Catallaxy Files

Australia's leading libertarian and centre-right blog

889 Responses to 'Tuesday Forum: February 12, 2013'

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1. first

   

   Splatacrobat

   12 Feb 13 at 12:04 am
2. second?

   

   nilk

   12 Feb 13 at 12:05 am
3. Third

   

   Sinclair Davidson

   12 Feb 13 at 12:08 am
4. The only thing I would ever let the ABC do is broadcast the cricket on the radio. So what do those mooching arses do:

   http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/broadcast/cricket-tests-in-india-dropped-by-abc/story-fna045gd-1226575726975

   

   Infidel Tiger

   12 Feb 13 at 12:10 am
5. Woohoo!

   I have always wanted to be fifth!

   

   JamesK

   12 Feb 13 at 12:11 am
6. I enjoyed James Paterson’s slagging of the QANDA audience tonight and Chris Evans reliance on it as indicative of support for ALP policies.

   

   JamesK

   12 Feb 13 at 12:14 am
7. Q&A tonight hey, they’re not even pretending be neutral anymore. Bighting comment from the IPA boy about the audience’s applause being a far cry from the public consensus, no applause after that one!

   

   Harold

   12 Feb 13 at 12:15 am
8. James liked it too

   

   Harold

   12 Feb 13 at 12:16 am
9. What a laughable travesty – indeed, an obscenity – that Chris Evans appears on Q&A as some sort of policy commentator.

   1000 dead.

   

   C.L.

   12 Feb 13 at 12:22 am
10. Exclusive early rush of new Julia movie – This is Italian version (with subtitles).

    

    jules

    12 Feb 13 at 12:24 am
11. One can only hope that as the months progress towards E Day the panic amongst the lefties on the panel becomes more pronounced and the futility of their position is ridiculed even more.
    The questions tonight were some of the softest on record and you could see that Evan’s fight has well and truely left him.

    Labor has already passed the first four stages of grief, they are now in the acceptance stage

    

    Splatacrobat

    12 Feb 13 at 12:26 am
12. Resisting urge to point out I know “bighting” is spelt wrong because I want anonymous internet people to know I’m not really that grammatically challenged.

    

    Harold

    12 Feb 13 at 12:26 am
13. I am sure that the good people of Bundaberg will be cheering on their ABC and congratulating them for their $10 Million bonus in this election year, whilst the people in Bundy got one whole million dollars between them. This will help the hundreds of homeless and the many, many businesses that have closed along with many more now without jobs….

    Whatever it takes!

    

    Winnedge

    12 Feb 13 at 12:27 am
14. 14th!

    

    Cold-Hands

    12 Feb 13 at 12:31 am
15. The only thing I would ever let the ABC do is broadcast the cricket on the radio. So what do those mooching arses do:

    IT. If it was South Africa instead of India I’m sure they would have carried on the great traditions of a previous commentator by calling the game by day and beating the darkies with sticks by night.

    

    Splatacrobat

    12 Feb 13 at 12:39 am
16. Who moved the cheese?

    

    kae

    12 Feb 13 at 1:01 am
17. Posting for Sth East Qlders…..

    All invited.

    John MacRae will be speaking in Brisbane on UN Agenda 21 and destruction of Australia’s sovereignty and governance: Friday, February 22nd, 2013, 2:00pm to 5:00pm.

    Date and Time: Friday, February 22nd, 2013, 2:00pm-5:00pm.

    Venue Address: Tribal Theatre, 346 George Street, between Ann & Turbot Streets, Brisbane city. Formerly Dendy Theatre.

    Who’s invited: Anyone wanting to protect freedom and returning Australia to having the world’s highest per capita income.

    Price: $10 to cover cost of venue. Students and pensioners: $5.

    Parking: King George Square, Roma Street station, Tank Street underground parking

    Rail station: Roma Street

    More information:
    [email protected]

    

    Jessie

    12 Feb 13 at 1:02 am
18. Who moved the cheese?
    The second mouse…

    

    Cold-Hands

    12 Feb 13 at 1:05 am
19. Michael Smith draws attention to Labor Patronage, largesse and jobs-for-the-boys.
    

    Old habits die hard. Bob Carr, unexpectedly revived from his lucrative retirement jobs last year to become Australian foreign minister, had scarcely warmed his new seat before he was talking about exercising his powers of patronage to give jobs to old cronies. On his personal staff or otherwise, so long as the public was paying the bill. Even before nightfall, the rumour mills were talking of Carr’s canvassing a purely patronage appointment of John McCarthy, QC (erstwhile legal adviser to NSW Labor and close Carr mate).

    McCarthy (who is not the retired professional diplomat) is no doubt a splendid and able chap, but would not have appeared on a Department of Foreign Affairs shortlist for diplomatic appointment had it contained 10,000 names. He’s a mate. He may have the capacity to do a job, but, in the tribal world of political appointments, the fit is only a secondary consideration.

    Likewise another mate, former (and slightly shopsoiled) NSW minister Craig Knowles, was made chairman of the Murray-Darling Authority by Environment Minister Tony Burke. Former Queensland premier Peter Beattie was named as Australia’s first resources sector supplier envoy by Julia Gillard.

    There are lots of others. Even Trish Crossin, recognising her fight to hold her Senate seat is lost, has been said to be asking for a diplomatic job so she can continue her service to Australia. Had Robert McClelland kept his sense of perpetual and dynastic entitlement in order, and his mouth shut, he might be sitting on a federal court by now, or as Australia’s representative to some European bushfire committee.

    

    Cold-Hands

    12 Feb 13 at 1:10 am
20. Woohoo!

    I have always wanted to be fifth!

    To me, you’ll always be a third rater, matey.

    

    Abu Chowdah

    12 Feb 13 at 1:28 am
21. Woohoo!

    I have always wanted to be fifth!

    To me, you’ll always be a third rater, matey.

    Depot injections are the go for you, numbnut

    

    JamesK

    12 Feb 13 at 1:49 am
22. From Cut&Paste:

    TRIPLE J science reporter Karl Kruszelnicki tweets January 29:

    HOW does A Bolt get away with saying planet hasn’t warmed in last 16 years? His employers pay him to say this misconception?

    Craig Emerson MP tweets January 30:

    MR BOLT can have his own opinions but he can’t have his own facts. Global temperatures are rising. Fact.

    Phil Jones, director of Climatic Research Unit at Britain’s University of East Anglia, interviewed by BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin, February 13, 2010:

    HARRABIN: Do you agree that from 1995 to the present there has been no statistically significant global warming

    Jones: Yes … not at the 95 per cent significance level.

    Sinclair Davidson blogs at Catallaxy Files yesterday:

    I’VE replicated this result four years running and each time the t-stat has not met the … 95 per cent significance level … (so to) the BBC question: Do you agree that from 1995 to the present there has been no statistically significant global warming, the answer remains “yes”.

    Ka-Kit Tung (chief editor, Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, and fellow of the American Meteorological Society) and Jiansong Zhou, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, December 26, 2012:

    THE observed global warming rate has been non-uniform … a revised picture is emerging that … suggests that the anthropogenic global warming trends might have been overestimated by a factor of two in the second half of the 20th century … The underlying net anthropogenic warming rate in the industrial era is found to have been steady since 1910 at 0.07-0.08C (a) decade, with superimposed Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillations-related ups and downs that included the early 20th-century warming, the cooling of the 1960s and 70s, the accelerated warming of the 80s and 90s, and the recent slowing of the warming rates. Quantitatively, the recurrent multidecadal internal variability, often underestimated in attribution studies, accounts for 40 per cent of the observed recent 50-year warming trend.
    ———————————-
    And Samuel J also makes it onto C&P with his Rudd/Bishop post.

    

    Gab

    12 Feb 13 at 1:50 am
23. 21st!

    

    mct

    12 Feb 13 at 2:01 am
24. Depot injections are the go for you, numbnut

    Yes indeed, Dr.Mengele.

    

    Abu Chowdah

    12 Feb 13 at 2:24 am
25. Another week, another Gillard policy disaster:

    THE federal government’s much-heralded “homestay” program for asylum seekers has collapsed, with just four people who have arrived on boats currently staying with Australian families.

    The revelation, at a Senate budget estimates hearing, came as immigration officials admitted the children and ex-wife of alleged people smuggling kingpin Captain Emad remain in Australia on visas despite having deceived the government about the status of their father and husband.

    Australian Homestay Network executive chairman David Bycroft said host families had been left “disappointed” after services providers for asylum seekers slowed placements to a trickle.

    The hearing heard the program was on a “hiatus” until the Department of Immigration could place asylum seekers with hosts close to services. He said in some cases boat people wanted to be closer to their friends.

    “We are disappointed for the asylum seekers, and for the hosts. It has been incredibly tough, they get ready for someone to arrive and then it has been called off at short notice,” Mr Bycroft said.

    Former immigration minister Chris Bowen and the Homestay Network agreed host families would be paid almost $300 a week if they housed two asylum seekers. There were 600 asylum seekers placed but the program has suddenly come to a near halt after just 34 placements so far this year and currently only four people are staying in family homes.

    

    Tom

    12 Feb 13 at 4:09 am
26. Political leaders normally rush to have big infrastructure projects conceived in their image, but Fatty O’Barrell look like he’ll go down in history as the lone obstacle in the way of a western Sydney airport that was built in spite of him:

    WESTERN Sydney’s peak body of councils has reversed a tough no-airport stance it has maintained for 30 years and is set to throw its weight behind a second airport at Badgerys Creek.

    The move comes after a Daily Telegraph-Galaxy poll found 76 per cent of people in NSW want a second airport, with the two most popular sites either Newcastle/the Central Coast or Badgerys.

    Yesterday, federal Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese said he believed there should be both a western Sydney airport and increased aviation capacity at Newcastle and the Central Coast.

    However, Premier Barry O’Farrell continued to oppose a second airport.

    But the biggest surprise was from the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils, whose fresh leadership has embraced a Daily Telegraph campaign for the transport hub and plans to conduct the largest community attitude survey in its history on whether there is support for a second airport in the west.

    “Our councils recognise the immense economic value and potential infrastructure growth that a second airport at Badgerys Creek will bring to the region,” WSROC president Tony Hadchiti said.

    “And although in the past there has been significant community opposition to the site, we suspect that attitudes have shifted significantly during the past 20 years.”

    It’s a stark change in opinion to last year, when WSROC labelled a revived Badgerys plan as “disastrous”. Mr Hadchiti will take the bold move to approve a major community consultation program to the new board’s first meeting on February 21.

    The Telegraph understands at least seven of the 10 western member councils are willing to change their position on the airport

    

    Tom

    12 Feb 13 at 4:24 am
27. Tom, I’m guessing Fatty has looked at all the infrastructure projects started (and occasionally finished) by his predecessors, trembled at the utter fuckups some of them have become along the way, and decided that the possibility of something similar happening to his legacy is a matter with which he does not wish to deal.

    

    perturbed

    12 Feb 13 at 4:31 am
28. THE federal government’s much-heralded “homestay” program for asylum seekers has collapsed, with just four people who have arrived on boats currently staying with Australian families.

    This has been a standard Leftist policy for over a decade now. Back during the evil HowardHitler years, Leftists would say that detention centres were unnecessary because asylum seekers would be able to “live in the community”. But naturally, that is more expensive than building a detention centre, and hardly anyone actually wants asylum seekers living in their home. It is not surprising that there are now no excuses for not apologising and repealing every immigration act that has been passed since November 2007.

    

    Fisky

    12 Feb 13 at 4:42 am
29. Well, well, well, what do you know? Somebody in Parliament House is pretending to be an ordinary person. And not just one, but lots of ordinary people, apparently.

    It’s one thing to fool yourself that you’re popular. Actively pretending to be their own fan-base is a new low for them, though.

    H/T Tim Blair.

    

    perturbed

    12 Feb 13 at 5:08 am
30. Has anyone seen any coverage of any protests anywhere by anti-war types upset by Obama’s drone killings?

    Anyone? Anywhere?

    All I hear are crickets chirping………

    

    boy on a bike

    12 Feb 13 at 7:16 am
31. Perturbed, that story re the blogger pretending to be other people should read: Cheating Commenter Linked to Organised Crime. Quick get Jason Clare on to the case! Its an outrage.

    

    John Comnenus

    12 Feb 13 at 7:17 am
32. Boab, I did comment that Rupert Murdoch has tweeted something like drone attacks all very well but should be used sparingly, FFS.
    I also noted Crisis Group’s Sidney Jones saying that Indon police killing terrorists led to reprisals, so perhaps they need to look at other tactics, FFS.

    

    Blogstrop

    12 Feb 13 at 7:52 am
33. Michael Smith draws attention to Labor Patronage, largesse and jobs-for-the-boys.

    At to that Andrew “Boy Wonder” Fraser, failed Bligh Government Treasurer.

    Minister for Sport Kate Lundy has announced that former Queensland Treasurer and Sport Minister, Andrew Fraser, will join the Australian Sports Commission as a board member.

    Fraser has extensive state government experience in both the sport and economic sectors and will bring a valuable perspective to the ASC board.

    “I am delighted that Andrew has accepted the invitation to join the ASC Board for the next two years,” Senator Lundy said.

    “Andrew’s experience as a senior Queensland Government Minister will be invaluable to the Board given its focal role in pursuing the Australian Government’s sports policy agenda.”

    If Debt, defecit, and asset sell offs is the experience Lundy has in mind for the ASC then Boy Wonder ticks all the boxes.

    

    Splatacrobat

    12 Feb 13 at 7:54 am
34. CNN Anchor Wonders if Asteroid Is Effect of Global Warming

    Over the weekend, CNN anchor Deborah Feyerick posed an interesting question to Bill Nye the Science Guy, wondering if an asteroid expected to just miss the Earth this week was a result of climate change: “Talk about something else that’s falling from the sky and that is an asteroid. What’s coming our way? Is this an effect of, perhaps, global warming or is this just some meteoric occasion?”

    

    JamesK

    12 Feb 13 at 7:59 am
35. I hear there’s talk for a black pope. The reasoning being… er… that… er… it’s a black person’s turn, or something.

    I wonder if they’d win a Nobel Peace Prize for being appointed?

    

    Fleeced

    12 Feb 13 at 8:02 am
36. ” An investigation has been launched into the use of the parliamentary computer network to post pro-Labor messages online, using fake names.”
    I admit it. I call her the lying liar and promulgate others terms of endearment such as The Red Barren and The Lying Slapper in order to covertly insinuate that these mild comments are general views held whereas in truth the real opinions of real people involve red hot pokers and a guy called Mortimer, and thats only for a start.

    

    WhaleHunt Fun

    12 Feb 13 at 8:17 am
37. From this item by Delingpole, who this time does sympathise with the deplorable Chris Huhne, it would appear that Britain’s speeding laws and punishing system are as crap as ours.
    Link

    

    Blogstrop

    12 Feb 13 at 8:20 am
38. That anointed, not appointed.

    

    WhaleHunt Fun

    12 Feb 13 at 8:20 am
39. Fleeced, unlike the Sun King, a black pope from a country like Nigeria where Christians live constantly under the threat of violence from radical islamicists, would be a politically astute choice. As astute as the choice of the Polish John Paul II in 1979.

    The media work hard to bury the story and to hide the excesses of radical islam. A person whose flock live with the terror as a real event would be valuable.

    An African pope would also be from the front line in the effort to combat aids, etc.

    Given that, I suspect the next pope will be South American as a nod to the largest community of Catholics on the planet.

    

    Token

    12 Feb 13 at 8:22 am
40. Has anyone seen any coverage of any protests anywhere by anti-war types upset by Obama’s drone killings?

    Anyone? Anywhere?

    Of course not coz Shut Up!

    

    Token

    12 Feb 13 at 8:24 am
41. A Property Rights Revolution for 2013

    Officials from Fauquier County using zoning ordinances to bully Mrs. Boneta never obtained a warrant nor set foot on her property to gather actual evidence. Instead a county bureaucrat relied on unscrupulous, unlawful methods to make these charges against Mrs. Boneta. Her store remains closed out of fear of further uncertain charges carrying even criminal penalties. The bullying bureaucrat ignored due process of law and American rules of evidence because she thinks she is the law, which is a common phenomenon used to intimidate citizens into forfeiting their rights.

    “The farmer is most often forced to place his land into a conservation easement to save it in response to the very strict land use regulations and expensive permits for every conceivable use of land. The noose is further tightened by limiting commerce, by permit only, to only raw produce.”

    The McDonnell administration has not taken a position on the Boneta Bill, but is actively promoting conservation easements, which use government subsidies as an anesthetic at the expense of private property rights and free markets. Just Virginia alone has up to $100 million in tax credits available for these easements.

    Unelected shiny arsed bureaucrats imposing their version of Agenda 21.

    

    Rudiau

    12 Feb 13 at 8:26 am
42. The only thing I would ever let the ABC do is broadcast the cricket on the radio. So what do those mooching arses do:

    The ABC have 4 channels – 1 the analog ABC, 1 the kids channel, 1 the Abbott,Abbott,Abbott (i.e. News) and then the other really boring one.

    You’d think they could use some of the time from that useless extra channel, or even show the cricket on ABC for Kids (which goes into hiatus around 9pm).

    

    Token

    12 Feb 13 at 8:26 am
43. LOL I see Sinc is third (???third??).

    He should have been first – he has insider knowledge!

    

    Aliice

    12 Feb 13 at 8:41 am
44. The ghost of Arlene Composta still flits around the offices of the ABC, peeking over shoulders, and perhaps even whispering little suggestions into shell-like ears.
    Today’s News Radio Poll: Should the next Pope be from a developing country?

    I’d say an organisation so determinedly anti-Catholic (and usually anti Christian, pro anything else) should just butt out and mind their own business. The cardinals will select who they think best for the job. It’s not a socialist redistributionist matter.

    

    blogstrop

    12 Feb 13 at 8:48 am
45. I’d say an organisation so determinedly anti-Catholic (and usually anti Christian, pro anything else) should just butt out and mind their own business.

    Oh, are you suggesting that a progressive would not act with the most astounding hypocricy? That will be the day!

    

    Token

    12 Feb 13 at 8:59 am
46. Dead-heat between the two most nauseating things to come out of Q&A last night:

    1) the applause that greeted the Lugubrious One, aka Chris Evans, when he spoke about the MRRT, when in completely typical Labor fashion, he spoke of it as if it were THE VERY FIRST TIME THAT MINING COMPANIES HAVE EVER BEEN TAXED. Memo to Old Sourpuss, and that True Believer bint who asked the question, Wayne Swan, Julia Gillard and Hamish McSporran, mining companies PAY COMPANY TAX OF 30 PER CENT OF THEIR PROFIT EACH YEAR. Fufuxake!

    2) the applause (and twitter-feed mass onanism) that greeted the slightest suggestion that wholly subjective abstract nouns such as Insult, Humiliation and Offence (as in “to take offence”) – things that exist only in the mind of an individual – become the subject of black-letter law. Is there anything more illiberal than a progressive? Fufuxake!

    

    James in Melbourne

    12 Feb 13 at 9:02 am
47. The ABC have 4 channels – 1 the analog ABC, 1 the kids channel, 1 the Abbott,Abbott,Abbott (i.e. News) and then the other really boring one.

    Unfortunately they have one more. Radio Australia. Believe it or not, it is the most left wing of all.

    Any foreigner who actually listens to the turgid crap, knows that the most critical things in Australia are climate change and the mental health of asylum shoppers. Oh and AbbottAbbottAbbott.

    Disgraceful.

    

    jupes

    12 Feb 13 at 9:08 am
48. it would appear that Britain’s speeding laws and punishing system are as crap as ours.

    When I was holidaying in the UK in the 90s, I was travelling down to Exeter on the motorway in my little Fiat Punto hire car, in the middle lane doing @80mph. In the rearview mirror two dots appeared, very rapidly caught me and hurtled past like I was standing still – they were Suzuki Bandit 1200s and they very rapidly disappeared. Being a biker myself I estimated their speed at 110-120 mph.
    When I got to Exeter and met my cousins we went to their local for a few ales and I got into a conversation with two off-duty traffic cops which was very interesting. I described the incident with the two Bandits and they said “how were they riding? Erratically?” No I said very smooth, but fast. They said that as a rule, they don’t chase speeders but let the cameras get them. They are more interested in lane hoppers, tailgaters and poor driving skills.
    When I told them that the fastest you could go anywhere in Australia (except NT, back then) was 110kph they had hysterics.

    

    Popular Front

    12 Feb 13 at 9:10 am
49. Wow, I remember being told that voter fraud in the US is a minor issue.

    Strangely, this is what is found upon the review of ballots in one county in Ohio. How many counties are there in Ohio? How many states?

    The Voter Fraud That ‘Never Happens’ Keeps Coming Back

    Critics of voter ID and other laws cracking down on voter fraud claim they’re unnecessary because fraud is nonexistent. For instance, Brennan Center attorneys Michael Waldman and Justin Levitt claimed last year: “A person casting two votes risks jail time and a fine for minimal gain. Proven voter fraud, statistically, happens about as often as death by lightning strike.”

    Well, lightning is suddenly all over Cincinnati, Ohio. The Hamilton County Board of Elections is investigating 19 possible cases of alleged voter fraud that occurred when Ohio was a focal point of the 2012 presidential election. A total of 19 voters and nine witnesses are part of the probe.

    

    Token

    12 Feb 13 at 9:14 am
50. Anybody seen/heard from Professor Bunyip of late? I do hope he is well; I for one, enjoy his acerbic observations

    

    Dexter Rous

    12 Feb 13 at 9:23 am
51. Bolt points out that last Thursday’s anti-sport circus was orchestrated to further McTernan’s ripoff of the Obama campaign to pit women and moochers against the rest: the only two goodies were females – Lundy and the chick from ASADA lined up against the baddies – the CEOs of the men’s sports who were forced to attend against their will. CEOs of the women’s sports weren’t required to attend. All a spin-doctored smear without a skerrick of evidence of wrongdoing.

    

    Tom

    12 Feb 13 at 9:25 am
52. CNN’s Csamdy Crowley of Presidential Debate infamy Asks Sunday “State of the Union” Panel If Dr. Carson’s Speech Was “Offensive”

    CROWLEY: Did you find anything offensive with — well, certainly it’s America, he’s entitled to his opinion. A lot of the talk was about was this the right place to do it? And there was lots of applause from Republicans who said, finally somebody stood up and said it.

    

    JamesK

    12 Feb 13 at 9:36 am
53. How do you do a guest post here?

    

    Econocrat

    12 Feb 13 at 9:37 am
54. HeraldSun: Porn star Ron Jeremy in critical condition

    PORN star Ron Jeremy has been hospitalised and is in critical condition after suffering a heart aneurysm.

    The adult film star, who has appeared in over 2,000 films, is currently being prepped for surgery after doctors discovered the seriousness of his condition and moved him to intensive care.

    The 59-year-old actor admitted himself to Cedar Sinai hospital on Tuesday after experiencing severe chest pains but Jeremy’s manager, Mike Esterman, told TMZ that his condition has worsened since then and he is about to undergo surgery.

    Nicknamed “The Hedgehog” Jeremy and his nine-inch penis hold the title of “top porn star of all time”

    

    JamesK

    12 Feb 13 at 10:12 am
55. How do you do a guest post here?

    Email Sinc

    

    JamesK

    12 Feb 13 at 10:13 am
56. This story is tailor-made for the simple-minded Green hysterics who bought global warmening – the new Fairfax demographic.

    

    Tom

    12 Feb 13 at 10:32 am
57. Indeed, it is probably no exaggeration to say that economics developed mainly as the outcome of the investigation and refutation of successive Utopian proposals – if by “Utopian” we mean proposals for the improvement of undesirable effects of the existing system, based upon a complete disregard of those forces which actually enabled it to work.

    What of the assumption of unlimited growth, is that not Utopian? And also what of the tendency of court historians and others to regard history as the history of noble ideas paying tribute to the Progress god ignoring such facts as might attend a view of the, by example, American constitution as a deal between rival economic powers within the former colonies. A deal that was temporary and renegotiated time and again by such incidents not limited to, but inclusive of, the American Civil War.

    

    Adrien

    12 Feb 13 at 10:39 am
58. Payback is sweet:

    Rudd blames Swan for mining tax flaw.

    What a circus. Words fail.

    

    C.L.

    12 Feb 13 at 11:27 am
59. Gillard: It’s not my fault. It’s never my fault, it’s those damn state premiers.

    

    Gab

    12 Feb 13 at 11:30 am
60. Gillard: It’s not my fault. It’s never my fault, it’s those damn state premiers.

    How is that the rest of the country saw this coming and she didn’t. I think everyone with a functioning brain knew that the States would do whatever they wanted with royalties because they knew Canberra wouldn’t be able to stop them.

    What idiots.

    

    tbh

    12 Feb 13 at 11:42 am
61. Sandgropers got sense.

    WEST Australians have withdrawn their endorsement of the state Labor Party as better managers on issues repeatedly rated the most important of the state’s election campaigns — health and education.

