more likely to get a run in the Epsom.
Or at least get a gig pulling a cart of beer kegs.
m0nty has been running around out there pantsless for nigh on 24 hours now.
I’m starting to get a little concerned.
FFS he’s a nob gobbler, bread thief, child scarer and QC. get it right.
This is an amazingly stupid comment even setting aside his claim that we live in an “actual dystopic present”. Stewart is essentially saying that the First Congress of the US were collectively paranoid since each of the first 10 amendments to the US constitution evinces a fear of the possible engagements of future Federal governments.
BTW, why was this argument never raised by Leftists like Stewart, etc. during the Bush presidency in relation to rendition, etc. where they feared of the possible consequences of denying alleged terrorist suspects their fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth amendment rights?
We’re they also “too worried[/paranoid] about the rise of “imaginary Hitler”?
Correction: Were they also…
By the way, speaking of “borderline retarded”, any plans to retract your claim above, that “most people” want to see guns banned, which I handily debunked?
No you didn’t. That people support the NRA does not mean they wish to live in a societies with guns all over the place. The USA might love to have guns awash all over the place but many others don’t. The question should be: which is preferable: a society with lots of guns or a society with few guns. The NRA popularity is a hopeless proxy and a poll released just today found 54% wanted something done about semi-automatic weapons.
As for the aspirin vitamin C j ibe. Tell me, how many studies have you read on this? And explain why Ross Walker, an Ausralian cardiologist, only this week, recommended that for 80% the popn over 50 100mg of aspirin a day is recommended. So you know better than the cardiologists now? So you reject all the peer reviewed literature on this do you? Then avoid modern medicine.
I would take these polls more seriously if respondents:(i)actually knew what the current arrangements were; (ii) actually specified what they wanted to be done; and (iii) actually new what semi-automatic weapons were.
Nobody (except lefty wankers like the Pinkenba Sewer Rat) gives a fat rat’s arse what those US TV alleged “comedians” Colbert, Letterman, Stewart et al have to contribute to any serious debate except for a cheap giggle.
Sideshow Bob and Krusty the Clown are usually more topical, funnier, and have the very great advantage of not emitting copious clouds of smug.
A society with lots of guns, mostly in the hands of citizens. Next question.
Recent polls have also established that abortion on demand is now opposed by most Americans.
When will it be banned?
Late-term abortion facility opens in Dallas.
That alone makes Sandy Hook look like amateur hour.
According to the CDC [PDF], 31264 late term abortions a year are conducted in the United States. Leftists are completely comfortable – indeed proud – of this Hitlerian massacre.
A society with lots of guns, mostly in the hands of citizens. Next question.
A poll of one.
Any chance of you linking to that poll?
The last one I saw phrased it as “Should the government do something about semi-automatic assault weapons” …
Given that “assault weapon” is a made-up political term, and the vast bulk of semi-automatic weapons would not fit the made-up political definition of “assault weapon” that we used last time around, I have trouble taking any of that crap seriously.
Another recent poll showed that many people favor strong restrictions on the purchase of automatic rifles and machine guns. Which is easily accomplished, since such restrictions have been in place since the late 1920s…
Anyway what is this “something” that “they” want “done” about “semi-automatic weapons”? Ban them, like in Chicago? Yeah, how’s that working out then?
Barky’s Chicago: a gun-control model in action. 14 homicides so far this year.
Jan. 9
– Johnny Taylor, a 23 year old unknown male, caused by a gunshot in West Garfield Park.
Jan. 8
– Darvelle Brown, a 24 year old black male, caused by a gunshot in West Garfield Park.
>
Jan. 8
– Tyshawn Blanton, a 31 year old black male, caused by a gunshot in Near North Side.
>
Jan. 6
– Lavonshay Cooper, a 22 year old black male, caused by a gunshot in Lower West Side.
>
Jan. 6
– Marcus Turner, a 19 year old black male, caused by a gunshot in Chatham.
>
Jan. 5
– Taison Moore, a 33 year old black male, caused by a stabbing in West Garfield Park.
>
Jan. 5
– Name Unknown, a black male, caused by a gunshot in West Englewood.
>
Jan. 5
– Angela Welch, a 55 year old black female, caused by a stabbing in South Chicago.
>
Jan. 5
– David Kartzmark, a 25 year old white male, caused by a gunshot in West Town.
>
Jan. 3
– Michael Kozel, a 57 year old white male, caused by a gunshot in Gage Park.
>
Jan. 2
– Ulysses Gissendanner, a 19 year old black male, caused by a gunshot in West Pullman.
>
Oh, wait. Two of those were stabbings. Best we ban knives as well.
John, should police carry guns?
Apparently the talking point du jour is that they’re useless for self-defence.