    A Newspoll taken exclusively for The Australian shows more voters consider the Coalition in Western Australia best to handle health and education, a reversal since the 2008 state election.
    …

    Overall, more voters have confidence in the Liberal-National government than in Labor when it comes to managing major issues. The Coalition outscored Labor in seven out of 10 categories, including law and order, taxation, industrial relations and water management.

    On the state’s economy, 54 per cent nominated the Liberal-National government as best managers and only 28 per cent said Labor was best.

    No doubt gillard has helped too.

    

    Gab

    12 Feb 13 at 11:51 am
62. industrial relations

    Snap, so people actually think the coalition is better with industrial relations than Labor?

    Talk about losing your core constituency.

    Who on earth is voting for WA Labor now? Surely there aren’t that many teachers and public servants?

    

    brc

    12 Feb 13 at 12:00 pm
63. What of the assumption of unlimited growth, is that not Utopian?

    It’s a measurable fact, not an assumption.

    When people are left alone, they improve their lives. This is what is called growth. The opposite is either a reduction in living standards or a permanently enforced poverty.

    Human ingenuity, resources and imagination are indeed unlimited. The only limits occur when statist thugs try and control it for their own ends. This is invariably about a set of people trying to control everyone else in a case of ‘growth for the chosen, but denied to the unchosen’.

    

    brc

    12 Feb 13 at 12:04 pm
64. It looks like being a landslide to the Coalition over here next month. The federal ALP could lose all of their seats too come September.

    

    tbh

    12 Feb 13 at 12:06 pm
65. It’s a measurable fact, not an assumption.

    Would you please provide the metric?

    Human ingenuity, resources and imagination are indeed unlimited.

    Of course they are. Please consider the following:

    It is precisely the mistake of rationalism to be led astray by a boundless trust in the intellect, to regard it as a never failing guide and to forget the deeper meaning of the Biblical story of the Fall; “ye shall be of the gods knowing good and evil.” The mistake lies in the belief of no possibility of mistake, in disregarding every warning signal, protective railing and signpost, and failing to observe all those uncanny and malicious complications, deceptions, traps and paradoxes of which the human intellect is capable

    Civitas Humana
    Wilhelm Röpke

    (He’s not a Statist thug.)

    

    Adrien

    12 Feb 13 at 12:09 pm
66. Sneakers McGowan and Labor are irrelevant in WA. The only real interest is whether the Liberals can govern without the Agrarian Socialist Party.

    The best thing about the campaign is it keeps Gillard in the East till mid-March at least.

    

    H B Bear

    12 Feb 13 at 12:11 pm
67. Hah!

    USMC Bravo Company paraded at Obama’s inauguration with their rifles disabled by the removal of the bolts.

    Unbelievable!

    

    Eddystone

    12 Feb 13 at 12:18 pm
68. Sneakers McGowan and Labor are irrelevant in WA. The only real interest is whether the Liberals can govern without the Agrarian Socialist Party.

    Had the same thought myself. Grylls almost upset the apple cart at the last election and I won’t be sad to see his influence decline. That Nats are often as bad as the Greens IMHO.

    

    tbh

    12 Feb 13 at 12:18 pm
69. Who said only $126 million?

    No, it’s actually $88 million

    JULIA Gillard has sought to blame state governments for the failure of the mining tax to hit its revenue targets amid new calculations that show its net contribution to the budget bottom line is likely to be no more than $88 million in its first six months.

    However, the resources industry has responded curtly to the Prime Minister’s suggestion that the relationship between the mining tax and state government royalties could be reworked, warning that she must honour her 2010 agreement with the major mining companies. While the government has said the minerals resource rent tax raised $126m in the first six months, the net contribution to the budget will be almost $40m lower because the miners can use their mining tax payments to reduce their company tax.

    

    JamesK

    12 Feb 13 at 12:22 pm
70. Gillard: It’s not my fault. It’s never my fault, it’s those damn state premiers.

    In 2007 we heard endlessly of the new consensus from cooperative Federalism…

    …and today we get a pathetic little girl as PM whining away – don’t blame this powerless PM, its those bully state premiers with no taxing power.

    

    Token

    12 Feb 13 at 12:26 pm
71. (He’s not a Statist thug.)

    No, but you are a statist idiot, Adrien. Why are you trolling this site again?

    Surely you must have realised that having a capitalist country run by communists would be only temporary and that the adults would resume control again soon enough?

    Oh, I get it. You’re practising for being back in the oppositionist ghetto of irrelevance. Good for you.

    You know you could actually get a job in the real world outside of your public service/university sinecure and get some experience of how the real economy works. But it can be scary for someone of your sheltered background to suddenly be responsible for revenue targets and KPIs and wealth creation.

    But I guess you’ll just keep white-anting the system and living off the people who do the leavy lifting. Isn’t it amazing how capitalist democracy keeps parasites like you alive without complaint?

    

    Tom

    12 Feb 13 at 12:30 pm
72. <a href="
    

    Maybe Tony Abbott could ask them to keep the Pope vacancy open for a few months just in case he loses in September. What’s worse? #Toughcall— Sarah Hanson-Young (@sarahinthesen8) February 11, 2013

    “>

    What a disgusting creature that abominable mol is…

    

    Old Fridgie

    12 Feb 13 at 12:44 pm
73. The federal ALP could lose all of their seats too come September.

    Come September is a 1961 romantic comedy film directed by Robert Mulligan, and starring Rock Hudson, Gina Lollobrigida, Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin.

    Now who would be the stars in a remake?

    

    stackja

    12 Feb 13 at 12:47 pm
74. Relax people.

    Treasury has a Strategic Framework.

    Released under the cover of Christmas shutdown.

    

    Econocrat

    12 Feb 13 at 12:50 pm
75. Maybe Tony Abbott Peter Slipper could ask them to keep the Pope vacancy open for a few months just in case he loses in September. What’s worse?

    After all Slippery is a priest in the High Anglican church, which has been angling at re-unifying with the Catholics.
    Slippery does love long flowing robes, and Pope Slippery 1st does have a certain ring to it.
    Might have to send the Altar Boys home each night, but.

    

    Leigh Lowe

    12 Feb 13 at 12:52 pm
76. Anybody seen/heard from Professor Bunyip of late? I do hope he is well; I for one, enjoy his acerbic observations

    He sent an e-mail to Tim Blair the other day, so one assumes the Bunyip-mobile is on tour.

    

    Leigh Lowe

    12 Feb 13 at 12:55 pm
77. Today’s News Radio Poll: Should the next Pope be from a developing country?

    They wouldn’t like the outcome – African christians have a pretty traditional attitude to social issues to say the least!

    

    Viva

    12 Feb 13 at 1:00 pm
78. If it was South Africa instead of India I’m sure they would have carried on the great traditions of a previous commentator by calling the game by day and beating the darkies with sticks by night.

    Get in the pot boy!
    No Massa, no. Is hot in there!
    Ah said ….. Get in the pot boy, or ah’ll whup ya good.

    This evening the part of ‘Massa’ is played by Peter Roebuck, and the part of ‘the boy’ is played by ……..

    

    Leigh Lowe

    12 Feb 13 at 1:00 pm
79. Insulation batty scheme:

    Nearly $14 million owed by companies believed to have wrongly claimed subsidies under the failed scheme has been written off, a senate estimates hearing was told yesterday.

    But there will be no rorting of the gillard carbon credits scheme.

    http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/insulation-dud-scheme-bills-roll-in/story-e6freuy9-1226575705557

    

    Gab

    12 Feb 13 at 1:01 pm
80. What a disgusting creature that abominable mol is…

    That creature is up for reelection this year. She only scraped in on Labor preferences last time and the way polling has been if the swing away from the house of reps is replicated in the Senate then SHY might go the way of the Democrats.

    Labor know they are stuffed so it wouldn’t surprise me if they take the Greens outby not preferencing them.

    

    Splatacrobat

    12 Feb 13 at 1:02 pm
81. Oakeshott the coward prepares to bail:

    Oakeshott mum on re-election bid.

    Federal independent MP Rob Oakeshott won’t say whether he intends to stand at the September 14 election.

    A bit duped:

    Oakeshott feels ‘a bit duped’ on mining tax design.

    Independent MP Rob Oakeshott says he feels “a bit duped” by the Government over the design of the mining tax, after it was revealed it raised just $126 million during its first six months.

    

    C.L.

    12 Feb 13 at 1:04 pm
82. Numbers if your lurking here there is a great piece for you to read. It’s got your name all over it.

    I think Gary Johns is more right of center than Turnball is left of center.

    Beware self-interest dressed as social conscience

    

    Splatacrobat

    12 Feb 13 at 1:09 pm
83. Oakeshott feels ‘a bit duped’ on mining tax design.

    Only a bit duped? Well then boy do something about it, grow some balls and withdraw your support for the Government.

    Oh yeah, sorry that would be a bigger dupe on your electorate. They want to kick your sorry arse out just the way you are.

    

    Splatacrobat

    12 Feb 13 at 1:13 pm
84. That creature is up for reelection this year. She only scraped in on Labor preferences last time and the way polling has been if the swing away from the house of reps is replicated in the Senate then SHY might go the way of the Democrats.

    Labor know they are stuffed so it wouldn’t surprise me if they take the Greens outby not preferencing them.

    Few things would give me more pleasure, Splat, than seeing that screeching harpy out of parliament.

    

    tbh

    12 Feb 13 at 1:13 pm
85. Scum high fiving absolute scum.

    Furore as Iran ambassador is caught on video ‘high-fiving’ female German MP
    The female leader of the Germany Green Party and Iran’s ambassador to Berlin were left scrambling for explanations after video footage emerged of the two apparently “high-fiving” each other at a conference.

    

    JC

    12 Feb 13 at 1:23 pm
86. Good news!

    Afghanistan has been declared a “Gun-Free Zone”.

    “After over thirty years of senseless violence, I think it’s time we say no to big guns and the firearms industry that promotes them,” a tearful and visibly-tired Karzai told a crowd of Afghan legislators at the presidential palace in Kabul.

    Under the new government-approved policy, no one will be allowed to carry any type of firearm or ranged weapon in Afghanistan. Swords and knives are still permissible, as long as the owner possesses a Class-III license available at most government offices.

    

    Eddystone

    12 Feb 13 at 1:24 pm
87. Few things would give me more pleasure, Splat, than seeing that screeching harpy out of parliament.

    As a heartless b*tch once said about the deaths of people lured by Green/ALP polices – Tragedies Happen.

    

    Token

    12 Feb 13 at 1:28 pm
88. Sure enough – Lefty Compassion is exposed as a hollow front:

    THE federal government’s much-heralded “homestay” program for asylum seekers has collapsed, with just four people who have arrived on boats currently staying with Australian families.

    The revelation, at a Senate budget estimates hearing, came as immigration officials admitted the children and ex-wife of alleged people smuggling kingpin Captain Emad remain in Australia on visas despite having deceived the government about the status of their father and husband.

    Australian Homestay Network executive chairman David Bycroft said host families had been left “disappointed” after services providers for asylum seekers slowed placements to a trickle.

    [H/t Bolta]

    

    Token

    12 Feb 13 at 1:37 pm
89. Confirming that Muslim icon Osama bin Laden was a gutless creampuff…

    SEAL who killed bin Laden speaks out.

    The US Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden has spoken out for the first time about the night-time raid on the Al Qaeda leader’s compound in Pakistan…

    “[Bin Laden] looked confused. And [he was] way taller than I was expecting,” the SEAL said.

    In a vivid description of the raid, the SEAL said bin Laden had his hands on his youngest wife’s shoulders, pushing her ahead, with an AK-47 rifle nearby.

    “I don’t know if she’s got a vest and she’s being pushed to martyr them both. He’s got a gun within reach. He’s a threat. I need to get a head shot so he won’t have a chance to clack himself off [blow himself up],” he said.

    “In that second, I shot him, two times in the forehead. Bap! Bap! The second time as he’s going down. He crumpled onto the floor in front of his bed and I hit him again, Bap! same place.

    “He was dead. Not moving. His tongue was out.”

    

    C.L.

    12 Feb 13 at 1:38 pm
90. THE federal government’s much-heralded “homestay” program for asylum seekers has collapsed, with just four people who have arrived on boats currently staying with Australian families.

    Lord, please. When is this catastrophe going to end?

    

    C.L.

    12 Feb 13 at 1:39 pm
91. The female leader of the Germany Green Party and Iran’s ambassador to Berlin were left scrambling for explanations after video footage emerged of the two apparently “high-fiving” each other at a conference.

    Top ten excuses. Feel free to add.
    1. A nazi salute gone wrong
    2. Wardrobe malfunction

    

    Splatacrobat

    12 Feb 13 at 1:43 pm
92. Fingers crossed.
    Something brewing in Canberra

    Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has imposed a travel ban on Coalition MPs heading overseas, saying they need to be prepared for an election at any time.

    

    Rudiau

    12 Feb 13 at 1:50 pm
93. According to Bolt, the Victorian police investigation into Slushgate has become a very big deal – Cambridge being quoted demanding all participants present themselves for interview. Leaving aside the more baroque versions of what might transpire, as I’ve said – if that power of attorney is found to be false, Gillard is finished.

    

    C.L.

    12 Feb 13 at 1:53 pm
94. Ol’ Crazy Eyes better keep one eye on her re-employment prospects when she wastes her time on Twitter. Green vote seems to be hovering around 8-9% and there won’t be all those Labor preferences floating around next time.

    If Labor hands Abbott a double dissolution trigger over the carbon tax the Greens could get a dose of the Meg Lees.

    

    H B Bear

    12 Feb 13 at 1:57 pm
95. 3. they both were trying to get a fly at the same time.

    

    pete m

    12 Feb 13 at 2:00 pm
96. Homestay = Asylum Fuelwatch

    It would have been cheaper to have simply bought them each a house – even in Sydney. Gough has got nothing to worry about now the baton is passed.

    

    H B Bear

    12 Feb 13 at 2:03 pm
97. Rudiau – I would have thought all MPs should be working hard in their electorates all year anyway.

    I will be interested to see how Roy Wyatt goes on the sunshine coast.

    Splat:

    4. They were waving to someone else and accidentally hit each other.
    5. They were cheering a soccer goal!
    6. the lunch bell had just rung.
    7. they won $5 on a scratchie

    

    pete m

    12 Feb 13 at 2:06 pm
98. Marginal seat holders are getting lots of questions. Gillard trying to look like she cares about their careers so gets their heads on TV. Good way to stop them turning on her.

    

    Andrew

    12 Feb 13 at 2:17 pm
99. Some get away with it…

    julia baird ‏@bairdjulia
    Very excited to see @corinne_grant on #QandA tonight. There’s a lass never shy of an opinion. Even quite funny sometimes, for a girl. #gorin

    

    Harold

    12 Feb 13 at 2:17 pm
100. Fingers crossed.

     Something brewing in Canberra

     Bolta noted last week that Slipper is expected to resign “to spend more time with his family” (i.e. to protect his pension).

     

     Token

     12 Feb 13 at 2:20 pm
101. It’s a measurable fact, not an assumption.

     Would you please provide the metric?

     You’re the one who came up with the flubbery stat of ‘growth’. You tell me what that means and I’ll tell you the metric. Doesn’t matter if it is economic growth, human achievement growth, technology growth, life expectancy growth or whatever. They are all pointed sharply up.

     Then you big comeback is some scripture or something saying that man can make mistakes? Gee, I never knew that. What I am talking about here is making the biggest mistake of all, giving power to a socialist hell-bent on making your life better. You wouldn’t hand control over your life to me, so why would I give it to you and your ilk?

     

     brc

     12 Feb 13 at 2:22 pm
102. Abbott rubs it in.
     

     

     Driftforge

     12 Feb 13 at 2:25 pm
103. Bunyip has a new job.

     At 0.41

     

     Pickles

     12 Feb 13 at 2:27 pm
104. I will be interested to see how Roy Wyatt goes on the sunshine coast.

     Longman isn’t the Sunshine Coast. It takes in the are directly to the south of Caloundra and includes large parts of Caboolture and the Pine Rivers area. It’s an extra-urban seat.

     The Sunshine Coast seats are Fairfax (Somlyay), Fisher (Brough, as soon as Slipper departs) and Wide Bay (Truss) takes in Noosa as well as Gympie and Maryborough.

     While Wyatt Roy is in on a low margin, I think he is a safe bet. The absolute kicking given to the state representatives in this area probably means no serious Labor candidate will be fielded. Labor is seriously on the nose – this is not luvvie central.

     

     brc

     12 Feb 13 at 2:31 pm
105. There’s one smartarse nobody in this parliament whose block I would like to knock right off and that’s David Bradbury, who voters will take out with the garbage later this year.

     

     Tom

     12 Feb 13 at 2:34 pm
106. Abbotts union-penalties bill was exactly the right thing to do.

     They either pass it as a bill and hand power to clean out the unions, or they knock it back and paint themselves as beholden to the unions.

     It’s a classic, and well played wedge.

     I’d like to see how the government tries to spin their way from this one.

     

     brc

     12 Feb 13 at 2:35 pm
107. We all know about it, but who’s seen this? Intradesting.

     

     Harold

     12 Feb 13 at 2:43 pm
108. Pie shop immigrant abuser Bill Shorten in the House condemning workplace abuse and bullying.

     

     C.L.

     12 Feb 13 at 2:46 pm
109. The McSporran one-unicon-a-day strategy descends into farce:

     Workplace bullies could face fines of up to $33,000 under a Gillard government push to allow victims to complain directly to a national body rather than state health and safety authorities.

     Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten said the plan would allow the Fair Work Commission, an independent umpire in workplace relations (hahahahahahaha!!!), to try to solve the disputes or refer the matters back to state bodies.

     He said the the commission would have to begin considering a complaint within 14 days, in a bid to sort out disputes more quickly.

     But Mr Shorten was tight-lipped about the prospect of giving the Fair Work Commission extra funding to support the new system.

     ‘‘Let’s just talk through the issues,’’ he said.

     And so question time is devoted to Dorothy Dixers for Shorten and the Lying Slapper about the scourge of workplace bullying.

     They really think people are so stupid they can’t see what the rabble are up to.

     

     Tom

     12 Feb 13 at 2:49 pm
110. Opposition wasting too many questions on MRRT.

     

     C.L.

     12 Feb 13 at 2:53 pm
111. Oakeshott and Windsor.

     Cast your vote to name Pluto’s two smallest moons.

     

     C.L.

     12 Feb 13 at 2:59 pm
112. I’d call them Left and Right. But we don’t call them Pluto’s moons, they’re Pluto’s nuts.

     

     Harold

     12 Feb 13 at 3:15 pm
113. The ABC is getting more Orwellian by the day.

     “”It’s not an internal ‘let’s be accurate unit’. It is about providing content to our audience.”

     Mr Sunderland described the unit as “more of a fact unit than a fact-checking unit”.

     “There is a great demand out there for people saying, ‘Look, there’s an endless discussion about the NBN or climate change or about tax polices or surpluses. We need a basic set of agreed facts, what we all know about the situation to assist us to understand and interpret what is going on in the media, what comments and statements are being made.’ ”

     It seems that the so-called ‘fact-checking unit’ (isn’t checking facts a core function of a journalist?) will instead be the compiler of the Received Wisdom about issues like climate change and politically contested questions like the non-existent surplus. No discussion or correspondence need afterwards be entered into. Scary.

     (Hope my link works – site is playing up on my machine today and I can’t see the preview box. Article is in today’s Australian, Media section.)

     

     johanna

     12 Feb 13 at 3:25 pm
114. Unionists are the biggest bullies in the land. Now why would the federal minister be trying to defer cases of bullying away from liberal state legislatures?

     

     Dan

     12 Feb 13 at 3:28 pm
115. You’re right, Johanna. The ABC’s “truth unit” is Orwellian and wasn’t thought up by a journalist, but by political activists primarily concerned about proliferating propaganda:

     ABC manager of policy Alan Sunderland denied the unit was needed to check the public broadcaster’s own output.

     “There is a requirement for us to be accurate and impartial and we are held to that,” he told The Australian.

     “It’s not an internal ‘let’s be accurate unit’. It is about providing content to our audience.”

     Mr Sunderland described the unit as “more of a fact unit than a fact-checking unit”.

     “There is a great demand out there for people saying, ‘Look, there’s an endless discussion about the NBN or climate change or about tax polices or surpluses. We need a basic set of agreed facts, what we all know about the situation to assist us to understand and interpret what is going on in the media, what comments and statements are being made.’ ”

     Mr Sunderland said there was great merit in the ABC providing answers to those questions, adding the new unit could offer audiences both content and context.

     

     Tom

     12 Feb 13 at 3:47 pm
116. “Opposition wasting too many questions on MRRT.”
     Was not MRRT the successor to other great schemes. ALP hope people forget the past. Does not hurt to mention the past errors.

     

     stackja

     12 Feb 13 at 3:50 pm
117. It’s like picking at a scab, it’ll never heal. Hopefully, though, they’ll change the theme for tomorrow.

     

     Gab

     12 Feb 13 at 3:52 pm
118. We need a basic set of agreed facts

     Sure.

     The agreed facts are that people agree to differ over interpreting ‘facts’ that they do accept, and they may also agree to differ over what may, in fact, constitute a ‘fact’.

     Making one’s case is the cornerstone of any democracy. Having the case pre-determined by some ‘groupthink tank’ is what the old Marcusians, (in my latter day twist on the neo-Marxist railing against ‘ideological hegemony’), might have once called ‘repressive tolerance’; Orwell pinged it better as Newspeak, where some facts are better than other facts.

     Dickens also put it well: “Bah. Humbug”.

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     12 Feb 13 at 3:56 pm
119. gillard’s crazy schemes. An utter mess.

     From reader Royston Mitchell, this inside look:

     • Indonesian ‘recidivist’ crew are returning for a second or third time to Christmas Island. In the last week alone, TWO crew were identified as recidivists; one has a serious criminal record in Australia. They are returning because there is no longer any penalty for arriving as an Indonesian people smuggler under Australian law (since August 2012)

     • Visa applicants in the Middle East are turning up on Christmas Island while their applications are still pending. In several cases over the last year, applicants have arrived on Christmas Island as asylum seekers because they have gotten tired of waiting to be granted, or have been refused. The message across the region is now clear: it is far easier to arrive via Christmas Island than apply through legitimate channels and wait for an outcome

     • The department of immigration is aware of a number of person who have arrived on Christmas Island claiming to be Afghan asylum seekers, but are actually Pakistani citizens. Their protection visas have been granted protection on the basis that they are Afghans fleeing persecution. No action has been taken against these persons as yet.

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

     

     Gab

     12 Feb 13 at 3:57 pm
120. Tom, the reason that there is “endless discussion” about the issues he mentioned, and many others, is that the facts are in dispute, and often fast-changing.

     The notion of ABC Kommissars delivering edicts about the “facts” in relation to controversial issues is so totalitarian that I can’t believe that they even dare to float it. It says a lot about how the notion of an independent media has been eroded in the public discourse. ABC journalists will all sing off the Party hymn-sheet. Mind you, many of them do that voluntarily already, but they must have identified a few recalcitrants – probably in country areas.

     And, no need for journos to go and find the facts and report them as they see them – soooo 20th century in this social media age.

     It is also astonishing that they see no need to actually improve their internal fact-checking, which has been shown to be woeful at times.

     

     johanna

     12 Feb 13 at 4:02 pm
121. Grace Collier, 007.
     

     A PROMINENT industrial relations consultant concealed a tape recorder in her bra to “entrap” a union organiser to reveal his part in a blockade, a court has heard.

     That’s nothing compared to the dirty tricks unionists use in the course of their “work”. Threats, intimidation, physical violence, fraud etc but a tape recorder in a bra, horrors! so unfair!!

     

     Gab

     12 Feb 13 at 4:07 pm
122. Dope duped.

     Hope his lawn mowing skills are better than this.

     

     H B Bear

     12 Feb 13 at 4:32 pm
123. Of grave concern:

     Federal Court judge Shane Marshall today questioned whether Grace Collier thought she was “in a James Bond movie or something”, after she used the recorder to tape a conversation with AMWU organiser Tony Mavromatis.

     Justice Marshall said he had “grave concerns” about Ms Collier’s evidence and how it was obtained.

     Protected industrial action:

     Union thugs’ free rein to punch police horses

     

     Token

     12 Feb 13 at 4:35 pm
124. Korean “Earthquake” probable North Korean Atomic test.

     

     Cold-Hands

     12 Feb 13 at 4:50 pm
125. MRRT; this is what happens when you send an innumerate dickhead and a failed IR lawyer into a room with successful businessmen to negotiate a tax.

     Did we really expect anything less? Well, that other prominent dickhead Oakshott thought it would all be hunky dory. Honestly WTF has The Great Negotiator achieved at anything.

     

     Dan

     12 Feb 13 at 4:58 pm
126. Opposition wasting too many questions on MRRT

     I think they asked one or two too many questions on it but it is an important issue to attack the Government on. I think they should also go after the wasteful welfare and issues like the NDIS and NBN.

     

     Andrew

     12 Feb 13 at 5:59 pm
127. Gab, this is by no means a criticism of your support for the differently-abled-faced among us, inviting us to see the sheer beauty within, which has happened since I was last on here, but when do we get back some utterly glam vixen to suit you better?

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     12 Feb 13 at 6:24 pm
128. I’ll have you know, Miss Elizabeth, we’re not all blessed with your good looks, nttawwt. Besides, the lady in the gravatar is still prettier and younger than moi!

     

     Gab

     12 Feb 13 at 6:28 pm
129. The MRRT is a huge wedge in the Government. It pits the Rudd faction against the Gillardistas, while inflaming those who want to ramp it up bacuse they hate mining and the Budget is falling into a black hole. It also infuriates the Greens (never a bad thing).

     It’s one of those things that doesn’t play in the heartland, but further erodes the shaky structure of this so-called government. Labor MPs will be even more angry and resentful and maudlin over their taxpayer-funded drinkies tonight, as they cross another day off the Calendar of Doom.

     

     johanna

     12 Feb 13 at 6:40 pm
130. the lady in the gravatar is still prettier and younger than moi

     Say it isn’t so

     

     Septimus

     12 Feb 13 at 6:41 pm
131. Customs investigation leads to five more arrests

     

     stackja

     12 Feb 13 at 6:51 pm
132. ROY MORGAN POLL: L-NP 56.5% ALP 43.5% 2pp – lefties can not use Roy morgan now

     

     Andrew

     12 Feb 13 at 6:54 pm
133. Lizzie, Can we put you in charge of restoring our precious petal Gab’s fragile self-esteem? There. I knew you’d know how to handle that.

     

     Tom

     12 Feb 13 at 6:56 pm
134. Sorry it is 56-44

     

     Andrew

     12 Feb 13 at 6:58 pm
135. Reading the SMH causes people to jump off buildings.

     

     Gab

     12 Feb 13 at 6:58 pm
136. Follow up to the electric car post from the last forum:

     http://www.treehugger.com/cars/new-york-times-model-s-review-fake-says-tesla-ceo-elon-musk-twitter.html

     

     Yobbo

     12 Feb 13 at 6:59 pm
137. 56-44 for a Morgan face-to-face poll is outrageous!!

     With Essential’s two week rolling average nudging up to 55-45 as well, it looks like the Newspoll wasn’t a rogue after all.

     

     MDMConnell

     12 Feb 13 at 7:27 pm
138. Pickering predicts prison for perfidious, peculating PM.

     

     Deadman

     12 Feb 13 at 7:34 pm
139. Tom – Surely you must have realised that having a capitalist country run by communists would be only temporary and…

     Communists demolish capitalist economies, that’s what makes them Communists.

     You know you could actually get a job…

     Getting a job would be going backwards. I’ll leave wage slavery to Delta-minus semi-morons such as your good self.

     I have, however done some heavy lifting.

     But it can be scary for someone of your sheltered background to suddenly be responsible for revenue targets and KPIs and wealth creation.

     And my background is? Revenue targets, KPIs? I love you guys. You’re a bunch of private sector bureaucrats. I’d bet yellow shiny money that you lot couldn’t even get a lemonade stand off the ground. If it doesn’t involve a PowerPoint presentation you just can’t hack it.

     Isn’t it amazing how capitalist democracy…

     Seems to create a lot of people who are just as dogmatic and hostile as the most sycophantic little apparatchik.

     You used to be able to engage in an intelligent conversation here. But these days it’s a little like hanging out with a bunch of lobotomized Trots. Just substitute ‘Statist’ for ‘Capitalist’ and ‘Jihadist’ for ‘American’ and you’ve got the Twin Evils to blame whatever’s so dreadfully wrong with you on.

     I don’t troll here much ’cause it ain’t worthwhile. But I saw the Hayek quote and decided to present it to one of his disciples so I could marvel at just how stupid humans can be.

     

     Adrien

     12 Feb 13 at 7:39 pm
140. Gab, you are only as old as your imagination will let you be. I need you to be forever young.

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     12 Feb 13 at 7:41 pm
141. lol. I’m still a kid on the inside I have never grown up!

     

     Gab

     12 Feb 13 at 7:43 pm
142. I woke up from a dream this morning. A very short dream, unlike the Speilberg epics I usually experience in full colour. The content of the dream? 217. That’s it. A number. 217.

     WTF is that supposed to mean?

     

     Gab

     12 Feb 13 at 7:46 pm
143. I don’t troll here much

     Good. Fuck off.

     

     Tom

     12 Feb 13 at 7:47 pm
144. Gab, good-o. Please bring back Rita, we are all missing her. She is my absolute favorite. The girls all want to be Rita, and the guys … well, we know where they want to be..

     Kevni is on the TV and we all need a pick-me-up.

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     12 Feb 13 at 7:54 pm
145. Electricity bill came.
     %50 higher than our PB!!
     NOT HAPPY JULIAR.

     

     jumpnmcar

     12 Feb 13 at 7:55 pm
146. My ex once woke up and exclaimed his dream: a potato on stilts.

     Yes, I said. Yes. A good idea.

     I always knew he was a bit strange.

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     12 Feb 13 at 7:57 pm
147. A number. 217.

     WTF is that supposed to mean?

     It’s about 217 days until the swearing in of Prime Minister Abbott if the Lying Slapper wasn’t lying about the election date.

     

     Tom

     12 Feb 13 at 7:57 pm
148. Opposition wasting too many questions on MRRT

     Perhaps not.
     Kevni was like a four year old on Christmas morning when he saw the gang bang waiting for him.
     The Opposition gave him an opening and he used it to slip in the shiv.

     

     lotocoti

     12 Feb 13 at 7:59 pm
149. 217

     An omen? The anniversary of Hannibal’s victory at Lake Trasimene in 217 BC or the assassination of Caracalla in AD 217?
     Perhaps, though, it’s because, upside down, 217 reads LIZ.

     

     Deadman

     12 Feb 13 at 8:02 pm
150. jump, you’re not taking the broad view. You’re helping to Save the Planet.

     Also, the fact that GST is levied on your rising bills, accruing directly to a Treasury impoverished by the refusal of miners to make ‘super-profits’, needs to be taken into account.

     You just don’t understand the Big Picture. But, never fear, the ABC is setting up a new Fact Deciding unit that will help you through your confusion. Alas, they won’t also be helping you with the bills. Even in a socialist paradise, you can’t have everything.

     

     johanna

     12 Feb 13 at 8:02 pm
151. Oh Lizzie – dreams always mean something else?

     A potato on stilts?

     Either down to earth and trying to walk higher? Or there have been floods where you are recently and he is worried about the food source?

     He is irish after all. Could have generations of potato dependence in his genes. The humble potato could mean much more to da hairy ape than you tink!

     

     Aliice

     12 Feb 13 at 8:06 pm
152. Very good, Deadman.

     

     Gab

     12 Feb 13 at 8:06 pm
153. Does the time draw nearer?

     OUR PRIME MINISTER IS A CROOK Part X

     For the first time in Australia’s history we are now witnessing a sitting Prime Minister seeking re-election while under investigation by a major fraud squad. The Left of the Press still shows no interest.

     The Victorian Fraud Squad is not investigating Blewitt, Wilson, Bill the Greek, Bill Shorten or anyone else except… The Honorable Ms Julia Eileen Gillard.

     

     Rudiau

     12 Feb 13 at 8:08 pm
154. Hang on Jump – wasnt it a few years ago we were being spun the BS that “a deregukated privatised electricity market” will bring cheaper prices??

     WTF went wrong with electricity bills??

     Conned again. Now its global warming and the carbon tax thats causing higher eelectricity bills. Mext year it will be the ” so sorry trying to reach surplus” and the year after “sorry we need the funds for X, y Z”

     and the year after etc

     and a few years after that we will wake up and kick the bludging bastards out. Can’t come soon enough.

     Conned again.

     

     Aliice

     12 Feb 13 at 8:12 pm
155. Well thanks Tom and I am most certainly impressed by such reasoning. In fact in my desperation to salvage something from the ruins of my discourse I can only quote the following from an article I read in an Australian journal:

     Typically, government policies world-wide are predicated on the belief, or perhaps hope, that economic growth will continue indefinitely. Indeed, there is often a structural requirement for continued growth, because of the nature of the financial system where money is loaned into existence as an interest bearing debt. However, whether economic growth can continue is question that pears increasingly likely to have n undesirable answer.

     Now this fella seems to know what he talking about and, believe me, he’s no revolutionary. So I was wondering, Tom, could you please explain to me why he’s wrong with your Socratic sagacity.

     

     Adrien

     12 Feb 13 at 8:13 pm
156. Good to see you here Adrien. Getting a little bored of having to tell the writers over at SL’s blog how great their last piece was, talking about the Wo mans or about Oxford?

     

     Jc

     12 Feb 13 at 8:16 pm
157. JC – Meow!

     

     Adrien

     12 Feb 13 at 8:19 pm
158. I already disliked Mayim Bialik for ruining Big Bang Theory (even if it is unfair of me to blame on actress who plays a character, instead of the writers who created her), but it turns out she’s both an anti-vaxxer and one of those “late breast-feeding” weirdos.

     

     Fleeced

     12 Feb 13 at 8:21 pm
159. ABC TV – Foreign Correspondents, tackling the tough questions again. What is the major threat to our way of life?
     Israel.

     

     blogstrop

     12 Feb 13 at 8:22 pm
160. …but it turns out she’s both an anti-vaxxer and one of those “late breast-feeding” weirdos.

     Just to clarify: this makes me dislike her even more

     

     Fleeced

     12 Feb 13 at 8:22 pm
161. Wow. She was accepted into both Harvard and Yale but went to UCLA instead “She earned a bachelor’s degree in 2000 in neuroscience, Hebrew and Jewish studies, and went on to the PhD program in neuroscience.

     She took a break from studies in 2005 to return to acting.[7] Bialik completed her PhD in 2007.[8] Her dissertation was an investigation of hypothalamic activity in patients with Prader-Willi syndrome.[9][10]“

     

     Gab

     12 Feb 13 at 8:25 pm
162. Looks like she lives on the A- line.

     

     dover_beach

     12 Feb 13 at 8:25 pm
163. Honestly, what the hell is going on at the Cat? I’ve been really busy of late, so I haven’t been reviewing comments left by leftwing idiots.

     I’ve to get back here asap and deal with these morons.

     What the hell is Greys and Braggs, his retarded twin still doing here?

     

     Jc

     12 Feb 13 at 8:26 pm
164. It’s kind of ironic, really… Of all the actors on BBT, she’s the only “real” nerd, and yet is the one I find the least realistic and most annoying (the show just doesn’t do female nerds that well).

     

     Fleeced

     12 Feb 13 at 8:33 pm
165. A number. 217.

     WTF is that supposed to mean?

     Your a United Methodist thinking of Xmas?
     Deep down of course.

     

     jumpnmcar

     12 Feb 13 at 8:34 pm
166. I already disliked Mayim Bialik for ruining Big Bang Theory (even if it is unfair of me to blame on actress who plays a character, instead of the writers who created her), but it turns out she’s both an anti-vaxxer and one of those “late breast-feeding” weirdos.

     Agreed. The new series hasn’t impressed me that much. I still laugh more at the old episodes that I have seen multiple times.

     

     Andrew

     12 Feb 13 at 8:42 pm
167. ABC Truth Unit?

     They’ll do what they all do. Publish press releases, nothing checked or investigated, not counter argument or information.

     

     kae

     12 Feb 13 at 8:43 pm
168. Leslie Winkle (Sarah Gilbert) was pretty realistic, but she was written out.

     

     Yobbo

     12 Feb 13 at 8:43 pm
169. Interesting watching Swan in Parliament the last few days. The lights have gone out behind that man’s eyes. Even the wiggling has moderated. He’s broken.

     

     C.L.

     12 Feb 13 at 8:43 pm
170. Leslie Winkle (Sarah Gilbert) was pretty realistic, but she was written out.

     Haha… I was speaking to someone recently about her. Yes, the only realistic nerd-girl on the show (reminded me of someone from uni, actually).

     Her character was funny, too.

     

     Fleeced

     12 Feb 13 at 8:44 pm
171. Hang on Jump – wasnt it a few years ago we were being spun the BS that “a deregukated privatised electricity market” will bring cheaper prices??

     WTF went wrong with electricity bills??

     They are cheaper than what they would be. Market interferences by the Government along with the natural extreme weather events Australia experiences and the overall large land mass for a relatively small population make power prices high in Australia. Also, people do not shop around enough in the power market so the providers do not have any incentive to provide a better deal to consumers.

     

     Andrew

     12 Feb 13 at 8:45 pm
172. It’s kind of ironic, really… Of all the actors on BBT, she’s the only “real” nerd, and yet is the one I find the least realistic and most annoying (the show just doesn’t do female nerds that well).

     The blonde chick with the glasses is very, very cute.

     

     tbh

     12 Feb 13 at 8:47 pm
173. Bialik is a well-known nutcase, proof that a high IQ doesn’t mean that you have any judgement whatsoever.

     She believes (i) that any woman who doesn’t breastfeed is verging on criminal neglect and (ii) that women are milkbars who need to be available for as many years as their children feel like it. Of course, being rich, she doesn’t actually have to try to keep a roof over your head in a low paid job with small children.

     She also is happy to have her body at the disposal of her children for as many years as it takes till they get bored with it.

     Bully for her, but suggesting that to do any less is bad mothering is pure bullshit. More wealthy liberal elite guilt being dumped on the proles.

     

     johanna

     12 Feb 13 at 8:47 pm
174. Even the wiggling has moderated.

     No, really? He’s a slimy little jerk off. Literally.

     If the libs find any bullshit that’s gone on with him and treasury, they ought to cancel his pension along with the APS jerks.

     

     Jc

     12 Feb 13 at 8:50 pm
175. ABC TV – Foreign Correspondents, tackling the tough questions again. What is the major threat to our way of life?
     Israel.

     @blogstrop …. Nothing wrong with the question mate. As long as following right up it’s arse on the rails is the answer “radical knuckle-dragging mouth-breathing illiterate Muslims who think they are going to get 72 roots by loading a back-pack with Semtex, getting on a bus and pulling the string”

     

     Leigh Lowe

     12 Feb 13 at 8:52 pm
176. The blonde chick with the glasses is very, very cute.

     Yeah, Bernadette’s cute – but her character is still wrong – albeit much less offensively so that Amy…

     I also enjoyed having Howard as an unmarried sleaze who got nowhere with the ladies, and Bernadette put a stop to that – but the only character I want to actually see die in a lab accident is Amy Farrah Fowler. Alas, they keep ingraining her character more and more deeply, so it’s impossible to get rid if her now.

     

     Fleeced

     12 Feb 13 at 8:55 pm
177. http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2012/02/21/say-it-aint-so-amy-farrah-fowler/

     

     Yobbo

     12 Feb 13 at 8:57 pm
178. I had no idea Big Bang Theory was watched by anyone.

     Wow.

     

     C.L.

     12 Feb 13 at 9:01 pm
179. That article already lost me at, “he has been hilarious thus far in The Big Bang Theory as a neuroscientist foil to Sheldon’s physicist ego.”

     In fact, it lost me before that, at: “Over the last couple of seasons, the male-centric show has been considerably improved by its move towards more of an ensemble cast that includes two new female characters” – it hasn’t. I can see why they felt the need for female characters, but they went the wrong path, IMO. Bernadette, I could probably live with, but Amy’s character is just woeful – and that was before I learned more about Bialik’s woo obsession.

     

     Fleeced

     12 Feb 13 at 9:04 pm
180. It was the highest rating show in Australia for a time, CL…

     The early seasons were surprisingly relatable to real-life nerds such as myself.

     

     Fleeced

     12 Feb 13 at 9:07 pm
181. Andrew

     Also, people do not shop around enough in the power market so the providers do not have any incentive to provide a better deal to consumers.

     I live in Mackay, What are my options for an electricity provider ?
     My region is swimming in electricity fuel.

     

     jumpnmcar

     12 Feb 13 at 9:11 pm
182. Howard was a lot funnier when he was a sleaze. Now he’s just a pussy.

     The biggest issue with AFF is that Sheldon is the whole show. Having his character experience personal growth would be like Homer Simpson steadily getting more intelligent.

     

     Yobbo

     12 Feb 13 at 9:11 pm
183. Andrew Bolt totally pwned Craig Emerson on Steve Price tonight. Emerson doesn’t seem to understand what the IPCC and the Met Office actually said about the past 16 years. Then Emerson chucked a dummy spit becuase Bolt dared to interrupt him. Emerson interrupted Bolt many times. Emerson was very snide and sneering with that arrogant attitude he thinks he is entitled. Emerson also quoted from that group of eminent climate scientists The World Bank.

     Craig, There has been no statistically significant warming in the last 16 years. The Met Office said so. Craig doesn’t understand.

     

     Gab

     12 Feb 13 at 9:12 pm
184. Aldi is about to open stores in WA.

     I imagine lefties will be overjoyed.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     12 Feb 13 at 9:14 pm
185. When will the BBT writers reveal Sheldon as a homo? It’d be one way to get that horrible hairy scrag off the show.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     12 Feb 13 at 9:15 pm
186. When will the BBT writers reveal Sheldon as a homo?

     LOL… I fear they’re looking to do that with Raj, though I hope not.

     

     Fleeced

     12 Feb 13 at 9:20 pm
187. IT, Aldi is useful to get some foods cheaply. I.E., excellent fresh local porterhouse for $15/kg and fast food like frozen lasagne with bechamel sauce for $2.50 a time. I wouldn’t touch their fresh fruit. I go there about once a fortnight to stock up on the cheap stuff and buy the rest from the gougers.

     

     Tom

     12 Feb 13 at 9:30 pm
188. I’m all for their cheap porterhouse, Tom, but Aldi’s frozen lasagne isn’t even fit for a uni student!

     

     Fleeced

     12 Feb 13 at 9:32 pm
189. I don’t know why one would go near a frozen pre-made meal like a Lasagne.

     

     Andrew

     12 Feb 13 at 9:38 pm
190. I love going to Aldi just for the sensation of buying at American prices. And the frozen lasagne is great!

     

     Tom

     12 Feb 13 at 9:38 pm
191. Aldi in WA?

     Don’t hold your breath – two years it’ll take them.

     

     kae

     12 Feb 13 at 9:48 pm
192. Tom
     I have a local Aldi. The fresh veg is sourced locally, and the fruit and veg is excellent.

     

     kae

     12 Feb 13 at 9:49 pm
193. I don’t need Aldi. I’ve got Coles, Woolies, Farmer Jacks, Fresh Provisions, 4 IGAs and any number of other butchers, bakers and farmers markets within 5 mins. And now they are open Sunday and past 6pm. The future is here!

     

     Infidel tiger

     12 Feb 13 at 9:53 pm
194. Yea, only took 20 years for Perth to catch up eh IT.

     

     Dan

     12 Feb 13 at 9:57 pm
195. I imagine Aldi a franchise system so local stores are as good as the owners. Mine’s a 15-minute drive from where I live and most of the fresh produce comes from far away, I’d guess, and mostly from northern NSW and Qld. I sniffed the American navels the other day (out of season here) and they were at least three months old. Yuck.

     

     Tom

     12 Feb 13 at 10:02 pm
196. @ Tom

     ” I sniffed the American navels the other day (out of season here) and they were at least three months old. Yuck.”

     TMI. Plus, I think you may have posted this comment on the wrong website

     

     johanna

     12 Feb 13 at 10:13 pm
197. Gab
     Emo v Bolt. Emo looked 1. Stupid because he read out four quotes.
     2. Childish, when he plead saying “Steve I knew this would happen”. 3. Evasive as he never answered the 16 year question, he said he disputes it an quoted projections and other periods. It was very annoying but Bolt was unhappy and upset. He never held Emo to the question. Now Emo will not apologize for his tweets. Pwned for me would have been an on the record answer by Emo with reference. I emailed Steve to send Emo a written request to the specific question but it will not happen.
     John be Jelske pioneered the tactic Journalist “Joh what do you say about the allegations of corruption?” Joh “flat taxes, that’s what the people want”. Emo is a teenager a very annoying one.

     

     Honesty

     12 Feb 13 at 10:36 pm
198. Emerson never answered the 16 years of no statistically significant warming. He was never going to and the call to 2GB was a stunt. And yes I heard the papers rustle in his hands as he was reading the quotes. That’s okay though.
     Emerson couldn’t answer the question because that would’ve meant an apology to Bolt. And that was never going to happen, would bruise Emo’s ego. Better to be wrong but keep that fragile ego intact. Thus Emerson was pwned, as I see it.

     

     Gab

     12 Feb 13 at 10:43 pm
199. Swan is not broken. He is a realist he jumps out of bed every day and says to himself “I know I have no ability and today I am Treasuerer again for another day! Yippee”. He skips to work whistling hi ho hi ho. And that’s what makes me want to cry, he loves getting away with it rather than being appalled at the damage he has done.

     

     Honesty

     12 Feb 13 at 10:45 pm
200. Alberici being shameless and in turned schooled by Gerard O’Connell on Lateline.

     

     dover_beach

     12 Feb 13 at 10:53 pm
201. Gab
     I see it your way but I will not be happy until I can see, that Emo can see it. I am never going to be happy with the Rhino hide he has, am I?

     

     Honesty

     12 Feb 13 at 10:53 pm
202. I don’t believe Emerson cannot “see it”. He refuses to acknowledge that the British Met was correct on this point. So no, he will never admit to the truth.

     

     Gab

     12 Feb 13 at 10:56 pm
203. Bolter has written up Emo, look good. Can he get an apology??

     

     Honesty

     12 Feb 13 at 11:00 pm
204. And who wants Rudd back?

     

     val majkus

     12 Feb 13 at 11:10 pm
205. And who wants Rudd back?

     Rudd’s back, is isn’t that where the cabinet left their knives?

     

     Rob

     12 Feb 13 at 11:18 pm
206. Wendy Bacon, who fawns all over Gillard when she courageously plays the totalitarian censor, doesn’t seem to like it when the Israeli PM, allegedly, suppresses a story.

     

     Deadman

     12 Feb 13 at 11:24 pm
207. So no, he will never admit to the truth.

     Sorry, dear Gab, but I have to be foul mouthed: Emerson is a fucking idiot, without parallel in our time..

     

     Lazlo

     12 Feb 13 at 11:39 pm
208. And who wants Rudd back?

     It’s ABG – Anyone But Gillard. Like ABC – Anyone But Crean but different.

     It won’t make any difference. Abbott was crucifying Rudd when the unions installed Gillard. The Libs had just brought out the Kevin O’Lemon ads and I’m sure they were a big hit with the focus groups. The Lib’s will have all the Minister’s gratuitous character assessments this time too.

     It will be funny to see who will swallow their pride and refuse to go and join Nanny on the backbench. The Goose must be for the high jump finally.

     

     H B Bear

     12 Feb 13 at 11:47 pm
209. And who wants Rudd back?

     This could happen tomorrow.

     Repeal the carbon tax, pause all climate change policies pending IPCC AR5.

     Announce a review of the mining tax, consequent on the Gillard/Swan fuck-up (along with my new Treasurer, Shorten).

     Vow to launch a review of asylum seeker policy, with a specific remit of how to ‘get tough’.

     Engage business leaders in a Steering Committee to consider how to raise productivity.

     Announce ‘an intention’ to review union malfeascence.

     Easy..

     

     Lazlo

     12 Feb 13 at 11:51 pm
210. Swan is not broken. He is a realist he jumps out of bed every day and says to himself “I know I have no ability and today I am Treasuerer again for another day! Yippee”.

     No, there is scientific proof that realise your incompetence requires a firm grasp of the basic skills. Dunning-Kruger I think it’s called. In short, if Swan had any idea he was crap, he would be much less crap. To be this ridiculously garbage at what he does requires that he be filled with the false assurance that comes with total cluelessness.

     

     wreckage

     13 Feb 13 at 12:15 am
211. He is irish after all.

     Aliice, once more, put your glasses on.

     I was referring to my EX, husband number one. Nothing Irish there. Just a weird dreamer. Clever, feted, my once was best friend.

     And so … on to Le Weekend, courtesy of HIA:

     We went to his secret destination, via plane. We went to his favorite sort of hotel – something high rise and glitzy with water views, excellent air conditioning, big fresh beds, an attentive concierge, fluffy towels, 24/7 room service. And yea – there was a laundry service too. Stick it in a bag Lizzie, no ironing for you. Everything comes back on hangers, perfect. Just like when I lived in Asia with my first little baby and his papa (as we were talking about the Ex; see para one) and we had a Dhobi to do that sort of stuff, plus a cook and other servants too. Actually though, it lived a lot worse than it sounds. And it all came crashing down.

     Now don’t go and muddle those two up again Aliice. Da Hairy Ape is NOT the ex. Nor will he ever be in that category. We are in it for the long haul. Our lovely lost long weekends are testament to that. Getting his Valentine’s Day in early.

     Good times.

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     13 Feb 13 at 12:19 am
212. Leftist Narrative of the Day:

     “The Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden is now uninsured”

     #FactCheck:

     Stars & Stripes: Esquire article wrongly claims SEAL who killed bin Laden is denied healthcare

     MSM serves up big, steaming pile of BS about former Navy SEAL who shot Osama bin Laden

     Because it meets both the “Too Good To Check” and “They Want To Believe” narratives, I’ve no doubt this one will be making the rounds of the Aussie left-o-sphere. I can’t be online much at the moment but maybe if some good Cats see it spreading you’ll pass those links on and stomp on this one hard. Cheers.