So tell me: why should a policeman (or a member of the Obama Department of Education’s SWAT teams) carry guns?
link: http://tinyurl.com/yzgc62c
for some reason this blog won’t allow the full url.
John, should police carry guns?
CL, I stated here earlier today that I don’t think gun control is the solution. I provided links yesterday showing how when recent attempts at shootings were made and stopped by armed individuals this was not widely reported. DD provided another link pointing to that. My point was to illustrate that the MSM is playing games with us on this issue. So I don’t give a shit about the MSM reporting let alone what comedians may say about the issue.
Yes, I want the police to carry weapons. I have no sympathy for a burglar who got shot in the attempt. I told you that story sometime earlier about when I was a teenager and heard someone in the house so I picked up the largest knife I could find and went ahunting. I scared the shit out of that person and fortunately that prevented the theft of my mother’s jewellery. My father was away at work at the time and to this day I can remember turning on the light in my mother’s room holding this bloody big knife and looking. I was terrified, at 15 you tend to be terrified when you know someone has burgled your house and you suspect they are in your mother’s room. After I returned from squash practice the next morning my mother said someone had opened the drawer containing her jewellery. I would do that again. I have no problem with violence to stop criminals. I think the “proportional force” legal argument is bloody stupid. When your life is threatened you don’t have time to work proportional force.
The problem with the self-defense argument is the requirement to lock up the weapons. In my situation above, there were rifles in the house but hey in the middle of night you don’t have that much time to get the weapon, load it, and shoot in the dark. The solution is easy though: yes lock up the guns but allow individuals to have at least one weapon near at hand. End of self-defense problem. Is there anything wrong with that idea?
But don’t keep the weapon near the phone at the bedside. There was a Darwin Award for a chap who woke up one night because the phone was ringing. Dreary, he picked up the pistol instead and shot himself.
CL, I have no clear idea what the USA needs to do here. I’m not particularly interested in that question, I’m more interested in why so many are going postal of late. Has the spike in mental illness accounted for this? To some extent perhaps but I want to understand that spike.
Potemkin’s Village
Suppose you worked at Waigani… here
Bit late to hear this isn’t it?
The US Department of Homeland Security warned Thursday that a flaw in Java software is so dangerous that people should stop using it.
But he can tweak it? – downgrade some aspects and include others of far more current significance (such as child sexual abuse in remote aboriginal communities).
Lizzie, a RC is just the consequence of an Act of Parliament, so in theory an incoming government could do anything it liked. But, what with the Senate and the wailing of vested interests if it was tried, don’t hold your breath.
I am particularly concerned about the promise of compensation, which is the standard response of the Feds these days – buy people off with taxpayers’ money, after a long and expensive process. Don’t actually fix anything, or punish wrongdoers – just hurl money around like confetti and feel like Gandhi or MLK – oh wait, Jonathan Moylan already has dibs on that.
Gah!
Budget austerity? Yeah, right. The socialists want to throw around even more of other people’s money fixing the lifestyle problems of unemployed Greens-ALP voters:
I trust you are suitably outraged by comments such as this, Tom?:
If we are to expect the unemployed to search for employment with confidence, there is no point pushing them into grinding poverty.
A major flaw with Newstart, (from what I remember, things could have changed) is that to ‘access’ specific help through job agencies and what have you is the requirement that you have to have been receiving benefit payments for 6 months. You are actually encouraged to sit on your arse. You also can’t access help for retraining or specific certification courses for 6 months. Bit of a joke really.
Of course, these agencies don’t really do anything that you can’t do yourself, they exist only to ascertain your integrity. For which they require, depending on how far you have to travel, upto 2 hours out of your life, adding to the compliance cost. Swannie changed it so you can claim travel related expenses to find a job…
The whole system is a big bloody joke.
It seems the idiot Milne is now calling for minute’s silence in Parliament to mark the tragic passing of Dennis Ferguson, a harmless victim hounded to his death…
Christ, someone deliver us from this nightmare.
Dan, it’s a down-market, low-rent, shitkicker colonial version of the Obama campaign: having finally, officially disavowed fisal responsibility as an objective, they will spend however much of our money they reckon it will take to buy enough votes of minorities and women to get them over the line in an election. McTernan’s 2013 election slogan will be: “Who’s Your Daddy?” It’s a cynical, blatant vote-buying exercise.
It’s always different when they suggest it.
Tracey, that’s a Tim Blair prank.
After noticing the prohibitionist tendencies of this government, seeing them as a natural ally, he felt the next step was obvious:
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/sheik_wahwah/
Oh, thank God. Stupid me. Sorry all.
Tracey, don’t feel bad. As many on Tim’s site have commented, the problem with his strategy is – how can you tell which ones are fake?