     

     sdog

     13 Feb 13 at 12:35 am
213. Viewers turning off ABC1, just ask the Insiders

     “THE ABC’s flagship Sunday morning current affairs program Insiders is losing a larger share of viewers than other dwindling news programs on the national broadcaster’s main channel as the corporation fails to meet a raft of key performance measures.

     Briefing notes prepared for managing director Mark Scott for last October’s Senate estimates hearings, obtained under Freedom of Information laws, concede viewers are turning off the ABC even as the broadcaster chases additional taxpayer funds.”

     Where’s Grey?

     

     Splatacrobat

     13 Feb 13 at 12:53 am
214. I reckon it would be interesting to note the viewer numbers for Insiders before and after Andrew Bolt and Glenn Milne got the shove.

     Who wants to watch a lefty panel agreeing with each other?

     Even the one formerly bright spot, Talking Pictures, has turned into Abbotabbotabbot so shut up.

     

     Pedro the Ignorant

     13 Feb 13 at 1:11 am
215. MRRT revenue a paltry $126m in six months.

     Jon Faine, he’s a bit dense.

     “Jon Faine with Tony Abbott, ABC 774 Melbourne, April 17, 2012:

     FAINE: If you do offer in-principle support for it (the National Disability Insurance Scheme), how do you pay for it without a mining tax?

     Abbott: … out of the budget, which is what the Productivity Commission recommended.

     Faine: A budget that factors in a mining tax. … You say you’ll repeal it. So, how will you pay for the NDIS if you’re in government?

     Abbott: Well, out of the budget …

     Faine: But Labor will pay for it in part through its tax reforms and a mining tax. … How will you pay for an NDIS?

     Abbott: Well, one of the interesting features about the mining tax is that I think the government is highly unlikely to raise anything like the revenue that it says it will, because all of the big companies say that they’re not going to be paying it.

     Faine: That’s their problem. I’m asking you about yours.

     Abbott: Well, we will meet the costs of the NDIS from the budget …

     Faine: Without the mining tax, how do you do that? It’s not a magic pudding.”

     Cut&Paste.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 1:21 am
216. No – there was never EVER in all of history such a thing as a budget without a mining tax. Is Faine suffering from some sort of mental problem?

     

     C.L.

     13 Feb 13 at 1:24 am
217. Patrick Dodson: Let’s ensure Aboriginal racism industry remains alive and well for future generations.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 1:27 am
218. Here’s my call: Gillard is now just one fuckup away from a challenge. You can read it in the postures and behaviours on the Treasury Benches. The Opposition has taken to asking questions of Craig Emerson – who is, of course, completely batshit bananas – and when he starts rambling on like a crack addict, the government backbenches just look despondent.

     

     C.L.

     13 Feb 13 at 1:27 am
219. Faine is as red as a baboon’s bum.

     Who gave this clown a microphone?

     

     Pedro the Ignorant

     13 Feb 13 at 1:27 am
220. Here’s my call: Gillard is now just one fuckup away from a challenge. You can read it in the postures and behaviours on the Treasury Benches.

     Won’t make any difference anyway, other than missing out on the pleasure of seeing her turfed out by the electorate.

     In any case, they can’t get rid of gillard – that’s too much like their definition of misogyny. Remember what the presstitutes have been telling us for months? If you criticize gillard it’s because of her gender. No other reason. So if gillard gets assaulted by Karma, what’s the Gal Qaeda squad going to say? Labor has snookered itself.

     Also, what’s to stop them knifing her replacement after the election?

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 1:36 am
221. Amazing image. St Peter’s gets struck by lightning hours after the Pope’s announcement.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 1:51 am
222. Via the wonderful, The Anchoress:

     That lightning strike at St. Peter’s tonight? After Benedict’s news today? Fuggedaboudit. As Joanne writes, Benedict has seen the lightning and rejoiced … he knows how Psalm 29 ends. Don’t miss this piece — especially if you’re afraid of lightning.

     Incidentally, if you are afraid of lightning, the patron saint for your fears is St Scholastica.

     

     C.L.

     13 Feb 13 at 2:22 am
223. I reckon it would be interesting to note the viewer numbers for Insiders before and after Andrew Bolt and Glenn Milne got the shove.

     Hey, where’s Lyndon LaDouche? How come he doesn’t visit any more?

     

     Abu Chowdah

     13 Feb 13 at 3:27 am
224. Yeah, nah, as suspected, the ACC circus is all piss and wind from a bureaucracy trying to justify its existence and a government desperare for distractions:

     THERE are no active criminal investigations into allegations raised by the Australian Crime Commission’s year-long examination of organised crime and drugs in sport despite state-based police having been aware of its findings for the past five months.

     ACC chief executive John Lawler, under pressure to defend his agency’s handling of last week’s sensational report warning crime gangs were infiltrating the major professional sports, said the operation had largely gathered intelligence rather than evidence and was not intended to result in arrests. “The purpose of such an operation is not to make arrests,” Mr Lawler told Senate estimates yesterday. “The purpose is to understand the threat, risk and vulnerabilities.”

     Amid growing frustration inside the AFL and NRL about the lack of specific allegations and the damage being inflicted on the reputations of players and clubs, Mr Lawler told the estimates hearing the ACC utilised its “full suite of powers” in the operation, codenamed Project Aperio, including more than 30 coercive examinations. However, under questioning from opposition legal affairs spokesman George Brandis, Mr Lawler refused to say whether any current AFL or NRL players were examined as part of the operation.

     The Australian understands no current Essendon player was examined by the ACC despite the AFL club being the subject of serious doping allegations. The apparent hole in the ACC investigation was confirmed by multiple sources within club management, staff and the playing group. It can also be revealed that Stephen Dank, the scientist who designed and administered the club’s 2012 treatment program suspected of breaching anti-doping rules, appeared twice before the ACC.

     

     Tom

     13 Feb 13 at 6:30 am
225. Keysar Trad gets to call the shots in the NSW police investigation of gun violence in western Sydney:

     POLICE will hold a secret meeting with Middle Eastern community leaders today after a major announcement about Sydney crime backfired, causing tensions between Muslim leaders and police.

     The government and police launched Operation Apollo last week with a major press conference announcing the Middle Eastern organised crime squad would have an “over-arching role” in investigating and targeting criminals involved in Sydney’s shootings, especially in the south-west.

     Some community leaders are incensed Operation Apollo appeared to centre on Middle Eastern gangs. “It is insulting to say all gun crime is the fault of Middle Eastern people,” said Keysar Trad, a spokesman for the Muslim Australia Organisation.

     “I was contacted yesterday afternoon by NSW police and told about the meeting and would be texted the location later.”

     But police stressed the meeting was part of ongoing community consultation about Operation Apollo. “We have held meetings before Apollo was announced and will have more in the future,” Detective Superintendent Arthur Katsogiannis, commander of Operation Apollo, said.

     

     Tom

     13 Feb 13 at 6:50 am
226. Pat Dodson is on the front page of the Oz, and the text shows that if you repeat something often enough, some people will believe it. Such as Father of Reconciliation. I have always thought of him as the Godfather of The Rights Agendum, or the Titular Head of The Treaty Movement.
     The push is about to be resumed for constitutional recognition. It seems the PM wants her own bit of legacy to rival that of Rudd, which she’ll be forced to acknowledge, the Apology!
     Quote: Mr Glanville will say that recognition would have a force similar to the national apology to the Stolen Generations, which “spoke to all of us, black and white”.
     A force similar to … Which means it’ll be an ineffective piece of posturing shambolic wankery signifying nothing, except that it will be used as a stepping stone towards “Treaty, Yeah!”.

     

     Blogstrop

     13 Feb 13 at 6:54 am
227. The InSinc-erator won’t let me post a Bolt link that explains what a vile piece of garbage Keysar Trad is.

     

     Tom

     13 Feb 13 at 6:55 am
228. Now that Rudd is openly sticking it up Swan and Gillard over the mining tax debacle and Slippery Pete is rumoured to be about to abdicate his queenship, a vote of confidence in the government on the floor of the House of Representatives would be fascinating:

     Mr (Andrew) Wilkie told Fairfax Media he had been wrong to believe Treasury predictions of company liabilities under the renegotiated tax instead of the alternative arguments put forward at the time by Mr Forrest.

     Mr Forrest had complained that the compromise to allow miners to write off the long-term value of assets from their mining tax liabilities had allowed the big three miners off the hook.

     ”It is beyond argument that the government was wrong, is wrong, and Andrew Forrest is right,” he said.

     

     Tom

     13 Feb 13 at 7:45 am
229. Here’s my call: Gillard is now just one fuckup away from a challenge. You can read it in the postures and behaviours on the Treasury Benches.

     Come on now, It’s only Wednesday. There is still time for three more fuckups before the weekend when the phones will be running hotter than Shagger’s prefered escort service.

     

     Splatacrobat

     13 Feb 13 at 7:52 am
230. Is the government here still paying broadcast fees for the commercial stations to “coz, shuddup”

     CNN Exposed – Emmy Winning Former CNN Journalist, Amber Lyon, Blows The Whistle…. Simultaneously Answers One of my questions….

     Why would CNN [or CNNi] refuse to air the Nick Robertson report with Muhammed Al Zawahiri (brother of Ayman Al Zawahiri) that clearly shows the Egyptian uprising was 100% in response to his call for protests for release of the Blind sheik on 9-11.? Why would the “most trusted name in news“, hide the report showing the truth, and instead allow the false narrative to be sold, by them, to the American electorate?

     Amber Lyon provides the answer(s).

     CNN never aired the Nick Robertson report in Egypt because it completely contradicted President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s assertions. In short, the Robertson report, if aired, would have proved Obama and Clinton were lying.

     She says she was ordered to report fake stories, delete unfriendly stories adverse to the Obama administration (like the Nick Robertson report), and construct stories in specific manners while working for the left-wing network.

     CNN is paid by foreign and domestic Government agencies for specific content.

     

     Rudiau

     13 Feb 13 at 7:53 am
231. She says she was ordered to report fake stories, delete unfriendly stories adverse to the Obama administration (like the Nick Robertson report), and construct stories in specific manners while working for the left-wing network.

     The only difference here is that most of our media types don’t have to be ‘ordered’. It is what they do by a sort of cultural osmosis from the very start.

     Probably the same over there. It takes a brave soul to swim against that tide …

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     13 Feb 13 at 8:03 am
232. The problem with the Education system.

     The problem is the same the world over…the teacher unions:

     From Prager University: We talk endlessly about improving public schools. So what’s standing in the way? Stanford Professor Terry Moe identifies the biggest obstacle — teachers unions.

     And this doesn’t touch on another problem of what they teach.
     Teaching our kids what to think instead of how to think.

     

     Rudiau

     13 Feb 13 at 8:07 am
233. 7.30 down 3%
     4 Corners down 3%
     Foreign Correspondent down 6%
     Business Insiders down 3%
     Drumroll please…Insiders down 14%

     It takes a brave soul to swim against that tide

     Old Leather face will qualify for a swimming bravery medal from TLS if he keeps this up.

     

     Splatacrobat

     13 Feb 13 at 8:16 am
234. Oh they talk a good game alright, and therein lays the problem. They’re so busy getting the sexy terminology sexy that they’ve forgotten how to do any meaningful work – if they ever knew how in the first place.

     “Mr Lawler told the estimates hearing the ACC utilised its “full suite of powers” in the operation, codenamed Project Aperio”

     Just one week after Comrade Minister Looks-Good-in-Parliament-Background-Shots breathlessly announcing her astonished indignation the whole farce has has fizzled out. A year’s hard work finding a powerful, menacing name for the covert operation, and creating phrases like “full suite of powers”, and it’s all running down the gutter to the sea.

     What did she thunder? Something like “We do have are a very particular set of skills; skills we have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make us a nightmare for people like you … We will find you and we will kill you.”

     And what was Lawler’s job before the ACC? CEO of Grocery Watch?

     

     Mick Gold Coast QLD

     13 Feb 13 at 8:31 am
235. Kate Lundy is on with Mitchell shortly.

     

     Tom

     13 Feb 13 at 8:32 am
236. The wowsers are coming for our sugary drinks.

     A New Zealand coroner has taken on the world’s most valuable brand name in a case that is likely to reverberate around the world.

     Southland coroner David Crerar has found that mother-of-eight Natasha Harris died from drinking too much Coke.
     …
     She drank between six and 10 litres a day. Mr Crerar estimated that, at the 10l level, she was consuming 2-1/2 times the recommended daily amount of caffeine, and more than 11 times the recommended sugar intake.
     …
     Mr Hodgkinson said warning labels should be put on Coke bottles, especially for the benefit of children.
     …
     In the coroner’s findings, Professor Doug Sellman of the National Addiction Centre said Coke should be added to an international list of addictive substances.

     “Growing neurobiological research is strongly indicating that some people can develop a compulsive habit related to certain highly palatable foods, that looks very similar to the same behavioural pattern observed in a drug addiction.”

     Give me strength.

     

     Jarrah

     13 Feb 13 at 8:39 am
237. New York Times Model S review is ‘fake’, says Tesla CEO.

     Jeremy shows the alpha males real car road test.

     

     Rudiau

     13 Feb 13 at 8:41 am
238. “So if gillard gets assaulted by Karma, what’s the Gal Qaeda squad going to say? Labor has snookered itself.”

     I’m beginning to believe there is something in that Gabrielle.

     There is no doubt Comrade Bogan Broadbeam has several more complete cock ups to offer for our amusement, that’s what she’s good at, but they have now boxed themselves into a corner with no realistic, winning-er Option B.

     

     Mick Gold Coast QLD

     13 Feb 13 at 8:41 am
239. but they have now boxed themselves into a corner with no realistic, winning-er Option B.

     Their plan B is currently looking like plan 9

     

     Splatacrobat

     13 Feb 13 at 8:54 am
240. Slipper resigns, (Gillard is in on this) Gillard calls election. It’s all about what she can get away with and this is all she has left to save face and go out best she can. It’s that simple.

     

     Honesty

     13 Feb 13 at 9:10 am
241. How nice that from the early hours, Gab has reverted to a more telling Gravitar.

     By magic moondust, a gal with two guns. Now we can all relax.

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     13 Feb 13 at 9:13 am
242. “How nice that from the early hours, Gab has reverted to a more telling Gravitar.”

     Oh yes Elizabeth! For a couple of days there I simply did not like Gabrielle one little bit, which I didn’t enjoy but she made me do it.

     Now she’s a princess again, who can do no wrong.

     

     Mick Gold Coast QLD

     13 Feb 13 at 9:18 am
243. Yeah, nah, as suspected, the ACC circus is all piss and wind from a bureaucracy trying to justify its existence and a government desperare for distractions:

     So, are the board members of the codes showing leadership and calling for the CEO’s that attending the political show trial to face some consequences?

     (PS: Of course I am not talking about the wall to wall ALP flunkies at the AFL)

     

     Token

     13 Feb 13 at 9:20 am
244. Keysar Trad gets to call the shots in the NSW police investigation of gun violence in western Sydney:

     …and the Tele proves it is a few microns better than FauxFacts by giving Trad oxygen.

     

     Token

     13 Feb 13 at 9:22 am
245. The Cats are not so widely read. Gabs Gravitar is Lara Croft Tomb Raider which I think is not a princess, but a women on a mission!

     

     Honesty

     13 Feb 13 at 9:22 am
246. Mr (Andrew) Wilkie told Fairfax Media he had been wrong to believe Treasury predictions of company liabilities under the renegotiated tax instead of the alternative arguments put forward at the time by Mr Forrest.

     Remember when Wilkie and co queried the quality of the costings on the Coalitions policies based upon the work of the same Treasury?

     No shame.

     

     Token

     13 Feb 13 at 9:24 am
247. “… Cats are not so widely read. Gabs Gravitar is Lara Croft …”

     Well, I never! Is that so?

     

     Mick Gold Coast QLD

     13 Feb 13 at 9:31 am
248. Deep hole of her own making.

     The first mining tax was far too antagonistic to the industry and became pivotal in the destruction of Kevin Rudd’s leadership while the second tax is far too ineffectual and undermines Julia Gillard’s economic credentials

     HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!

     

     Eddystone

     13 Feb 13 at 9:37 am
249. Old Leather face will qualify for a swimming bravery medal from TLS if he keeps this up

     Why wasn’t this spin by Leather Face reported without question?

     Insiders host Barrie Cassidy told The Australian that viewers outside the east coast time zone were choosing to watch his program “live” on News 24.

     He defended his viewing figures, insisting Insiders was “the only program ever devised that has grown an audience every year since its inception”.

     “I doubt if any other program could claim that,” he said.

     An ABC spokeswoman said that while audiences were down on ABC1, they had risen on News 24 and the ABC’s web-based service, iview.

     The spokeswoman said Insiders achieved a first run average audience of 228,000 across ABC1 and News 24 last year. She added that the program recorded 270,000 plays on iview, with an average of 6000 plays for each episode.

     Just another example of an ABC Group Thinker pedalling BS in an attempt to avoid listening to customer feedback.

     

     Token

     13 Feb 13 at 9:38 am
250. It’s a dreadful waste of money.

     That’s a feature not a bug.

     

     lotocoti

     13 Feb 13 at 9:45 am
251. Anyone know the strength of the election coverage stance taken by Scott? Can anything be done about it? In time?

     

     Honesty

     13 Feb 13 at 10:01 am
252. Anyone know the strength of the election coverage stance taken by Scott? Can anything be done about it? In time?

     The question is whether the relevant law has sanctions and who can impose them.

     If it is at the Minister’s discretion, you can be assured Senator Benito Red Underpants won’t be enforcing it.

     

     Token

     13 Feb 13 at 10:04 am
253. Growing neurobiological research is strongly indicating that some people can develop a compulsive habit related to certain highly palatable foods, that looks very similar to the same behavioural pattern observed in a drug addiction.

     So, if some people have a medical condition whereby they gorge themselves on tasty food, then clearly, we should restrict availability of said food to the community at large…

     

     Fleeced

     13 Feb 13 at 10:08 am
254. Leftist icon Chris Dorner has been pinned down by police in California.

     

     C.L.

     13 Feb 13 at 10:10 am
255. It seems there is a correlation between the ratings of ABC’s political shows and the ALP 2PP vote. All on decline!!!

     

     Andrew

     13 Feb 13 at 10:13 am
256. She drank between six and 10 litres a day. Mr Crerar estimated that, at the 10l level, she was consuming 2-1/2 times the recommended daily amount of caffeine, and more than 11 times the recommended sugar intake.

     10 Litres of water in a day will kill you also. Will these nanny statists add warning labels to bottles of H2O as well?

     

     Splatacrobat

     13 Feb 13 at 10:14 am
257. Parliamentary staffers maquerading as locals in regional hospital debate at Colac, but same IP address reveals the chicanery.
     SteveC, Grey, Braggs – you all fit the profile.

     

     blogstrop

     13 Feb 13 at 10:21 am
258. The Washington Post beclowned:

     CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported that Sarah Palin had signed on as a contributor to the Al Jazeera America news network. The blogger cited a report on the Daily Currant Web site as the basis for that information without realizing that the piece was satirical.

     

     C.L.

     13 Feb 13 at 10:32 am
259. The first mining tax was far too antagonistic to the industry and became pivotal in the destruction of Kevin Rudd’s leadership while the second tax is far too ineffectual and undermines Julia Gillard’s economic credentials

     …And the baby bear tasted his porridge and it was juuuuust right. ..

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 10:35 am
260. Sinc, are you privy to the IP addresses of commenters? Has there ever been unusual spikes from the same one?

     

     harrys on the boat

     13 Feb 13 at 10:55 am
261. ”

     STEPHEN CONROY: I think if you actually took the time to do your own research instead of wasting taxpayers’ money you’d find almost everything that you were seeking – almost everything – is available online on NBN’s websites. All the construction, all of this sort of- it’s actually all there if you’re not too lazy to go and look for it….
     SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Senator Conroy, I listen to your diatribe in silence.

     BILL HEFFERNAN: Full of shit.

     SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Thank you.

     STEPHEN CONROY: You’ve obviously been drinking. Go somewhere else and annoy somebody else.

     BILL HEFFERNAN: Excuse me…

     STEPHEN CONROY: Go somewhere else.

     BILL HEFFERNAN: You can withdraw that if you like.

     (Senator Conroy laughs)

     I haven’t been bloody drinking.

     DOUG CAMERON: Senator Heffernan, will you withdraw that remark that said that Mr Quigley is brain dead?

     (Sound of Senator Heffernan speaking in the background)

     Will you withdraw, will you withdraw?…

     BILL HEFFERNAN: I think he should withdraw…

     DOUG CAMERON: You should withdraw- thanks. Senator Birmingham…

     BILL HEFFERNAN: But I’d like to hear him talk. Can you talk?

     MIKE QUIGLEY: Bill, please.

     DOUG CAMERON: Mr Quigley, do not engage with Senator Heffernan.

     MIKE QUIGLEY: Okay.

     DOUG CAMERON: It would be totally counterproductive…

     SIMON BIRMINGHAM: How many new customers has NBN Co signed up in Tasmania in the last 12 months?

     STEPHEN CONROY: Ah… I’m happy to take that on notice.

     (Laughter)

     SIMON BIRMINGHAM: You did take it on notice and we didn’t get a bloody answer!”

     Sounds like a typical night at the Cat when the trolls bust in…

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

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 10:58 am
262. harrys on the boat

     I use mobile broadband and I have a different IP address every time I connect. I presume it depends on which tower connects me.

     

     eam

     13 Feb 13 at 11:05 am
263. Tony Abbott, intellectual marshmellow:

     House of Reps backs Indigenous recognition.

     Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says constitutional recognition for Indigenous people is long overdue.

     “We need to atone for the omissions and for the hardness of heart of our forebears, to enable us all to embrace the future as a united people,” he told Parliament.

     Mr Abbott has paid tribute to those who have worked to achieve reconciliation over a long period of time, including former prime ministers Gough Whitlam, Harold Holt, John Howard and Kevin Rudd.

     He has also recognised the efforts of Ms Gillard.

     “So often in this place, we are antagonists. Today on this matter, we are partners and collaborators,” he said.

     

     C.L.

     13 Feb 13 at 11:08 am
264. Tony Abbott, intellectual marshmellow:

     Malcolm Fraser MKII here we come.

     We need to atone for the omissions and for the hardness of heart of our forebears

     WTF is this shit? You can self flaggelate for your “forebears” “hardness of heart” all you like Abbott but don’t you dare drag me into it.

     

     twostix

     13 Feb 13 at 11:13 am
265. We need to atone for the omissions and for the hardness of heart of our forebears…

     Speak for yourself, dickhead.

     

     C.L.

     13 Feb 13 at 11:15 am
266. Tony Abbott’s genuine concern for Aboriginal people is one of his strong points. Unlike the bloviators on the other side, he has walked the talk.

     But he is a fool if he falls for the constitutional recognition thing. It is just a wedge to get compensation, special rights and to encourage differentiation between Australians because of a vanishingly small amount of DNA.

     

     johanna

     13 Feb 13 at 11:16 am
267. Tony is smart – Labor is trying to wedge him on this issue and he’s playing a straight bat.

     common folk wont give a hoot whether the constitution says abs here first or not. It is recording an historical fact.

     more important work to be done in their respect

     remember Ab vote in NT going up for libs so they need some reward

     

     pete m

     13 Feb 13 at 11:20 am
268. I wonder how many people have “forebears” who arrived well after “the omissions” and “hardness of heart”? I know mine did, arriving in late 1950′s. None of them did anything wrong, neither have I….or is it just a case of apologising for our mere existence in Australia today? Is there a specific time period that covers the omissions and hardness of heart? Or will it just cover all time past, present and future?

     Long live the Aboriginal victimhood industry.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 11:21 am
269. Although ancestors of some of my relatives through marriage arrived on the First Fleet…so it applies to them, the hard-hearted bastards.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 11:24 am
270. We need to atone for the omissions and for the hardness of heart of our forebears

     Have a minute of silence at the opening of the parliament Tony, then move on.

     

     Token

     13 Feb 13 at 11:26 am
271. None of them did anything wrong, neither have I….

     Who knows how our actions will be judged by the mores of society 200 years from now? The revisitation of right and wrong based upon differing principles and priorities over time is one of those daft activities people get drawn into. About the most that can be said is that we would do things differently now.

     

     Driftforge

     13 Feb 13 at 11:32 am
272. More taxpayer money down the drain on a 7-month long advertising campaign that would be one of the reasons behind gillard’s decision to announce an election at the start of the year.

     THE Gillard government will go ahead with taxpayer-funded advertising programs ahead of the September 14 election despite conflicting views on whether the official election campaign has begun under broadcasting laws.
     …
     The statement came in response to questions from Victorian Liberal senator Scott Ryan over the advertising, which last year totalled $139.7 million,.

     Communications Minister Stephen Conroy insisted the election period would not begin until August 12, even though Julia Gillard announced the date on January 30.

     His department revealed yesterday that it had received advice from the Australian Government Solicitor last week that the election period had not begun under the media law.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 11:36 am
273. Obeid raised more mining revenue for his private trust than Swan could with a MRRT. They know “how to spread the wealth” when they want to.

     

     Honesty

     13 Feb 13 at 11:39 am
274. About the most that can be said is that we would do things differently now.

     I doubt my relatives who came here by boat in the 1950s have anything to do with the plight of Abo back in 18th and 19th centuries. But it will ensure future generations of whitey are made to carry the manufactured guilt.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 11:40 am
275. Tony Abbott can suck my nuts. Australia’s history is something to be exceedingly proud of. The last 2 decades have been a nightmare and the country is now a flyblown toilet, but that is for later generations to cry about on the steps of Parliament.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     13 Feb 13 at 11:42 am
276. In between bashing their women and leaving their unwanted children on ant hills, there was nothing hard-hearted about Aborigines of course.

     No, Pete – I’m not buying that baloney anymore. I mean the excuse that Liberals should play along with left-wing crap just to keep a low profile.

     I’m tired of it.

     

     C.L.

     13 Feb 13 at 11:45 am
277. Hope John Howard bops Abbott on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 11:47 am
278. At least Rudd said sorry for us. The only sorry in five years and it wasn’t even anything they were to blame for. I just want one small sorry from Swan, just one.

     

     Honesty

     13 Feb 13 at 11:49 am
279. Lovely well spoken words by Mr Abbott, he’s not a pretender.

     But perhaps this Constitutional change is last big gesture that needs to be made in regard to the indigenous.

     

     candy

     13 Feb 13 at 11:55 am
280. If we’re going to let the Johnny Come Lately poms like Abbott and Gillard tell us that we need to “atone” for our “forebears”, then they all first need atone for the “hardness of heart” shown by their forebears to many of my forbears who were exiled to one of the most brutal places on earth then used as slave labor to build their colony for the grim crimes of shoplifting, vandalism etc.

     

     twostix

     13 Feb 13 at 12:09 pm
281. Tony Abbott, that was the last straw. For your defamation of the generation of people who busted their guts and spent lifetimes trying to lift the aboriginals out of their squalid existence, you can get stuffed.
     This is proof positive that we have no Conservative Party any more. The Left have white anted the Libs until they are almost indistinguishable from Labor.
     Candy, there is no such thing as ‘a last big gesture’. The list of complaints, both real and manufactured, just keeps growing.

     

     Winston SMITH

     13 Feb 13 at 12:09 pm
282. Abbott is morphing into David Cameron. Let’s hope he is jailed for riding his bike incorrectly.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     13 Feb 13 at 12:13 pm
283. Who knows how our actions will be judged by the mores of society 200 years from now?

     Under todays leftist political “logic”:

     If we do mention aboriginals in the constitution in 100 years that will be used as evidence of our overt racism, as it is today about the existing mention of “races” in the constitution.

     If we don’t the fact that we vote against it will be used as future evidence of our racism.

     If we intervene in the NT that’ll be used as a evidence of a new “stolen generation” and “patronizing racist 2000 era society”.

     If we don’t that’ll be used as evidence of “hard hearted” indifferent Australia forcing aboriginals to live in crime and squalor on “settlements”.

     It’s all about the narrative.

     

     twostix

     13 Feb 13 at 12:19 pm
284. We’re not equal under the law so I guess there’s no reason to be equal citizens under the Constitution.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 12:22 pm
285. This is a woman – Julia Gillard – who believes, along with her sisters in Emily’s List, that a woman has a ‘right’ to slaughter her own unborn child at any age. Last year she sooled Abos on Abbott with a view to embarrassing and/or physically harming him – all the while her minions denouncing him as a man who hates blacks.

     Today, Abbott praised her in relation to Aborigines.

     He’s a complete softcock and I’m getting tired of looking at him.

     

     C.L.

     13 Feb 13 at 12:26 pm
286. John Howard got Les Murray to pen a few words to put a reference to the aboriginals and Torres Straight Islanders into the pre-amble of the constitution.

     In return he got humiliated by the luvvie class and a demand to make it unwieldy by throwing in every group possible.

     This site includes all versions.

     

     Token

     13 Feb 13 at 12:35 pm
287. into the a suggested pre-amble of the constitution

     

     Token

     13 Feb 13 at 12:36 pm
288. Because there is no more pressing issue in my life than the cost of tampons. This is worse than global werming.

     Nilk — There’s a new petition taking off on Change.org, and we think you might be interested in signing it. Read on for a message from Sophie:

     Tampons are labelled a ‘luxury item’ and taxed at a higher rate. In an election year where women will be key, Sophie thinks it’s time politicians ended this sexist tax.

     Sign the Petition

     Nilk,

     There’s no womb in society for a tampon tax.

     It’s fun to pun, but the tampon tax is no joke. It’s a bleeding disgrace. (Oops!)

     But seriously now, did you know we pay GST on tampons because they’re labelled as ‘luxury’ items? Condoms, lubricant, incontinence pads and sunscreen are GST free. What’s with that?

     My friends and I have been angry about it for ages. And as I start as the Womens Officer at Uni, it’s hit me that I could finally do something about it — that’s why I’ve started this petition asking Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard to end this unfair tax.

     Putting a tax on products women need as a direct consequence of their biology is fundamentally sexist. Tampons aren’t a luxury — they’re a necessity. But there’s a chance we could change this: pundits are saying that women aged 18-45 will determine the election in September, so I’m confident the pollies will listen if we get our message out there right now.

     Sign now to tell the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition that the tampon tax is a bloody disgrace.

     Half the population of Australia — approximately 10 million women — will pay tax on these products for the greater part of their lifetime. Costing us about $1000 for buying an essential health product.

     Senior members of the Labor Government are on record as being against the tampon tax — they publicly fought it being included in the GST back in 2000. With enough public pressure, I know we can get them speaking up again to help us end the tampon tax.

     Tampons can be a bit awkward to talk about, I know. But if enough of you join me by signing my petition, the media will put our pollies on the spot and force them to respond to us. Could you please sign now?

     Thanks for helping me fix this mess,

     Sophie

     

     nilk

     13 Feb 13 at 12:39 pm
289. Because there is no more pressing issue in my life than the cost of tampons. This is worse than global werming.

     Nilk — There’s a new petition taking off on Change.org, and we think you might be interested in signing it. Read on for a message from Sophie:

     Tampons are labelled a ‘luxury item’ and taxed at a higher rate. In an election year where women will be key, Sophie thinks it’s time politicians ended this sexist tax.

     Sign the Petition

     Laying the seed for Mcternan’s Australian version of the Sandra Fluke angle. Get ready for the “Tampons must be covered by Medicare / PBS whatever” attack.

     

     twostix

     13 Feb 13 at 12:46 pm
290. I’m guessing that tampons are classed as a luxury product because they were an improvement to an already existing product which many people still prefer.

     Kind of like buying an electric toothbrush instead of a regular old non-electric toothbrush.

     I agree that it’s ridiculous to class them as a luxury product. Just shows how ridiculous our tax system is in general. Even John Hewson couldn’t explain it.

     

     Yobbo

     13 Feb 13 at 12:52 pm
291. Malcolm Fraser MKII here we come.

     Depressing and unsurprising.

     

     Ivan Denisovich

     13 Feb 13 at 12:54 pm
292. Tampons are in the same league as condoms and sun screen, so it’s a discrepancy.

     

     candy

     13 Feb 13 at 12:56 pm
293. @ candy

     “But perhaps this Constitutional change is last big gesture that needs to be made in regard to the indigenous.”

     ————

     Candy, gestures are a dime a dozen. A Constitutional change is not a ‘gesture’. It means giving extra rights to one party, and therefore taking rights away from another.

     Like the Greens, the Aboriginal industry is never satisfied. Give them a cookie, and it just gives them strength to come back for more. Their jobs depend on it.

     The loudmouths who claim to represent Aborigines are self appointed and then re-appointed by lazy and cowardly governments. There are plenty of Aborigines who are getting on with their lives and who are embarrassed and/or angry about their antics.

     For example, see:

     http://theblacksteamtrain.blogspot.com.au/

     From the latest post, about stereotypical teaching to medical students at Monash:

     ” However, it appears that in the halls of Monash, myth becomes fact – ALL Aboriginal people aren’t able to buy affordable fruit and vegetables due to the exorbitant costs of transportation, location be damned. Our budding medical students are asked to forgo common sense, logic and fact (the stuff we hope they ARE learning while they are in there) and accept any nonsensical statement as truth – as long as it comes under the Aboriginal banner. Should a student dare to question any of the logic, or the offensiveness of such stereotyping, they will quickly be dismissed as being ‘ignorant of Aboriginal culture’ by their classmates, or worse, branded a racist.

     This has to stop.”

     Abbott needs to be careful that he doesn’t fall into the same trap as Labor did with the Greens – assuming that the noisiest activists represent the majority.

     

     johanna

     13 Feb 13 at 12:59 pm
294. But seriously now, did you know we pay GST on tampons because they’re labelled as ‘luxury’ items? Condoms, lubricant, incontinence pads and sunscreen are GST free. What’s with that?

     Soudns like the GST should be applied to those other items to make it consistent.

     

     Token

     13 Feb 13 at 1:01 pm
295. Yobbo, I think Hewson replied that “Menstruation isn’t a health problem.”

     And if you think I’m getting any further into this topic, think again…

     

     Winston SMITH

     13 Feb 13 at 1:01 pm
296. Dear Bush Lawyers – a change to the preamble will not grant anyone any rights.

     cheers

     

     pete m

     13 Feb 13 at 1:10 pm
297. Winston – going any further would just see you deeper in the hole you’ve just dug.

     

     pete m

     13 Feb 13 at 1:12 pm
298. Pete M, yes, that is why John Howard included the reference there.

     

     Token

     13 Feb 13 at 1:12 pm
299. Dear Bush Lawyers – a change to the preamble will not grant anyone any rights.

     Don’t bet on it. The High Court invents shit all the time.

     

     C.L.

     13 Feb 13 at 1:19 pm
300. Thanks to Rudi to the refernce to Token Libertarian Chick.

     Here she pulls about the trick of naming legislation in a way to wedge your opponents while handing buckets of government money to your supporters.

     

     Token

     13 Feb 13 at 1:19 pm
301. razors are not exempt from GST.

     Should I claim discrimination as a male?

     

     duncanm

     13 Feb 13 at 1:20 pm
302. Tony Abbott can suck my nuts. Australia’s history is something to be exceedingly proud of. The last 2 decades have been a nightmare and the country is now a flyblown toilet, but that is for later generations to cry about on the steps of Parliament.

     Last 2 decades a nightmare? How??

     “But perhaps this Constitutional change is last big gesture that needs to be made in regard to the indigenous.”

     I will be voting no. All the proposed change is, is a gesture, nothing more. The Constitution is not made for tokenistic gestures, it is to provide Australia for a legal framework for which we are governed. This includes electoral rules, the formation of our Parliamentary system, the division of powers and some basic rights that relate to the governing of our country. Please tell me how recognising a group of people that comprises of around 2% of our population, a) fills the above criteria and b) tackles the problems those people face?

     

     Andrew

     13 Feb 13 at 1:33 pm
303. Is GST levied on toilet paper? (Someone had to go there.)

     

     Lloyd

     13 Feb 13 at 1:42 pm
304. Denis Prager discusses the disgusting response from the left to the Dorner case – will this be the OJ moment?

     Just when you thought you’d seen it all with the Sandy Hook murders of a classroom full of children, America experienced another new low: A man named Christopher Dorner murdered three (as of this writing) innocent people in order to air personal grievances. And his grievances were given serious attention by the national media, not to mention by left-wing websites.

     …What we have here is another proof that nothing leads to murder and other evils more than a sense of victimization. This is true for nations, just as it is for individuals. The German sense of victimization led to World War II. Dorner believes himself to be a victim and consequently feels entitled to murder.

     But the real victims are decomposing in their graves.

     

     Token

     13 Feb 13 at 1:42 pm
305. “razors are not exempt from GST.”

     Another discrepancy, mens razors and shaving foam are a cleanliness issue, essential product.

     

     candy

     13 Feb 13 at 1:48 pm
306. What is more silly is that “Recognise” movements wants to remove Section 51 (xxvi) which is the section that allowed for the Native Title Act, something which the Aboriginals wanted.

     

     Andrew

     13 Feb 13 at 1:58 pm
307. It is true that in theory a change to the Preamble of the Constitution has no weight. But, as C.L. has pointed out, there is no limit to the hubris of lawyers, a.k.a. High Court Judges.

     They will scratch their wigs and say – but if a referendum approved this change, surely it means something? OK, it wasn’t to the body of the Constitution, but how could it be described as meaningless? That negates the exercise of votes by millions of Australians. So, what does it mean?

     And we go from there.

     Attempts to tamper with anything in the Constitution, even a comma, should always be viewed with the deepest suspicion.

     

     johanna

     13 Feb 13 at 2:01 pm
308. HE Future Fund has invested in another tobacco company, at the same time as a board committee of the $84 billion fund is conducting a review of its exposure to the sector.

     In Senate estimates yesterday, Future Fund managing director Mark Burgess said the new investment, believed to be worth $200,000, was in the Czech unit of Philip Morris.

     This had taken the number of tobacco stocks held by the fund to 15, although the value of its exposure to the controversial sector had fallen from $231 million to $221m. Asked by Greens senator Richard Di Natale if he was aware that the Czech Republic was the only country not to have signed the World Health Organisation’s framework convention on tobacco control, Mr Burgess said he didn’t follow each stock in the Future Fund’s portfolio. He said the investments were made at the discretion of the fund’s external managers.

     Senator Di Natale also drew the committee’s attention to a study commissioned by the Czech company that found public finances could be boosted by the tobacco industry, despite the harmful impact on the health of cigarette smokers.

     The study, he said, had concluded revenue from tobacco taxes was greater than the cost of health care for smokers.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 2:09 pm
309. Leftist hero and icon, Chris Dorner, dead.

     

     C.L.

     13 Feb 13 at 2:35 pm
310. Kevni accused of destabilising, in a letter cc’d to MP’s.

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     13 Feb 13 at 2:36 pm
311. Leftist hero and icon, Chris Dorner, dead.

     Too bad. I wanted him to get the chair so we could see all those lefties marching in his honour.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     13 Feb 13 at 2:39 pm
312. Asked by Greens senator Richard Di Natale if he was aware that the Czech Republic was the only country not to have signed the World Health Organisation’s framework convention on tobacco control,

     The more I learn about the Czech’s the more I think I’ve found the country I’ll move to. I already owe them more than I will ever be able to express for inventing Pilsener.

     Even their new leftist President is a plum brandy guzzling, chain smoking, commie hater.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     13 Feb 13 at 2:45 pm
313. Public parks tradition to be continued:

     The mayor of Byron Bay in northern New South Wales says he wants to make gay marriage legal in the shire and has flagged the creation of a “love park”.

     Byron mayor wants to legalise gay marriage.

     

     C.L.

     13 Feb 13 at 2:52 pm
314. The mayor of Byron Bay in northern New South Wales says he wants to make gay marriage legal in the shire and has flagged the creation of a “love park”.

     “Mum, why is the grass all sticky?”

     

     Infidel Tiger

     13 Feb 13 at 2:54 pm
315. Left and right both agree that Obama is a despicable piece of crap, but we must give him his due for this:

     And we’ll work to strengthen families by removing the financial deterrents to marriage for low-income couples, and doing more to encourage fatherhood – because what makes you a man isn’t the ability to conceive a child; it’s having the courage to raise one.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     13 Feb 13 at 3:00 pm
316. So Obama is now saying that getting from conception to childhood requires parental courage. He ought to address those sentiments to American women as much – if not more – than American men.

     

     C.L.

     13 Feb 13 at 3:07 pm
317. I think Obama is one of about 3 black men in America who has stuck around after having a root, so he probably feels a bit lonely.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     13 Feb 13 at 3:09 pm
318. Sinc, are you privy to the IP addresses of commenters? Has there ever been unusual spikes from the same one?

     I haven’t ever looked.

     

     Sinclair Davidson

     13 Feb 13 at 3:14 pm
319. “Mum, why is the grass all sticky?”

     Too far, lol.

     

     Fleeced

     13 Feb 13 at 3:21 pm
320. Dear Bush Lawyers – a change to the preamble will not grant anyone any rights

     Says another bush lawyer?

     The obvious response to such an argument is that even if this is correct (and a reminder that this is the BEST CASE SCENARIO put forward by proponents: that is, that it has no legal effect and is purely symbolic), then why bother in the first place?

     Of course, racism has no place in the constitution at any rate. Declaring that, “Oh well, it has no legal effect on rights or anything like that,” is not exactly an argument in its favour.

     So even if preamble changes have no legal effect (which they can and do, by the way, but we’ll pretend otherwise for the sake of your argument), there are more than enough valid reasons for opposing it and none for supporting it.

     Again: the only reason being put forward for it’s support is that it’s a symbolic gesture… that it’s “the vibe of the thing”.

     

     Fleeced

     13 Feb 13 at 3:30 pm
321. Kevni accused of destabilising, in a letter cc’d to MP’s.

     It was sent by a resident of Avalon Beach on Sydney’s northern beaches and forwarded onto the ABC by one of Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s supporters.

     That would be fat ugly Bob, woudn’t it?

     

     Septimus

     13 Feb 13 at 3:33 pm
322. The obvious response to such an argument is that even if this is correct …that is, that it has no legal effect and is purely symbolic), then why bother in the first place?

     I think the best argument is that the proposed changes are not relevant to the functions of the Constitution. Many of those arguing for it will have no rebuttal to that.

     

     Andrew

     13 Feb 13 at 3:36 pm
323. The big problem with the bipartisan nonsense is that those of us who are opposed to it will be labelled racists, etc… so far from being an agent of “reconciliation”, it will merely cause more divisiveness.

     Of course, it’s more than likely that some opponents will be racist douchebags, and these people will no doubt attract a large share of media attention *sigh*

     I understand that for referendums, public funding is required for both sides? I hope the funded opposition to this nonsense isn’t too bat-shit crazy. What a mess! What a totally unnecessary, racially divisive mess!

     

     Fleeced

     13 Feb 13 at 3:39 pm
324. What a mess! What a totally unnecessary, racially divisive mess!

     Got it in one, Fleeced.
     That’s its function – divide and conquer.
     Obamas election technique was to divide all into victim groups, then set them at each other while supporting them.

     

     Winston SMITH

     13 Feb 13 at 4:05 pm
325. Another discrepancy, mens razors and shaving foam are a cleanliness issue, essential product.

     Candy that is a strange comment are you suggesting men with beards are unclean?

     

     kelly liddle

     13 Feb 13 at 4:13 pm
326. I’m not a bush lawyer.

     How does recognising an established historical fact in any legislation change anything? It is not racially divisive to state a fact. Aboriginals were here prior to settlement from British people in 17 whatever. What is racially divisive here? Is anyone excluded or discriminated or abused by this?
     US, Canada, NZ have all come to terms with their aboriginal peoples, but here we seem stuck on stupid.

     

     pete m

     13 Feb 13 at 4:15 pm
327. Aboriginals were here prior to settlement from British people…

     And there were pygmy people prior to them.

     You’re being naive, Pete.

     The purpose of a preamble is not to say Abos were here first.

     It is to ‘recognise’ that they were slaughtered, imprisoned and just generally treated meanly by the evil whites.

     

     C.L.

     13 Feb 13 at 4:18 pm
328. SMH makes Rubio = Fawlty Towers’ Manuel joke:

     Que? Rising Republican gets the message out – twice.

     

     C.L.

     13 Feb 13 at 4:22 pm
329. I’m not a bush lawyer.

     And yet, you were stating a legal opinion on changes to our Constitution…

     

     Fleeced

     13 Feb 13 at 4:22 pm
330. Aboriginals were here prior to settlement from British people in 17 whatever. What is racially divisive here? Is anyone excluded or discriminated or abused by this?

     Everyone knows that, therefore there is no need to put it in the constitution.

     

     Token

     13 Feb 13 at 4:23 pm
331. Que? Rising Republican gets the message out – twice.

     As usual, the left doesn’t seem to be able to move on from racial stereo-typing.

     BTW, only lefty morons didn’t know that Rubio was going to read the speech in Spanish weeks ago.

     It was noted he’d speak in Spanish when he was flagged as the person to deliver the speech.

     

     Token

     13 Feb 13 at 4:29 pm
332. ” common folk wont give a hoot whether the constitution says abs here first or not. It is recording an historical fact.”

     Crap. No evidence that the people wandering aboutraping minors when Cook arrived were the first inhabitants. The fact they were here before Cook means sod all. They claim the first people were here 40 or 60 thousand yr ago. The ice age ended only 13 thiusand ago.

     Anyone vould have wandered in anytime.

     Tital Bs artists
     When will tradutional practices sucg as chuld raoe be recignised in the constitution. They qant eecognition. Give it to them.

     

     WhaleHunt Fun

     13 Feb 13 at 4:31 pm
333. Because, pete m, the Aborigines who were there then are dead. So are the Europeans who were there.

     It is not about recognising history – no-one denies the history. The Constitution is not a documentation of progressive historical events, to be updated according to the latest view of history. It’s not like a Facebook page.

     The Constitution is the foundation document on which our nation rests. That is why all this playing fast and loose with tinkering with it is so despicable.

     If it has no effect, why do it? If it has an effect, why not tell us what that means, and why we should do it? It’s that simple.

     

     johanna

     13 Feb 13 at 4:33 pm
334. “Candy that is a strange comment are you suggesting men with beards are unclean?”

     Nope, just a comparison of essential personal items re GST/non GST discrepancies, both male and female items.

     

     candy

     13 Feb 13 at 4:38 pm
335. US, Canada, NZ have all come to terms with their aboriginal peoples, but here we seem stuck on stupid.

     Wanting to alter the legal document that was created over a century after white settlement that allows a government to exist to state a historical fact that there was one particular race of people here before that government was created is what is stupid.

     But we all know that is not what this is about. It’s about enshrining the battered and under siege but still just moving leftist-aboriginal victim complex that has provided cover for so many easy political wins for the left over the last thirty years into the highest law of the land forever.

     

     twostix

     13 Feb 13 at 4:45 pm
336. Combet calls Abbott a bullshit artist…Greg really needs help.

     

     Andrew

     13 Feb 13 at 5:06 pm
337. Combet calls Abbott a bullshit artist…Greg really needs help.

     Calling a politician a bullshit artist goes without saying doesn’t it. Politician = Bullshit artist.

     

     kelly liddle

     13 Feb 13 at 5:22 pm
338. Garrett scores a hat trick last night on Sky…1. He shows he is an idiot; 2. He actually makes an argument as to why increased school funding is not the panacaea it is made out to be by the public schools lobby; and 3. He shows that he is ignorant of one of the most fundamental concepts in economics – opportunity cost…

     PETER VAN ONSELEN: Is Gonski more important than the National Disability Insurance Scheme?

     PETER GARRETT: I think it’s a false dichotomy to say one is more important than the other. They are both important, they will both make an immeasurable difference, not only to the quality of life of all Australians but the potential, particularly for young Australians.

     And I think for me what strikes me more than anything else is the fact that when I look at kids travelling through school, I can see that if they do get the best education they’re capable of, not only are they going to get a higher standard of living, they’ll be healthier kids, healthier people when they grow up to be adults. They’ll be happier and most importantly the country’s going to be in a better position to deal with the kind of challenges that sit ahead of us. Stuff that we talked about in the Asian Century White Paper.

     And the nations that will do well, both in this region and in the future, are the nations that educate well, that invest in education. That’s right at the middle of what the Government wants to do.

     PETER VAN ONSELEN: Can I ask you Minister are you comfortable with the percentage of spending, Government spending as a percentage of GDP because often there’s talk in the Parliament whenever there’s a tax on the size of taxation on your Government by the Opposition, there’s a response that comes from the Prime Minister and the Treasurer and others that makes the point that the Howard Government in terms of percentage of GDP was a much higher taxing government than the current government. And that is true, when you go through the numbers, it’s an undeniable fact.

     But equally, that’s taxation. On the spending front, when you look at spending as a percentage of GDP, each year since the global financial crisis, Labor has spent much more as a percentage of GDP than the last five years of the Howard Government did. Are you comfortable that that level of spend, I suppose, is sustainable without taxation going up or without other revenues measures being required?

     PETER GARRETT: Well look I think in terms of that question the best way for me to answer it is this. I believe that we can make the necessary investments through the appropriations to make sure that the Gonski recommendations and a new funding model can be delivered within the constraints that we would set – and the responsible governments would set with their budget.

     And very quickly Peter on that question, it’s a little misleading sometimes to look at that statistic because I look at other countries where they spend say, for example, more as a proportion of GDP – and I think of a country like Norway – their education results aren’t bad but they’re not that good compared to a country like Finland which spends less than they do and which does very well.

     So you do need to have a quantum of investment and I think all parents and people who are watching this program would say look I can see that schools could really do with the money, it helps in a range of things and I could go through them.

     But at the same time you’ve got make sure than the money is spent on doing the things that we know and that we are advised will make a real difference to education outcome. You’ve got to do it systematically, you’ve got to do it without qualification and it you do that, then we can arrest our education decline and be confident that that investment in education is going to repay itself many times over with things like increased productivity.

     PETER VAN ONSELEN: Peter Garrett we appreciate you joining us on Showdown, thanks very much for your company.

     PETER GARRETT: Thanks guys.

     

     Skuter

     13 Feb 13 at 5:28 pm
339. Politician = Bullshit artist.

     This is should be an identity, not an equation…

     

     Skuter

     13 Feb 13 at 5:29 pm
340. Greg Combet argues that he can cool the planet with a carbon dioxide tax.

     The twice-divorced Rooty Hill High graduate is deeply fearful and jealous of Abbott.

     

     C.L.

     13 Feb 13 at 5:36 pm
341. I’m guessing that tampons are classed as a luxury product because they were an improvement to an already existing product which many people still prefer.

     Of course there is an alternative if you can’t afford the GST. It might mean that you have to sit in a hut by yourself for a week every month but hey it’s worth it if you can minimise tax.

     BTW I wouldn’t bother trying to lobby Emily listers to change this. On their track record they would come up with a MRRT type solution and mandate hysterectomies for all women over twelve.

     

     Splatacrobat

     13 Feb 13 at 5:39 pm
342. It’s 49 cents per month for GST on a pack of 16 tampons. It bit over $5 per year. the cost of one latte in inner-city luvvieville. FFS don’t you people have something more important to discuss?

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 5:46 pm
343. “Your belief in your own infallibility meant that as PM you badly mistimed announcing the mining tax so close to an election instead of awaiting until you had the clear air of three years,” the email to Mr Rudd states.

     “That bad decision of yours is again hurting the Labor Party and your comments this week show again your desire for revenge rather than your loyalty to Labor principles.

     “Your disloyalty to your leader and party is shameful. Get over the fact that you are no longer the prime minister.”

     Mad Bob from Avalon’s distributed email letter to Kevni.

     May the Good Lord help us if they are given another three years of ‘clear air’ to play with.

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     13 Feb 13 at 5:56 pm
344. Of course there is an alternative if you can’t afford the GST

     There is another, less ridiculous alternative of course: Menstrual Pads, which are still widely available and indeed, still more popular than tampons as far as I can tell.

     

     Yobbo

     13 Feb 13 at 6:05 pm
345. The men of Catallaxy, sitting around discussing matters of great importance, as real men do. GST on Tampons.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 6:11 pm
346. Skute

     WTF?

     So you do need to have a quantum of investment….

     Lurch is a brain dead nicompoop.

     

     Jc

     13 Feb 13 at 6:11 pm
347. I’ve just had an e mail from Greg Combet

     Dear Val Majkus,

     Have you had the chance to catch up on President Obama’s State of the Union Address today? Here’s what he had to say on climate change.

     President Obama called on Congress to put in place a market-based mechanism to deal with carbon emissions.

     That means President Obama is calling for a price on carbon. Just like we have here in Australia thanks to this Labor Government.

     From our experience, we know it won’t be easy and that the President will meet tough opposition.

     For years climate sceptics have argued the United States is not acting, so nor should Australia. Can you share this video and show them that’s not true?

     The President also pointed out that China is going full steam ahead on moving to renewable energy sources and the United States has to do the same.

     These shifts on the international stage make it more important than ever that Australia continues to act on climate change. We must not go backwards.

     You can check out some handy facts on China’s action on climate change by clicking here.

     Greg

     PS. Can you help us defend the carbon price from Tony Abbott by chipping in $10? We can’t afford to fall behind the rest of the world on this issue.

     I’m wondering how on earth I got on Combet’s mailing list – has anyone else received a similar e mail?

     

     val majkus

     13 Feb 13 at 6:11 pm
348. I was busy today..

     Just want to know if there were any leftoid troll attacks on the various threads so I can zero in.

     Thanks.

     

     Jc

     13 Feb 13 at 6:13 pm
349. Like I said, I am guessing the reason that tampons got hit with the “luxury item” tax are because they were a later alternative to the menstrual pad that was already around. Not saying it isn’t completely ridiculous that anything sold in a supermarket could be called a “luxury item”, but I am guessing that’s why some things got that designation.

     Similar to an electric razor compared to a blade razor.

     

     Yobbo

     13 Feb 13 at 6:13 pm
350. None worth your time, JC.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 6:14 pm
351. Great topic for your blog, Yobbo. Discuss it to your heart’s content.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 6:15 pm
352. Gee Yobbs..how fucking interesting. Hows the weather where you are?

     

     Jc

     13 Feb 13 at 6:20 pm
353. Hot, like every other day of the year. Haven’t had any rain for about 2 months.

     Gab: Go fuck yourself. I have been commenting on this blog for close to ten years and don’t need your approval for which subject I choose to talk about.

     

     Yobbo

     13 Feb 13 at 6:22 pm
354. Oh I see. I am not entitled to an opinion nor comment becuase you have been here longer? How very Libertarian.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 6:24 pm
355. Where are you exactly- Phuket?

     

     Jc

     13 Feb 13 at 6:25 pm
356. Oh I see. I am not entitled to an opinion nor comment becuase you have been here longer?

     We’ve pretty much had enough of you dictating which topics can and can not be discussed on the open forum.

     It’s called the open forum for a reason. If you don’t like it, nobody is forcing you to read it.

     

     Yobbo

     13 Feb 13 at 6:30 pm
357. JC, I am in Koh Samui.

     

     Yobbo

     13 Feb 13 at 6:30 pm
358. We’ve

     Who’s “we”, white man?

     you dictating which topics can and can not be discussed on the open forum.

     LOL Dictating? You’re off your tree or scored a bad batch of crack.

     It’s called the open forum for a reason. If you don’t like it, nobody is forcing you to read it.

     Precisely, which is why I can make comment – even comments you vehemently take offence to. But , look, it it makes you feel better, please go ahead and continue discussing tampons to your heart’s content.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 6:33 pm
359. My only contribution to this debate is …
     I’ve been a victim of over 300 menstrual cyclones and I wish to be recognised in the constitution, said SORRY to and told when exactly I will receive compensation.
     That is all.

     

     jumpnmcar

     13 Feb 13 at 6:34 pm
360. Everyone is basically ignoring the moron.

     Wall Street likely to shrug off Obama as investors wait for budget deal

     

     Jc

     13 Feb 13 at 6:35 pm
361. Read up Gab, the only comments you’ve made in the last 4 hours are telling people to shut up in the open thread.

     

     Yobbo

     13 Feb 13 at 6:35 pm
362. Ladies please… No bricks in handbags.

     

     Jc

     13 Feb 13 at 6:36 pm
363. Nappies and tampons.

     Catallaxy will be invited to The Lodge for the next mummy bloggers’ festival at this rate. Hope Sinc is ready for it.

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     13 Feb 13 at 6:37 pm
364. Yobbo, you really ought to change your brand of tampon as it makes you irritable. I haven’t told anyone to “shut up” I’ve expressed an opinion, something which you seem to believe I am not allowed to do here because you don’t agree or like what I say. Very Libertarian of you.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 6:38 pm
365. “I’ve just had an e mail from Greg Combet”

     Dear Val Majkus,
     You’ve been conned. No government minister could be as f-ed in the head as to believe the BS dribbling out of the the Kenyan’s mouth. It is not possible for Combet to be as utterly cretinously retarded as the letter makes out. It’s just some Nigerian or Kenyan scam.
     Oh wait, he’s a Federal Labor retard isn’t he? Well yes, the liar chooses cretins. Makes her look less stupid.

     

     WhaleHunt Fun

     13 Feb 13 at 6:39 pm
366. I’ve expressed an opinion

     Your opinion being “shut up”.

     FFS don’t you people have something more important to discuss?

     The men of Catallaxy, sitting around discussing matters of great importance, as real men do. GST on Tampons.

     Great topic for your blog, Yobbo. Discuss it to your heart’s content.

     Do you have anything better to do than to complain about people who have nothing better to do?

     

     Yobbo

     13 Feb 13 at 6:41 pm
367. What the hell are women doing expressing opinions about feminine hygiene products. What man told them it was ok to have an opinion.

     

     WhaleHunt Fun

     13 Feb 13 at 6:41 pm
368. In my opinion, GST on tampons is not a subject of importance. I’m sorry you don’t feel that way, Yobbo but my opinion in no way prevents you or anyone else from having a discussion over the topic. Unless of course you seek my approval.

     Mummy blog indeed.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 6:42 pm
369. Bet it was that misogynist AbbotAbbotAbbot

     

     WhaleHunt Fun

     13 Feb 13 at 6:42 pm
370. I’m sorry you don’t feel that way, Yobbo but my opinion in no way prevents you or anyone else from having a discussion over the topic.

     Chiming in every third post to tell us how unimportant it is certainly goes a long way to making it harder to discuss.

     

     Yobbo

     13 Feb 13 at 6:48 pm
371. Malcolm Fraser MKII here we come.

     Depressing and unsurprising.

     well, Big Mal did create the SBS

     if that is a achievement

     He also caused lefty heads to explode, just by being PM.

     

     Will

     13 Feb 13 at 6:49 pm
372. lol, Jump. Menstrual cyclones. Da Hairy Ape is very good at battening down the hatches on these.

     Gab, at this stage I would have just burst into tears, perhaps throwing something breakable first, but I know that you are made of sterner stuff.

     There is absolutely no end to the ways in which men can be infuriating. Tell him to go scratch his balls, they are probably itching.

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     13 Feb 13 at 6:49 pm
373. Chiming in every third post

     lol I made two comments. Stop your histrionics, Yobbo.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 6:50 pm
374. Aboriginals were here prior to settlement from British people…

     So what?

     

     Mk50 of Brisbane

     13 Feb 13 at 6:50 pm
375. Maybe it’s just that time of the month for Yobbo, Lizzie. He needs chocolate.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 6:51 pm
376. “victim of over 300 menstrual cyclones and I wish to be recognised in the constitution”

     If the Aborigines were first (which is an unsubstantiated assertion) but at least if they were here before Cook, and get to go up the front, where will they put the British empire people…a bit further down perhaps, and then the post WWII migtrants a little later and the post Vietnam migrants near the end and the illegals at the bottom?
     To not include everyone would be raaaaaaaaaaaaaaacist.
     And what about the bloody Kangaroos, they were here before the Aborigines.

     

     WhaleHunt Fun

     13 Feb 13 at 6:51 pm
377. Bloody marsupialists. Ignoring all the kangaropos and wombats abducted and killed and eagten by the johny come lately aborigines. Even if somebody did nick some aborigines (unsubstantiated), not many got eaten.
     Not like us poor marsupials.

     

     WhaleHunt Fun

     13 Feb 13 at 6:55 pm
378. And what about the bloody Kangaroos, they were here before the Aborigines.

     Not according to the bible.

     

     Yobbo

     13 Feb 13 at 7:01 pm
379. Interesting art news – the discovery of the head for L’Origine du monde.

     

     C.L.

     13 Feb 13 at 7:03 pm
380. Not according to the bible.

     Is that error what drive the Pope to retire?

     

     WhaleHunt Fun

     13 Feb 13 at 7:04 pm
381. Good lord, that woman needs to get some waxing done. Hey Yobbo, GST is charged on waxing services and products. Discuss.

     

     Gab

     13 Feb 13 at 7:05 pm
382. Chiming in every third post to tell us how unimportant it is certainly goes a long way to making it harder to discuss.

     I want a separate “tax on tampons” thread

     

     Will

     13 Feb 13 at 7:06 pm
383. Interesting art news – the discovery of the head for L’Origine du monde.

     Hope the model was 18.

     

     Yobbo

     13 Feb 13 at 7:06 pm
384. the discovery of the head for L’Origine du monde.

     Don’t show the picture to Slipper. It will upset him some more.

     

     WhaleHunt Fun

     13 Feb 13 at 7:07 pm
385. No threads in them. They’re all new high-tech acrylate super abosorbent polymer fibres now.

     

     WhaleHunt Fun

     13 Feb 13 at 7:09 pm
386. “woman needs to get some waxing done”

     I cannot make out her upper lip from the photo.

     

     WhaleHunt Fun

     13 Feb 13 at 7:11 pm
387. “woman needs to get some waxing done”

     Thats one map of Tasmania that Bob Brown has never traversed.

     

     Splatacrobat

     13 Feb 13 at 7:14 pm
388. And what about the bloody Kangaroos, they were here before the Aborigines.

     Not according to the bible.

     I was unaware that the Bible even mentioned kangaroos.

     

     Will

     13 Feb 13 at 7:14 pm
389. Yobbo,rong fred but

     7 The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”

     5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.
     .
     So, are Kangaroos clean or not?
     Was it 14 Roos or just 2 ?

     

     jumpnmcar

     13 Feb 13 at 7:18 pm
390. Thats one map of Tasmania that Bob Brown has never traversed.

     Wrong (not on a factual basis) but funny

     

     tbh

     13 Feb 13 at 7:19 pm
391. Yobbo:
     

     And what about the bloody Kangaroos, they were here before the Aborigines.

     Not according to the bible.

     Really? The weird crap athiests say…

     So what’s the biblical reference for that, then?

     

     Mk50 of Brisbane

     13 Feb 13 at 7:21 pm
392. Wow. Who knew that pasting in a copy of an idiot email about taxin’ tampons was so incendiary?

     My bad.

     Let’s change the topic shall we?

     I’m watching Lateling – apparently they’re doing a live segment with Geert Wilders tonight.

     Back to your regular programming:

     Having seen the head of the model of the painting, I’m snarky enough not to be surprised it was chopped off. He could have painted a bucket over it for anonymity.

     

     nilk

     13 Feb 13 at 7:22 pm
393. The real question is how they got from Australia to Israel to get on the boat and back from Turkey again after, given that Noah’s flood supposedly happened around 2500 BC. There was no land bridge then.

     Did, as “old bloke” claims, Phoenician sailors discover Australia in 1000 BC, and are aborigines the descendants of their escaped slaves?

     And how did they fit all the native Australian wildlife onto those Phoenician boats?

     

     Yobbo

     13 Feb 13 at 7:25 pm
394. The more I learn about the Czech’s the more I think I’ve found the country I’ll move to.

     They have much better gun laws than WA, IT.

     The gun law in the Czech Republic is quite liberal.
     ..
     The law was last tightened in 2008 introducing for example stricter sanctions for carrying gun while intoxicated.
     ..
     The efforts to tighten gun legislation are also unlikely to pass as about a fifth of members of the Czech Parliament are holders of firearm license; some of them are believed to carry firearms also within the parliament grounds (parliamentarians are not required to pass gun check on entry unlike other staff or visitors).

     

     Eddystone

     13 Feb 13 at 7:25 pm
395. So what’s the biblical reference for that, then?

     The flood of Noah.

     

     Yobbo

     13 Feb 13 at 7:26 pm
396. Wish Bunyip was active now. Mediawatch having a go at News over their online poll manipulation but they didn’t touch the ‘Sack Alan Jones’ poll manipulation. Some news outlets reported that poll like it was an election result.

     Exactly the same technique let you vote for it twice; delete cookies and re-vote.

     

     Harold

     13 Feb 13 at 7:30 pm
397. I dropped into the religion thread this morning.

     Some of the posters have gone full retard taken arguments to ridiculous lengths.

     It’s a jungle in there.

     

     Eddystone

     13 Feb 13 at 7:31 pm
398. “I was unaware that the Bible even mentioned kangaroos.”

     There might be a reference to Skippy.

     

     candy

     13 Feb 13 at 7:51 pm
399. Swedish proposition: Send the elderly to Thailand – services are cheaper

     

     Will

     13 Feb 13 at 7:51 pm
400. But perhaps this Constitutional change is last big gesture that needs to be made in regard to the indigenous.

     Clearly candy doesn’t work in the aboriginal industry.

     

     H B Bear

     13 Feb 13 at 8:05 pm
401. Exactly the same technique let you vote for it twice; delete cookies and re-vote.

     Richo said vote early and often.

     

     stackja

     13 Feb 13 at 8:06 pm
402. Wtf is wrong with Chris Gayle?

     Have the bookies got to him?

     

     JamesK

     13 Feb 13 at 8:06 pm
403. Chant with me: NO TAMPON TAX NO TAMPON TAX!!!

     We can also start a ‘Convey of no confidence’!

     

     Andrew

     13 Feb 13 at 8:09 pm
404. Just watched KRudd on ‘The Project’. There really is an elephant in the room.

     Is it too much to publicly admit that he is:

     - socially incompetent
     - unable to speak in public
     - unable to relate to normal people
     - fucking weird
     - an embarrassment that he was ever PM

     C’mon people. Can we just be honest for once? It is no good for this nation to go on pretending he didn’t rise about 40,000ft above his natural station in life. Let’s just heal ourselves and be open about it.

     

     John Mc

     13 Feb 13 at 8:12 pm
405. Swedish proposition: Send the elderly to Thailand – services are cheaper

     I had a chat with a British pensioner about this exact topic yesterday. If the British government found out he lived here, his pension wouldn’t be indexed.

     Why wouldn’t western governments be encouraging aged pensioners to emigrate if they wanted to? Surely they’d save a fortune on public health alone if more chose to.

     As it stands, they make it really hard for Age pensioners to move overseas.

     

     Yobbo

     13 Feb 13 at 8:15 pm
406. Swedish proposition: Send the elderly to Thailand – services are cheaper

     They are building retirement villages in Bali for the Japanese. I expect the next boom market will be for Australians.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     13 Feb 13 at 8:19 pm
407. Has there ever been a summer with more utterly pointless cricket played?

     At any time there are probably 3, maybe 4, countries capable of playing Test cricket worth watching or following. Everything else is just a circus performance for the sub-Continental bookies to make their rupees.

     

     H B Bear

     13 Feb 13 at 8:25 pm
408. Music to work by tonight – ’100 Must Have Movie Classics’ through the earbuds from the Kindle Fire. Good listening while entering financials

     

     Septimus

     13 Feb 13 at 8:28 pm
409. KRuddy owes a big vote of thanks to Howard – or more particularly Jeanette “Hyacinth Bucket” Howard, for refusing an orderly transition within the Liberal Party. It may not have stopped the “It’s time” factor but it wouldn’t have hurt.

     Future historians will look back on the entire KRudd-Gillard era with amazement. Australia hasn’t had a decent, economically competent, reform minded government for a decade now.

     

     H B Bear

     13 Feb 13 at 8:32 pm
410. Nappies and tampons.

     Catallaxy will be invited to The Lodge for the next mummy bloggers’ festival at this rate. Hope Sinc is ready for it.

     LOL sinc luvving it up with a bunch of eye rolling inner-city touchy feely bitter pop-leftist crones.

     That would be amusing.

     

     twostix

     13 Feb 13 at 8:46 pm
411. Yobbo:
     

     And what about the bloody Kangaroos, they were here before the Aborigines.

     Not according to the bible.

     I was unaware that the Bible even mentioned kangaroos.

     Yobbo again:
     

     The flood of Noah.

     Nope. No mention of Kangaroos there. Not even a bad try, Yobbo. Just your usual line of worthless crap.

     Want to try again?

     

     Mk50 of Brisbane

     13 Feb 13 at 8:48 pm
412. Eddystone, I have barely looked at that thread. Too many truly stupid (even brain dead) athiest comments. It gives them somewhere to gambol and vent their bile and spite, I guess.

     

     Mk50 of Brisbane

     13 Feb 13 at 8:51 pm
413. We can also start a ‘Convey of no confidence’

     uuummm, Motorcade of Menstruation.?

     

     Carpe Jugulum

     13 Feb 13 at 8:54 pm
414. Talking about GST and medical goods and services, the taxable nature of a good often depends on the way it was purchased. There are lots of things like nappies & exercise equipment which, if sold by a recognised medical practitioner for s medical purpose, are GST Free, while if just purchased by an individual, (or sold by a medical practitioner for a non-medical purpose) attract tax.

     Also if you approach a practitioner for a treatment, it is GST free, but if your health insurance company makes the appointment on your behalf, the service will attract GST. So really a health professional should be dissecting the nature every transaction made through their business.

     Like many other things, we can thank the Greens for making the whole thing far more complex then it needed to be.

     

     Tim

     13 Feb 13 at 9:03 pm
415. KRuddy owes a big vote of thanks to Howard – or more particularly Jeanette “Hyacinth Bucket” Howard, for refusing an orderly transition within the Liberal Party. It may not have stopped the “It’s time” factor but it wouldn’t have hurt.

     Costello would have not done better imo. The way he handled the leadership debacle, showed he was not leadership potential.

     

     Andrew

     13 Feb 13 at 9:04 pm
416. >Exactly the same technique let you vote for it twice; delete cookies and re-vote.

     Why do all that messing about? I once wrote a script to vote-stuff the carbon tax poll at the ‘your rights at work’ site. They kept resetting it, I would unleash it again. I got bored after a while though and let them be.

     I say this to ensure that people never really take online polls too seriously.

     

     brc

     13 Feb 13 at 9:07 pm
417. I was busy today..

     Just want to know if there were any leftoid troll attacks on the various threads so I can zero in.

     Thank

     JC did you check out William Bragg insisting that the carbon tax was a transfer, not a cost. That was on the climate change thread.

     I think it’s scarpered now but it put up a strong argument that we were all stupid for classifying the carbon tax as a cost.

     

     brc

     13 Feb 13 at 9:11 pm
418. Some of the conservative youtube channels are getting really good.

     Intellectual Froglegs
     Wild Bill
     Token Libertarian

     It’s like after the last election they stopped taking themselves so seriously, relaxed, embraced the nightmare and started taking the piss. The production values are getting better to.

     Good stuff.

     

     twostix

     13 Feb 13 at 9:15 pm
419. Costello would have not done better imo. The way he handled the leadership debacle, showed he was not leadership potential.

     Costello was the Liberals best parliamentary performer, routinely cutting up Rudd, Gillard and the rest of them. Howard did not allow his role to grow outside the confines of Treasurer, for obvious reasons.

     Ultimately Costello (and Cabinet) did not place enough pressure on Howard. Once they realised they needed to, it was too late.

     

     H B Bear

     13 Feb 13 at 9:56 pm
420. JC did you check out William Bragg insisting that the carbon tax was a transfer, not a cost.

     Yep, BRC. I drew and quartered the moron over that. Go take a looksee.

     It’s perhaps the most idiotic statement I’ve seen for a while.

     

     Jc

     13 Feb 13 at 10:03 pm
421. Nope. No mention of Kangaroos there. Not even a bad try, Yobbo. Just your usual line of worthless crap.

     It says all the animals of the earth, right?

     That means Kangaroos.

     

     Yobbo

     13 Feb 13 at 10:04 pm
422. J HOward is known as the best PM Of modern times, according to a recent survey somewhere but it sounds reasonable (saw it on A.Bolt site).

     I tend to think he was respected by Costello and the rest to the extent it was just hard to nudge him too much, even though it was time for him to move on.

     

     candy

     13 Feb 13 at 10:06 pm
423. Candy

     leaving politics aside, it was one of the best executives I’ve seen. Those guys, under Howard really knew how to execute policy well. He was a great Chairman of the board.

     

     Jc

     13 Feb 13 at 10:09 pm
424. “It says all the animals of the earth, right?”

     Noah was probably an ordinary farmer who got his chooks and geese and goats together, couple of cows perhaps, onto a boat, as proof of his trust in the Lord that there’d be a bit of a flood, and to place faith in God.

     No need to get technical.

     

     candy

     13 Feb 13 at 10:09 pm
425. They are building retirement villages in Bali for the Japanese. I expect the next boom market will be for Australians.

     IT
     Keep the ALP in Federal Parliament for another 10 years and I assume you mean we will be building retirement homes for the Indonesians.

     

     kelly liddle

     13 Feb 13 at 10:10 pm
426. I had a chat with a British pensioner about this exact topic yesterday.

     Dude!

     

     Jc

     13 Feb 13 at 10:10 pm
427. Sweet literalism.

     

     dover_beach

     13 Feb 13 at 10:11 pm
428. I wonder how Noah and his sons were able to manage. On the one hand, he would have had to allow the species to prey on each other as in the state of nature or else the carnivores would have starved to death on the ark. On the other hand, if it is true he only selected one mating pair of each species, then each lower level of the food chain would be extinct by lunchtime.

     

     Fisky

     13 Feb 13 at 10:12 pm
429. I dropped into the religion thread this morning.

     Some of the posters have gone full retard taken arguments to ridiculous lengths.

     It’s a jungle in there.

     It’s a remake of the thread of Doom.

     Believe it or not the thread of doom topic was about making E-transfers more efficient.

     

     Jc

     13 Feb 13 at 10:13 pm
430. Token, as a practising lawyer, I’m not a bush lawyer.

     Have you seen how New Zealand is a State of Australia in our constitution but it means jack shit?

     COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA CONSTITUTION ACT – CLAUSE 6
     Definitions

     “The Commonwealth” shall mean the Commonwealth of Australia as established under this Act.

     “The States” shall mean such of the colonies of New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia, including the northern territory of South Australia, as for the time being are parts of the Commonwealth, and such colonies or territories as may be admitted into or established by the Commonwealth as States; and each of such parts of the Commonwealth shall be called a State .

     “Original States” shall mean such States as are parts of the Commonwealth at its establishment.

     A preamble is an explanation or backgrounder to the legislation. Gone out of fashion these days, but useful for motherhood statements. These now appear in the long title to the Act.

     johanna – who said anything about effect? Some argued it would create a legal right to compensation, and I said BS. A preamble cannot of itself create a right as it is not a provision of the Act.

     What effect would it have?

     Well, it would symbolise our country being constituted on land occupied firstly by others.

     A symbolic gesture which has the effect of showing respect to Aboriginal people.

     It would continue reconciliation.

     You can ignore how they feel. You can say it is wrong. But as you say Token historical facts show a bunch of people came on to their lands and have acted as if they didn’t exist legally for a very long time. That builds a whole lot of resentment over generations.

     My personal view is that the British should have declared war on Aboriginals for killing a sailor, invaded and taken over. All legal and would have extinguished their land rights etc. Instead we got this no mans land definition of Australia not being civilised and a legal vacuum and it didn’t take much effort to show that was crap, so now we’re stuck with a mixture of land rights and no-one is happy.

     

     pete m

     13 Feb 13 at 10:14 pm
431. Late to the thread again.

     Okay.

     Hypothetical.

     All the non aboriginal people leave Australia. What will happen to the place?

     

     kae

     13 Feb 13 at 10:19 pm
432. Da Hairy Ape just got up from working on his ‘puter and said: Oh.

     What’s up, got something today to show me? I said, thinking it was some work thing or some invitation or some nice surprise for me. But no.

     He’s grabbed the TV remote. Aha. He’s just seen the online TV program I thought, and he’s going to put on that Keynes vs Hayek thing, which I had half-considered watching. We could have a little intellectual conversation. Nice. He’s flicking channels now.

     Champions League, he says. We’ll have it on in the background, he says.

     He’s still standing transfixed in front of it five minutes later.

     Some background, I mutter. I’ll just have a bath in the background, I say.
     Getting ready for Valentine’s Day in the background, I say.

     Falling on deaf ears tonight. But TV ad says problem of odd socks now sorted, solved forever. Brought to you direct by Lizzie’s Football Life in the Suburbs.

     It’s da World Game, Celtic and Juventis, he announces for my information as I make my getaway.

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     13 Feb 13 at 10:19 pm
433. Lurch is a brain dead nicompoop.

     Yes I love it how the moron makes a good succinct argument as to why there is bugger all relationship between spending on education and learning outcomes and then comes out with the bullshit about needing ‘a quantum of investment’. Please. Will a minister of the crown with an IQ over 25 stand up? Anyone?

     

     Skuter

     13 Feb 13 at 10:19 pm
434. Costello was the Liberals best parliamentary performer, routinely cutting up Rudd, Gillard and the rest of them. Howard did not allow his role to grow outside the confines of Treasurer, for obvious reasons.

     Ultimately Costello (and Cabinet) did not place enough pressure on Howard. Once they realised they needed to, it was too late.

     I agree that he was a great Parliamentary performer and Treasurer but that does not change the fact that he handled the Leadership issue like a child, making a big deal of something in the public that may or may not have happened. Even if ‘the deal’ did happen, why didn’t Costello talk to Howard about it at the time i.e. at around 2001 when he was supposed to take over? Costello never had near the numbers or the guts to win and they were not going to challenge a PM that had won FOUR elections and was the 2nd longest serving PM. Costello would have been a successful leader of the country and would have likely won in 2010 imo but I think the way he behaved was rather selfish and you can understand why Howard did not hand him the leadership at the end of 2006 after what he did.

     

     Andrew

     13 Feb 13 at 10:20 pm
435. Ahh.
     Soon the Macquarie will have:

     atone = financial compensation

     I’m surprised that they haven’t already got:

     sorry = financial compensation

     

     kae

     13 Feb 13 at 10:20 pm
436. Constitutional change is ridiculous.

     We should then recognise all our forebears, to be inclusive, y’know.

     Ad I said before, try my hypothetical. What would the result be?

     

     kae

     13 Feb 13 at 10:24 pm
437. Stick a bung in it, Sophie.

     

     kae

     13 Feb 13 at 10:34 pm
438. Bloody Snow Cone. No wonder my brain hurts.

     

     nilk

     13 Feb 13 at 10:40 pm
439. “Look at how in societies where islam is dominant and prominent how people are treated. Whether people are christians or apostates, or women or critical jounalists.”

     LOL I suspect that went straight over Snow Cone.

     

     nilk

     13 Feb 13 at 10:41 pm
440. LOL PWND!

     Paraphrasing: Snow Cone: you have trouble with young Moroccans, who were born in the Netherlands, are you suggesting they be stripped of their citizenship?

     Geert: Yes.

     Snow Cone:….. crickets.

     

     nilk

     13 Feb 13 at 10:50 pm
441. You a Wilders fan nilk?

     

     Andrew

     13 Feb 13 at 10:59 pm
442. Fan? Jones had a problem laying a punch on Weelders.

     It is an absolute disgrace that the New Fascists have bullied many organisations into denying a venue for Weelders.

     Are you a fan of these fascists Andrew?

     

     Lazlo

     13 Feb 13 at 11:06 pm
443. No, I hate the people that oppose Wilders’ right to speech, but I don’t agree with his views on many topics.

     

     Andrew

     13 Feb 13 at 11:07 pm
444. So, you will fight to the death for his right to be heard?

     My parents’ generation died for this right.

     

     Lazlo

     13 Feb 13 at 11:10 pm
445. So, you will fight to the death for his right to be heard?

     My parents’ generation died for this right.

     I will always fight for freedom of speech. If we don’t have our freedom to express our views on an issue, society will often fall into anarchy.

     

     Andrew

     13 Feb 13 at 11:12 pm
446. Andrew, I think the threat is autocracy, not anarchy, as in Oceania.

     

     Lazlo

     13 Feb 13 at 11:14 pm
447. “A symbolic gesture which has the effect of showing respect to Aboriginal people.”

     Eh? Why are they due any special respect? They wandered about the joint doing nothing useful with it for themselves and lost it to a more powerful force (which is what happened all around the world back then).

     They were primitive separate tribes with no local, regional or national cohesion – they didn’t “own” Australia, they just happened to be here, much like the mob that preceded them.

     “A symbolic gesture” is about as useful as “Three cheers for the ref.”

     “It would continue reconciliation.”

     Yeah, poster boy Anthony Mundine will never be “reconciled” and he lost nothing, absolutely nothing two hundred years ago. The same goes for Yanner, Dodson, the white fella black fella from Tasmania and Comrade Our Nova (who may get reconciled much better than her peers soon – will she nobly share it, I wonder? With her yet to be revealed tribe?).

     They’ve gleefully accepted the loot and the special leg up into health, education, suspended sentences, Centrelink – I’d say they ought to be pretty much reconciled by now. 2 or 3% of the population has had probably $50 billion shoveled at it during my adult life and still they’ve failed to make a go of it.

     “continue reconciliation”? Twaddle. They got a “sorry” for no good reason, that’ll do.

     “That builds a whole lot of resentment over generations.”

     Too bad. Where’s the gratitude for what they’ve got for nothing which they never had a hope of creating themselves?

     The resentment “over generations” since is a product of the thoroughly distorted picture that has been painted for the young by their indolent “elders”, uneducated teachers and unscrupulous consultants with a vested interest in refuelling their gravy train.

     

     Mick Gold Coast QLD

     13 Feb 13 at 11:15 pm
448. No, I hate the people that oppose Wilders’ right to speech, but I don’t agree with his views on many topics.

     Me either. Apart from wanting Islam outlawed which is indeed a highly sensible suggestion, he’s just another European social democrat.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     13 Feb 13 at 11:17 pm
449. Let’s hope we have a National Sorry Day in 20 years times. WE can then reconcile the Labor Govt for a stolen generation of economic prosperity that was taken away by those cronies with their regulation and taxes.

     

     Andrew

     13 Feb 13 at 11:19 pm
450. Me either. Apart from wanting Islam outlawed which is indeed a highly sensible suggestion, he’s just another European social democrat.

     Isn’t that against the libertarian creed that many on here preach?

     

     Andrew

     13 Feb 13 at 11:20 pm
451. Apart from wanting Islam outlawed which is indeed a highly sensible suggestion,

     Do you think we can get Bob Carr to lobby the UN on this?

     

     Lazlo

     13 Feb 13 at 11:21 pm
452. It says all the animals of the earth, right?

     Not in the older known versions it doesn’t (‘creatures of the land’).

     And (oddly enough) these older versions also make no mention of kangaroos.

     Secondly, unlike the specious rubbish regarding the unholy koran, the bible has for millennia been known to have been written by men, to contain errors of translation, and to use parable.

     So no roos for you, eh? Indeed, you seem to have a roo or ninety running loose in the top paddock.

     

     Mk50 of Brisbane

     13 Feb 13 at 11:21 pm
453. I’ve still got work to do, so am signing off. I leave you with…
     This work of… genius.

     

     nilk

     13 Feb 13 at 11:22 pm
454. Now come on, Mick.

     In that 40,000 years they did invent a stick.

     

     Mk50 of Brisbane

     13 Feb 13 at 11:22 pm
455. Oh, and Andrew, I am absolutely a Wilders fan. I’m going to see him talk on Tuesday here in Melbournistan. Looking very forward to it.

     

     nilk

     13 Feb 13 at 11:23 pm
456. Andrew, you are in the right place, chain yanking aside..

     

     Lazlo

     13 Feb 13 at 11:23 pm
457. You can ignore how they feel. You can say it is wrong. But as you say Token historical facts show a bunch of people came on to their lands and have acted as if they didn’t exist legally for a very long time

     Shouldn’t it be NSW, Victoria, SA, TAS, WA and QLD that the aboriginals are pestering and who are changing their constitutions?

     What the hell does the commonwealth government and the legal document that allows it to exist have to do with any of that?

     Also pre-european settlement “historical facts” show “a bunch of people” coming on to their lands and “acting as if they didn’t exist legally for a very long time” was the default state of things here between aboriginal “nations” for 20,000 years. How many genocides were committed by aboriginals tribes against others? When will the current aboriginals atone for the hard hardheartedness of their forefathers to the losers of those territorial battles? I know that down at Broulee on the south coast NSW there was a tribe on tribe massacre post settlement.

     Will the descendents of that tribe acknowledge and atone for their forebears guilt?

     

     twostix

     13 Feb 13 at 11:25 pm
458. Oh, and Andrew, I am absolutely a Wilders fan. I’m going to see him talk on Tuesday here in Melbournistan. Looking very forward to it.

     Good for you. Some Dutch friends have told me some interesting things about the man.

     Thanks for the reminder, Lazlo

     

     Andrew

     13 Feb 13 at 11:26 pm
459. Mk50

     They have been fire farming in the eastern continent for many years, that is how they survived, plus sea food. Noble savages? Not.

     

     Lazlo

     13 Feb 13 at 11:26 pm
460. What is the cut off point with the indigenous thing..can descendants of the Picts in Scotland start suing and claim all the land off the Celts and Danes??

     

     Max49

     13 Feb 13 at 11:56 pm
461. Fisky

     Noah “how did he manage”?

     Sustainability, dude. Sustainability.

     It’s a bloody farcial money making tertiary educational industry.

     

     kae

     14 Feb 13 at 12:00 am
462. They have been fire farming in the eastern continent for many years, that is how they survived, plus sea food. Noble savages? Not.

     It is taught in the NSW curriculum that the evil invaders of the first fleet a few months after arrival so overwhelmed the “natural resources” of, well, all of Australia that there was a food shortage for the blessed, gentle, environmentally sustainable Eora tribe.

     That is, so brittle and on such a knife edge and so unadaptable was that tribe that just 1500 people arriving in some shitty bay on the 3000km long eastern coast of the continent allegedly sent them to the wall almost immediately despite having 3000 acres per person of land available at the time.

     The curriculmn clearly implies that the Eora society was superior, being environmentally sustainable and in tune with nature and all (no it doesn’t mention the population control measures employed by the various tribes to ensure that “sustainability” or the non-desirability of living in a society that immediately goes to starvation if 1500 extra people move onto the continent).

     

     twostix

     14 Feb 13 at 12:01 am
463. All is forgiven. What we have here is a Reconciliation.

     THE union at the centre of last year’s 16-day Grocon CBD dispute has been welcomed back into State Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews’s faction of the ALP.

     By joining the Socialist Left, the CFMEU will gain influence over party policy-making and pre-selections.

     Last month the Socialist Left faction, which controls almost half the delegates at the ALP State Conference, voted to readmit the CFMEU’s construction and general division headed by new leader John Setka.

     

     Gab

     14 Feb 13 at 12:06 am
464. Isn’t that against the libertarian creed that many on here preach?

     I don’t think so. It should be our job to destroy anything that’s aim is to destroy freedom. It’s for the same reason I would have no problem publicly executing Nicola Roxon without trial.

     

     Infidel tiger

     14 Feb 13 at 12:07 am
465. MK50

     … they invented a stick…

     Yeah.
     Um, which one? Spear, nulla-nulla, woomera, boomarang.

     This is complex inventing…

     

     kae

     14 Feb 13 at 12:13 am
466. With absolutely no government regulation for over 30,000 years you would think they could have at least built a house with walls and windows.

     

     Splatacrobat

     14 Feb 13 at 12:23 am
467. This is complex inventing…

     Thats why it took 40 thousand years…

     

     Max49

     14 Feb 13 at 12:25 am
468. Ah, Splat and Max, thanks for the laughs!

     

     kae

     14 Feb 13 at 12:33 am
469. “publicly executing Nicola Roxon without trial.”

     The execution is not the fun.
     The fun is the trial, when you know and they know the outcome is fixed, but they keep hoping.
     Just ask Ian Macdonald.
     ICAC hearing was couple days bloody fun.
     More to come in court.
     Whereas….
     The Obama Bin Laden tap tap two bullets was just a moment of fun.

     

     WhaleHunt Fun

     14 Feb 13 at 12:34 am
470. PS

     I heard someone being interviewed on ABC about something and he actually used the word “specificity”. Aieee!

     

     kae

     14 Feb 13 at 12:35 am
471. “Eora society was superior, being environmentally sustainable”

     BS. The bloody place is full of freaking Eucalypts because the dickheads keep burning every bloody thing because they are too lazy to farm.
     The flora changed massively because of their vandalism and they ate every bloody thing bigger than a red roo into extinction.
     Bloody eco-vandals.
     Send the buggers home. They can go back and bugger up Timor and south east India.

     

     WhaleHunt Fun

     14 Feb 13 at 12:39 am
472. US, Canada, NZ have all come to terms with their aboriginal peoples, but here we seem stuck on stupid

     Pete, the preamble to the US Constitution does not specifically single out Indians as superior beings. In fact the Declaration of Independence specifically states that all men are created equal. No race is “more equal” by dint of having lived there the longest. That would necessarily imply that the most recent arrivals are the lowest caste of citizen.

     

     sdog

     14 Feb 13 at 12:39 am
473. I think CL’s right: the leaker in TA’s office is probably Peta Credlin:

     UP to 100 dams could be built across the country to prevent floods, fuel power stations and irrigate a food boom to feed 120 million people across the Asia Pacific region, under plans being considered by Opposition leader Tony Abbott.

     In the second high-level policy leak in a week, The Daily Telegraph has obtained a copy of the Coalition’s draft policy discussion paper for water management of Australia.

     Included in the list of dam projects, which the Coalition will consider, is a $500 million plan to raise Warragamba Dam in Sydney, and new dams for NSW in the Hunter Valley, Central Highlands and along the Lachlan River.

     The last major new dam built in NSW was Splitrock – in northern NSW in 1987.

     The majority of the dams would be in northern Australia, where they would be used to irrigate arid zones for agriculture and more than double Australia’s food production.

     Claiming the environmental lobby had been to blame for the lack of new water infrastructure, the report from the Coalition’s water taskforce endorses a major dam-building program to “help feed 120 million people and beyond over the coming decades”.

     I’m desperately trying to think of the downsides, but there aren’t any: vision will play well in 2013 after the last three years of disgrace, national humiliation, incompetence and waste.

     

     Tom

     14 Feb 13 at 12:39 am
474. We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

     That’s it. That’s the entire preamble of the US Constitution.

     As Johanna aptly points out above, “The Constitution is not a documentation of progressive historical events, to be updated according to the latest view of history. It’s not like a Facebook page.“

     Quite so.

     

     sdog

     14 Feb 13 at 12:42 am
475. With absolutely no government regulation for over 30,000 years you would think they could have at least built a house with walls and windows.

     Au contraire, they lived in the prototypical commie paradise and so predictably nobody ever bothered to do anything more than the minimum necessary to survive.

     

     twostix

     14 Feb 13 at 12:46 am
476. Wilders made Jones look like a rank amateur.

     

     Tiny Dancer

     14 Feb 13 at 12:46 am
477. In the second high-level policy leak in a week, The Daily Telegraph has obtained a copy of the Coalition’s draft policy discussion paper for water management of Australia.

     Well now.

     That’s getting a little obvious Abbott.

     Great plan though.

     

     twostix

     14 Feb 13 at 12:47 am
478. It’s for the same reason I would have no problem publicly executing Nicola Roxon without trial.

     She’s prima facie guilty of shitting dysenterically on some of the basic precepts of Western society, true, but a trial is necessary in order to document the enormity of her intellectual diarrhoea and the willingness of her superiors to let it continue. Then they can hang (metaphoricallly if not literally) for the same offence.

     

     perturbed

     14 Feb 13 at 12:52 am
479. Meanwhile, back at the Bandidos clubrooms in Canberra, gang leaders desperately try to devise a plan to further pillage the national treasury, but find themselves hemmed in by threats of violence from the states, the mining industry and the population at large:

     THE Gillard government will stare down calls for a rewrite of the mining tax from the Greens and independents, despite growing concern within Labor’s backbench over its failure to meet its revenue forecasts.

     Negotiations will continue with the states over changes to the royalties regime aimed at taking away the states’ ability to hike the tax at the expense of the commonwealth, although senior government figures are pessimistic about achieving a resolution before the election.

     Resources Minister Martin Ferguson moved to quell a threatened revolt from big miners over calls for the minerals resource rent tax to be redesigned after it raised just $126 million in its first six months – for a contribution of $88m to the budget because miners can use their MRRT payments to reduce their company tax – compared with a $2 billion forecast for 12 months.

     After the Minerals Council of Australia took advertisements declaring the industry had paid $130bn in tax since 2000 and that “enough is enough” on talk of increasing the taxes resources company pay, Mr Ferguson told parliament: “The government has not walked away, in any way, from its agreement entered into with the mining industry on 2 July, 2010, and announced publicly . . . More importantly, as the Prime Minister and the Treasurer have clearly stated . . . we have no intention of walking away from the agreement.”

     Mr Ferguson said negotiations would continue with state and territory governments to ensure they did not have an incentive to increase royalties on coal and iron ore, as recommended in the policy transition report written by Mr Ferguson and former BHP Billiton chairman Don Argus.

     

     Tom

     14 Feb 13 at 12:55 am
480. How long till the govt backbenchers go absolutely nuts and starting carving up outside of the control of the Scottish turd and the lying slapper? Can’t be too long.

     

     Tiny Dancer

     14 Feb 13 at 12:58 am
481. These pricks hate anyone getting ahead.
     Anyone who votes for them is a rusted on brain dead shit eater.

     

     Tiny Dancer

     14 Feb 13 at 1:04 am
482. leaving politics aside, it was one of the best executives I’ve seen. Those guys, under Howard really knew how to execute policy well. He was a great Chairman of the board.

     So very true – notwithstanding my problems with some of what Howard did and espoused. It seems like a lifetime ago that federal governments (even a few Labor ones) had a certain gravitas and professional pride. Rudd and Gillard have caused unbelievable destruction. Just ponder the absence of anyone even remotely comparable to Peter Walsh. It’s an incredible decline.

     

     C.L.

     14 Feb 13 at 1:05 am
483. What a pity ShakeMyHead.com and Fauxfacts, as committed government partners, can’t feed the intrigues about another leadership challenge swirling around Canberra. Oh, well, better hop into the popcorn and finger food — the show’a about to begin again:

     A FINAL showdown between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd could come within weeks, as tensions in the Labor caucus rose yesterday over the leaking of a letter critical of the former PM.

     Supporters of Mr Rudd yesterday accused the Prime Minister’s office of circulating a damaging letter from a member of the public to the media and among the caucus.

     Claiming it was in retaliation for Mr Rudd’s public attacks over the failed mining tax, several Rudd backers claimed there was now a push within his ranks to “finish the thing before the end of March”.

     After today, Parliament is not due to return for a full sitting until March 12.

     Mr Rudd has been privately counselled by some of his key backers to pull back from his public campaign for fear it could spark another showdown before they are ready.

     And a source close to the PM said Ms Gillard would not rise to the bait and had no intention of goading the former PM while she still had the numbers behind her.

     But many in Parliament believe another challenge to Ms Gillard’s leadership is being hatched.

     MPs have been seen openly coming and going from Mr Rudd’s office this week.

     One Rudd supporter yesterday admitted that the issue was coming to a head but wanted to give the appearance that “nothing was going on”.

     “There is nothing happening, no counting, nothing going on,” they said.

     “It may be true that no one has switched allegiance this week.

     “But it would be fair to say though that a lot of MPs are becoming increasingly despondent about their prospects after the disasters of the past few weeks.”

     Another MP, who supports Mr Rudd, said: “Every day is a blow, every day there is something that dents the confidence of members in the leadership…caucus members are becoming increasingly aware of the budget problems we have got in an election year.”

     An MP who backed Mr Rudd in the leadership ballot last year said caucus members were “shaking their heads” over the $126 million return on the mining tax and reports yesterday that a $4 billion hole could be left in the Budget when the carbon tax moves to an ETS if the price plunges, as predicted.

     

     Tom

     14 Feb 13 at 1:07 am
484. Ouch…

     Niki Savaa:

     IF the Pope can resign for the good of his church, it should be possible for Wayne Swan to resign for the good of his government.

     Lady has a point.

     

     C.L.

     14 Feb 13 at 1:10 am
485. Dogs Like Riding in Cars. Good night.

     

     sdog

     14 Feb 13 at 1:11 am
486. Within 4 weeks the parliamentary ALP will start to eat their own…they cant help themselves..

     

     Max49

     14 Feb 13 at 1:11 am
487. On Nikki Saava equating Wayne Swan with the Pope, see where you went wrong?

     

     Lloyd

     14 Feb 13 at 1:17 am
488. An ingenius theme, very well crafted, Spot.

     

     

     C.L.

     14 Feb 13 at 1:22 am
489. A fantasic piece by Greg Sheridan on Benedict XVI and the future of the papacy.

     Snippets:

     We should be honest about this. There is either traditional Catholic doctrine or there is no Catholic Church. If essential truths the church has taught for 2000 years are not true, there is no reason, apart perhaps from cultural nostalgia or the desire to control church property, for anyone to be a Catholic…

     When commentators ask the church to modernise, they are often asking it to abandon its central beliefs. But then there is no value to the church, which exists to remind humanity of God, his truths, his gifts and his obligations. Society often doesn’t like the obligations. That’s the basis of a powerful dialogue.

     He names the four men most likely – and most talented.

     RTWT.

     

     C.L.

     14 Feb 13 at 1:26 am
490. Thanks for the vid, Spot. Just emailed it to family in US: the little kids will love it.

     

     Tom

     14 Feb 13 at 1:27 am
491. Potemkin’s Village

     He who helps the guilty… here

     

     Grigory Potemkin

     14 Feb 13 at 1:51 am
492. Well done, Grigory. Your connecting indigenous alcohol abuse with the constitutional preamble is a major improvement on yukking it up over Zyklon-B.

     

     Fisky

     14 Feb 13 at 1:58 am
493. The dysfunctional average has been one major Gillard government stuff-up per calendar month, but with all the policy chickens coming home to roost, I’m losing track of the stuffups in February alone — Nova Peris, the collapse of the asylum seeker homestay program and now this in one of the Lying Slapper’s pet areas:

     THE federal government’s laptop program was on the brink of collapse last night after it failed to hand over more than $63m in funding to the state’s public, independent and Catholic schools.

     A total of 610 technology specialists – employed by schools to repair and service the laptops – were told by email yesterday they would be sacked if the money was not received by February 28, resulting in a loss of IT support for students for the rest of the year.

     But just hours after being contacted by The Daily Telegraph, federal Education Minister Peter Garrett announced the government would make a $31.5m payment to NSW schools – granting the technology officers a reprieve.

     The laptop program is the jewel in the crown of the $2.4b Digital Education Revolution promised by Kevin Rudd during the 2007 federal election campaign, and has delivered almost 1 million laptops, iPads and desktop computers to every student in years 9 to 12 nationally.

     NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said the failure of the commonwealth to make the full payment would end the program one year earlier than agreed.

     

     Tom

     14 Feb 13 at 2:18 am
494. When commentators ask the church to modernise, they are often asking it to abandon its central beliefs.

     Fair enough. But the question (to be answered by Catholics) is where you draw the line over what is central (remember core promises?). Over the centuries, the Catholic Church has changed enormously, and some of its today’s positions would have been unthinkable a few hundred years ago (and maybe would have been condemned as abandoning central beliefs). Catholics who want change believe that the change they are advocating is not about central belief.

     

     Boris

     14 Feb 13 at 2:24 am
495. uuummm, Motorcade of Menstruation.?

     No. Menstrual cycle.

     

     Deadman

     14 Feb 13 at 3:27 am
496. Not in the older known versions it doesn’t (‘creatures of the land’).
     And (oddly enough) these older versions also make no mention of kangaroos.
     Secondly, unlike the specious rubbish regarding the unholy koran, the bible has for millennia been known to have been written by men, to contain errors of translation, and to use parable.
     So no roos for you, eh? Indeed, you seem to have a roo or ninety running loose in the top paddock.

     Wow, that’s some gotcha.

     

     Abu Chowdah

     14 Feb 13 at 3:36 am
497. Lurch – “You rang?”

     

     H B Bear

     14 Feb 13 at 4:20 am
498. Anti-coalition reporter Marius Benson interviewed liability Greg Hunt re the “100 dams”, and Hunt fluffed along poorly. It only lacked the cock crowing.

     

     Blogstrop

     14 Feb 13 at 6:54 am
499. But the question (to be answered by Catholics) is where you draw the line over what is central (remember core promises?).

     The content of the Nicene/Apostles’ Creed is central. Everything else, including whether the clergy shall be celibate or entirely male, or whether married couples should have the power to limit their offspring, that does not directly contradict something which came out of Christ’s mouth, is IMO negotiable.

     

     perturbed

     14 Feb 13 at 6:54 am
500. Wait a minute. It was a soft cock crowing, sort of.

     

     Blogstrop

     14 Feb 13 at 6:56 am
501. Jennifer Morbelli Is Laid To Rest

     See also, Questions Still Surround Morbelli Tragedy

     Absolutely tragic. Where is the media on this one? Where’s Gal-Qaeda?

     Hit the links within the first post, especially those to Jill Stanek & Stacy McCain, for more.

     

     sdog

     14 Feb 13 at 8:26 am
502. Swan expected people to believe a volatile tax could fund recurrent spending of $15bn, that he could rustle up another $15bn to pay for Gonski and the National Disability Insurance Scheme and provide a surplus.

     He got away with it for a while. No longer.

     The goose is an innumerate, industrial grade imbecile and national disgrace.

     Quite frankly he should be arrested and gaoled.

     P.S. Any bets on the actual deficit for 2012-13? I’m predicting at least $20 billion.

     

     Rabz

     14 Feb 13 at 8:40 am
503. Link to the Savva piece above.

     

     Rabz

     14 Feb 13 at 8:41 am
504. Finally, Combet and the Climate Change Authority admit they’re living in cloud cuckoo land.

     

     Tom

     14 Feb 13 at 9:08 am
505. Finally, Combet and the Climate Change Authority admit they’re living in cloud cuckoo land.

     These idiots cost us something like $90 million per year yet not one of them can tell us by how much the CO2 tax will lower global temperature.

     That the press hasn’t held them to account is a disgrace.

     

     jupes

     14 Feb 13 at 9:13 am
506. The zombie fuckwittery at ShakeMyHead.com spent three months last year in a highly unethical and unsuccessful attempt to destroy Fairfax Radio’s main Sydney commercial rival and ratings king Alan Jones. Now they’re going after the equally popular Ray Hadley. None of the stories then and now contain an acknowledgement that Fairfax owns 2GB’s main competitor, 2UE. Disgraceful.

     

     Tom

     14 Feb 13 at 9:28 am
507. Tom 14 Feb 13 at 9:28 am

     Fairfax Radio will go the way of SMH.

     

     stackja

     14 Feb 13 at 9:40 am
508. sdog 14 Feb 13 at 8:26 am

     Inconvenient stories do not get mentioned like the usual accepted ‘truth’.

     

     stackja

     14 Feb 13 at 9:43 am
509. That Savva piece is great.

     Swanno is a classic example of Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord’s stupid and diligent class — he should not be entrusted with any responsibility

     

     duncanm

     14 Feb 13 at 9:52 am
510. Not in the older known versions it doesn’t (‘creatures of the land’).
     And (oddly enough) these older versions also make no mention of kangaroos.

     How did Kangaroos survive the flood then?

     

     Yobbo

     14 Feb 13 at 9:53 am
511. How did Kangaroos survive the flood then? An excellent question and one that has tormented me for many years when examining my religion.

     

     Gab

     14 Feb 13 at 9:58 am
512. Rabz @ 8.40am

     Any bets on the actual deficit for 2012-13? I’m predicting at least $20 billion.

     I’ve been thinking $15 billion plus. But if the ‘off-budget’ NBN debacle is included, then over $20 billion seems right.

     

     Septimus

     14 Feb 13 at 10:02 am
513. US, Canada, NZ have all come to terms with their aboriginal peoples, but here we seem stuck on stupid

     Jeez – I don’t know about the Yanks and Kiwis, but a recent theme at Canada’s SmallDeadAnimals.com has been the ructions with the indigenous activists under the #IdleNoMore banner. They seem to prefer First Nations as the handle over there.

     Here are a few searches – every time I see one of their reports on #IdleNoMore, I am minded to see it as a near mirror image of what is happening here.

     I love Kate’s all-purpose irony headline for the grievance industry

     “Why is there Always a Big Screen TV ?”

     read and you will understand.

     

     Myrrdin Seren

     14 Feb 13 at 10:23 am
514. I am happy that the Coalition is looking at building more dams. None of this desalination crap.

     http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/tony-abbotts-bold-water-plan-leaked/story-e6freuy9-1226577466336

     

     Andrew

     14 Feb 13 at 10:27 am
515. How did Kangaroos survive the flood then?

     God’s roos bounce on water plus a few more survived on Mount Kosciuszko

     

     JamesK

     14 Feb 13 at 10:28 am
516. What is odd that the policy has been leaked again. Someone is clearly undermining the party.

     

     Andrew

     14 Feb 13 at 10:32 am
517. Septimus, I’m thinking we won’t know the extent of the damage until an audit is conducted after the election.

     

     Rabz

     14 Feb 13 at 10:42 am
518. What is odd that the policy has been leaked again. Someone is clearly undermining the party.

     I don’t know. Could very well just be a series of Clayton’s announcements.

     

     DriftForge

     14 Feb 13 at 10:50 am
519. Posted in the wrong thread earlier.

     Alene Composta’s publisher and moose knuckle aficionado, Jonathan Green, tries to stick his finger in the dyke on Your ALPBC (courtesy of Mr Ann Summers and The Dumb of course).

     Expect another six months of this as Ol’ Leathery, Jon Paine, Snow Cone and the usual suspects hit the hustings.

     

     H B Bear

     14 Feb 13 at 11:07 am
520. Fair enough. But the question (to be answered by Catholics) is where you draw the line over what is central (remember core promises?). Over the centuries, the Catholic Church has changed enormously, and some of its today’s positions would have been unthinkable a few hundred years ago (and maybe would have been condemned as abandoning central beliefs). Catholics who want change believe that the change they are advocating is not about central belief.

     First of all, Catholics don’t have to answer your questions.

     Second, name all the ‘positions’ today that are different to yesteryear’s.

     Third, everything the Catholic Church holds to be true is ‘central.’

     Fourth – no, the gender of the priesthood is not negotiable.

     

     C.L.

     14 Feb 13 at 11:28 am
521. Someone is clearly undermining the party.

     Or, two can play at the “stream of distractions” game?

     

     blogstrop

     14 Feb 13 at 11:33 am
522. Humphrey, I tried manfully to read that Jonathan Green piece. However it not only contained, but was founded on such an impenetrable wall of stupidity, powered by some sort of drug-addled moral relativism, that I was defeated and was again moved to lament the fact that the ABC, which employs him, now sees itself primarily as a political organisation devoted to perpetuating itself and the government that makes it possible.

     

     Tom

     14 Feb 13 at 12:02 pm
523. Fair enough. But the question (to be answered by Catholics) is where you draw the line over what is central (remember core promises?)

     If some one wants to start another church then they are welcome to. But they cannot use the title Catholic.

     C.L. 14 Feb 13 at 11:28 am

     Yes beliefs are central.

     

     stackja

     14 Feb 13 at 12:05 pm
524. Apropos of nothing, but reminded by Gab’s latest gravatar, the latest iteration of the Lara Croft story has been penned by Rhianna Pratchett, Terry Pratchett’s daughter.

     

     Cold-Hands

     14 Feb 13 at 12:07 pm
525. MPs’ legal expenses to be covered

     

     stackja

     14 Feb 13 at 12:08 pm
526. Tom – sorry about that.

     I cannot see how the ALPBC can survive an Abbott government without some form of radical surgery. Howard tried incremental change and failed. Time to take the machete to it.

     

     H B Bear

     14 Feb 13 at 12:19 pm
527. Parents Guide for Profanity: Greg Combet. Sent to the naughty corner.

     

     stackja

     14 Feb 13 at 12:22 pm
528. What is odd that the policy has been leaked again. Someone is clearly undermining the party.

     I don’t think its about undermining the Liberal party. Its about protecting their votes from the Katter party. This way they get to have a lot of PR around the policy without ever having to release the policy, and thus never actually have to promise to do it making it easy to not follow through when in government.

     

     Chris

     14 Feb 13 at 12:23 pm
529. I tried manfully to read that Jonathan Green piece. However it not only contained, but was founded on such an impenetrable wall of stupidity, powered by some sort of drug-addled moral relativism, that I was defeated…

     Bluddee hell – I actually managed to read the whole incoherent agglomeration of lunatic ravings.

     Next up – a barkin’ betty piece in the silly moaning herald…

     

     Rabz

     14 Feb 13 at 12:33 pm
530. Can anyone point me to an article that tests Ricardian equivalence in relation to the Stimulus package and increase in govt debt?

     

     Econocrat

     14 Feb 13 at 12:38 pm
531. Cops in the communist pig state of Victoria do world’s best practice Stasi-style spying on the masses with photographic cash registers:

     IF you thought NSW traffic cops were sneaky, have a look at the new tactics used by their Victorian counterparts to catch speeding motorists.

     Heavily camouflaged police armed with radar guns are hiding in bushes and have proven highly successful in trapping speedsters, particularly motorcyclists. So successful has the trial been in the Yarra Ranges, police plan to extend the tactics through other parts of Victoria.

     The tactics used in Operation Surreptitious were revealed when a motorist fined by the “sneak” police mounted his own counter-surveillance.

     He returned to where he had been fined and then took his own photos of the cops in action.

     “They were disguised and hiding in thick bush to nab people as they came down a hill on the only overtaking spot for miles around,” the motorist said.

     The officers were dressed in combat-style military uniforms.

     Victorian police justified the tactic, saying it saved lives and would continue and even be extended to other parts of the state.

     NSW motorists can breathe easy – police here have no intention of employing similar tactics.

     “We don’t see the need for it and won’t be adopting anything like it. Our radar guns have a sufficiently long enough range for what is needed to detect speeding motorists,” Assistant Commissioner John Hartley, NSW traffic services commander, said.

     

     Tom

     14 Feb 13 at 12:40 pm
532. Obviously the Victorian cops have eradicated all the property crimes and assaults from the streets of that crime free paradise and can now move on to the stuff police do best – revenue raise.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     14 Feb 13 at 12:43 pm
533. Me either. Apart from wanting Islam outlawed which is indeed a highly sensible suggestion, he’s just another European social democrat.

     Isn’t that against the libertarian creed that many on here preach?

     I’ll let Bernard Lewis answer that question.

     Andrew, listen to this Uncommon Knowledge episode where Peter Robinson discusses the Islamic world and its approach to Liberty with Bernard Lewis and Norman Podheretz.

     They discuss why the Islamic/Arab approach to politics is different to the Judeo/Christian approach.

     Lewis underlines how, by adopting values from the statist Nazi/Communist ideologies, the Islamic government structure has lost its historic decentralised structure which gave it much of its strength.

     

     Token

     14 Feb 13 at 12:49 pm
534. Purchased my own hosting so my blog has moved.

     http://thaiyobbo.com/

     

     Yobbo

     14 Feb 13 at 12:49 pm
535. IF you thought NSW traffic cops were sneaky, have a look at the new tactics used by their Victorian counterparts to catch speeding motorists.

     Heavily camouflaged police armed with radar guns are hiding in bushes and have proven highly successful in trapping speedsters, particularly motorcyclists. So successful has the trial been in the Yarra Ranges, police plan to extend the tactics through other parts of Victoria.

     Remember when they pretended that catching speeding motorists was about safety?

     I’m glad they have dispensed with that BS.

     

     Token

     14 Feb 13 at 12:53 pm
536. The officers were dressed in combat-style military uniforms.

     Wankers.

     Yet more evidence (as if any was needed) that both flaillieu and o’barrell must be sacked.

     I’ve cited o’barrell as NSW cops do employ similar revenue raising tactics.

     

     Rabz

     14 Feb 13 at 1:01 pm
537. Teachers are striking yet again in Victoria, asking for more money off Ted. State Labor MP’s are also supprting the strike against performance pay yet Federal Labor actually supports performance pay. Oops!

     http://www.alp.org.au/agenda/education—training/performance-pay/

     

     Andrew

     14 Feb 13 at 1:08 pm
538. I’ve cited o’barrell as NSW cops do employ similar revenue raising tactics.

     The “average speed zones” on the federal highway are going to be the worst. They will inevitably be switched on for cars then much hilarity will ensue.

     I noticed on my last trip that trucks are now regularly doing 110+ in between the zones and working together to aggressively block overtaking lanes in order to make up the time they lose in the zones and to prevent slow people from getting in front of them.

     Unintended consequences for the win.

     I also noticed that right behind at least one of the average speed camera locations that ends a zone they’ve stuck a normal speed camera that has no sign.

     Between all that, the miles of endless roadworks were no roadworks are being done within 50km, the absolute tools who can’t drive on a highway (no don’t do 90 then speed up to 120 in the overtaking lane when we all try and get around you) it is easily the worst.road.ever.

     

     twostix

     14 Feb 13 at 1:17 pm
539. The officers were dressed in combat-style military uniforms.

     Victorian police justified the tactic, saying it saved lives and would continue and even be extended to other parts of the state.

     What a bunch of wankers.

     I am so sick of the ‘saving lives’ mantra being used to justify anything and everything that erodes freedom and extends the police state. If insisting on liberty means there will be a certain death toll because of foregone opportunities to tyrannically intervene, so be it.

     

     C.L.

     14 Feb 13 at 1:18 pm
540. No media fallout for Obama over the Libya embassy slaughterhouse but…

     Republicans deny Mr Rubio damaged his future prospects, despite the water sipping…

     Another Republican strategist, Ana Navarro, says there has been “zero damage to Marco from the water bottle thing”.

     Republican star in hot water over drinks break.

     

     C.L.

     14 Feb 13 at 1:27 pm
541. OMG! He had a sip of water! Millions will not vote for him in future because of this heinous act.

     

     Gab

     14 Feb 13 at 1:30 pm
542. Republicans deny Mr Rubio damaged his future prospects, despite the water sipping…

     Fuck me.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     14 Feb 13 at 1:31 pm
543. I don’t know why the eunuchs in Victoria haven’t rioted in the streets over the speed camera regime in that State years ago.

     Boiled frogs.

     

     H B Bear

     14 Feb 13 at 1:34 pm
544. Boiled frogs.

     That’s it.

     

     C.L.

     14 Feb 13 at 1:35 pm
545. I also noticed that right behind at least one of the average speed camera locations that ends a zone they’ve stuck a normal speed camera that has no sign.

     Whereabouts is the camera stix? There’s only one average speed zone that I’m aware of and it’s on the feral highway heading south.

     

     Rabz

     14 Feb 13 at 1:37 pm
546. Question: Why can’t Baillieu just enforce the pay rise that he wants on the Teachers, without having to negotiate with the unions?

     

     Andrew

     14 Feb 13 at 1:39 pm
547. Because Victoria referred its industrial relations power to the Feds under Kennett and have been too gutless to take it back.

     O’Farrell and Baird have just imposed pay deals on many public servants there.

     

     Judith Sloan

     14 Feb 13 at 1:50 pm
548. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUzMPlQb2G4

     So god made a liberal. Brilliant superbowl ad parody!

     

     Max

     14 Feb 13 at 1:51 pm
549. Whereabouts is the camera stix? There’s only one average speed zone that I’m aware of and it’s on the feral highway heading south.

     There’s a couple between sydney and the qld border now. I’m thinking the “hidden” camera was at the one at Urunga, you go under the average speed setup then hidden immediately behind it was what looked like a fixed camera for cars. I didn’t see any warnings for fixed speed cameras beforehand so I assumed the cheeky buggers are using the “average speed camera” signs as an umbrella warning for any camera ahead.

     Here’s a pdf of all the average speed zone locations: http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/roadsafety/downloads/point_to_point_locations.pdf

     Farkin dozens of them.

     

     twostix

     14 Feb 13 at 1:52 pm
550. Because Victoria referred its industrial relations power to the Feds under Kennett and have been too gutless to take it back.

     O’Farrell and Baird have just imposed pay deals on many public servants there.

     I knew they referred some of their IR powers under Kennett but didn’t know it lost that power. Really is a shame because it just means union militancy takes hold and they have the power to do damage to not only schools but other businesses as well.

     I am pretty sure once a state has referred a power to the Commonwealth, it can not take it back.

     

     Andrew

     14 Feb 13 at 1:54 pm
551. Republicans deny Mr Rubio damaged his future prospects, despite the water sipping…

     The chatteratti are becoming a parody of themselves which bodes well.

     

     twostix

     14 Feb 13 at 1:54 pm
552. Republicans deny Mr Rubio damaged his future prospects, despite the water sipping…

     LOL.

     

     dover_beach

     14 Feb 13 at 1:57 pm
553. Here’s a pdf of all the average speed zone locations:

     Thanks for that – just the one between Sydney and ZP, as I thought.

     

     Rabz

     14 Feb 13 at 2:00 pm
554. Michael Smith picks up on a Canberra Times story: “Trust ‘gone’ for ministers and PS”.
     

     The federal government’s dealings with the public service are at an all-time low, according to senior bureaucrats who say a culture of distrust has been thrust on them.

     High-level public servants across several departments have told The Canberra Times they believe the government to be in ”bunker mode” and fearful of leaks against it.

     ”Trust with the bureaucracy has evaporated and relations between ministers and departments are at their lowest since Labor came to office,” one said.

     ”There is zero consultation on policy and announcements, which means there is a last-minute scramble to do their bidding once they’ve decided on a course of action.”

     Another said departments were often ”given orders at a drop of a hat” and were being more frequently blindsided by announcements the government was making.

     ”It feels like there is a kind of fear in ministers’ offices right now,” the source said.

     ”I know as far as my department goes it seems like the minister thinks we’re the enemy.” But a government source said some ministers in recent times believed the bureaucracy had not been advising them as well as they could have.

     The senior public servants said the mood appeared to worsen in the second half of last year and had deteriorated markedly this year.

     ”The release of the September 14 election date has only served to elevate the level of panic within government,” one said.

     This regime has read the writing on the wall and has nowhere to go, thus the panic has set in.

     

     Cold-Hands

     14 Feb 13 at 2:06 pm
555. Republicans deny Mr Rubio damaged his future prospects, despite the water sipping…

     http://woody.typepad.com/files/ted_kennedys_car_at_chappaquiddick.jpg

     

     C.L.

     14 Feb 13 at 2:15 pm
556. If Ministers think Canberra public servants are the enemy, the election result is really going to shock them.

     

     Steve of Ferny Hills

     14 Feb 13 at 2:22 pm
557. Slippery just asked a question to Albo in Question time…lol.

     

     Andrew

     14 Feb 13 at 2:27 pm
558. LOL. The minister for water (forget his name) is currently making fun of Abbott’s dam policy arguing that to abate floods, dams must always be empty.

     

     C.L.

     14 Feb 13 at 2:29 pm
559. Tony Burke is his name. Yes, what he said makes no sense whatsoever. Just because dams can be used to rid people of floods and drought, does not mean you use them for that at the same time.

     

     Andrew

     14 Feb 13 at 2:35 pm
560. I don’t have the stomach to watch QT. It’s the same each time:

     Opposition asks a question
     government “minister” never answers
     personal attacks via verbal abuse of Opposition members

     

     Gab

     14 Feb 13 at 2:46 pm
561. I am pretty sure once a state has referred a power to the Commonwealth, it can not take it back.

     Really? That would be unfortunate if true. I would have though that provisions for transfer both directions would exist, or that the federal execution of a state power would be at the continuing pleasure of that state.

     

     DriftForge

     14 Feb 13 at 2:55 pm
562. Nicola Roxon should not be executed without a trial!

     The trial should run as follows:

     Judge: ‘Drag the guilty sow in, I assume she cannot walk after the beatings?’

     [dragging noises, getting louder, thud.]

     Judge to prosecutor: ‘Whaddaya got, sunshine?’

     Prosecutor silently hands over a wad of papers.

     Judge: riffle, riffle, riffle “Hmm, Looks ironclad to me. Bailiff, you may fire when ready. Next!’

     And how can the alpgreenfilth complain? That’s how Che did it.

     

     Mk50 of Brisbane

     14 Feb 13 at 3:02 pm
563. twostix.

     A .303 round costs about a buck fifty.

     A speed camera costs a few grand.

     That’s a pretty intriguing price comparison, isn’t it?

     

     Mk50 of Brisbane

     14 Feb 13 at 3:08 pm
564. 42 year old man has apparently cut off his father’s head in a domestic at Stacey Street, Bankstown.

     The son was defending his mother after his father pushed her down the stairs.

     From Lebanon – just heard it on the radio…

     The police described it as a “disturbing scene”.

     The son ran at the father with a knife after his father pushed his mother down the stairs.

     I guess the knife just slipped and decapitated the old bloke, huh?

     Easily done, huh.

     

     kae

     14 Feb 13 at 3:08 pm
565. The son was defending his mother after his father pushed her down the stairs.

     I think we can safely say that the young man has been assimilated into Australian society.

     Back in the Levant him and his dad would have decapitated the stupid bitch for being clumsy.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     14 Feb 13 at 3:13 pm
566. Dangerous carbon pollution, says Dreyfus. I am so scared. Fuck me!!!!

     

     Andrew

     14 Feb 13 at 3:14 pm
567. Fed politics prediction:

     Julia will see Vic and WA police closing in, polls getting worse and the numbers looking dire, will find a health excuse and resign from her seat.

     Timing is late April.

     

     pete m

     14 Feb 13 at 3:17 pm
568. Pete M, Julia will be gone by late April. I am 90% sure of it now, contrary to what I believed a couple of weeks ago

     

     Andrew

     14 Feb 13 at 3:19 pm
569. When commentators ask the church to modernise, they are often asking it to abandon its central beliefs.

     Fair enough. But the question (to be answered by Catholics) is where you draw the line over what is central (remember core promises?). Over the centuries, the Catholic Church has changed enormously, and some of its today’s positions would have been unthinkable a few hundred years ago (and maybe would have been condemned as abandoning central beliefs). Catholics who want change believe that the change they are advocating is not about central belief.

     Translation: ‘I am puzzled as to why society is different from that of Imperial Rome and why the Church has also changed over 2000 years.’

     Really, this is a a classic ‘silly question’, as it is based on a modern perception that ‘fad following’ is the way to go.

     How about ‘no’ as an answer to that? That’s the Church’s answer.

     Wanna be a happy-clappy fad follower, fine. Fill your boots. Any one of the swarming hordes of weird endlessly schisming little protestant cults from CofE to Hillsong will have a place for you, and may you find your path there (I mean that quite sincerely).

     Meanwhile, the eternal truths remain: the power of God’s love, the sanctity of life, the endless struggle between good and evil as we personally express in our own morality and so on and so forth.

     

     Mk50 of Brisbane

     14 Feb 13 at 3:22 pm
570. Swannie: Hey the share market is going gangbusters. Did I do that?

     Adviser: Yeah, we announced an election we are guaranteed to lose.

     Swannie: I don’t understand.

     

     Rousie

     14 Feb 13 at 3:48 pm
571. will find a health excuse and resign from her seat.

     Looking in my crystal ball it’ll be to spend more time with her family, her mum really needs Julia now as the blow of Julia’s Dad’s death has left her reeling. What Julia wants Julia gets– I would dearly love to see what Tinta wants Tinta gets but then again the pillory and stocks are hard to find these days.

     My crystal ball sees Ms Gillard getting a bracelet, a joined bracelet one for each wrist — oooh – darn ‘sgorn all misty again. But I can dream can’t I?

     

     Tintarella di Luna

     14 Feb 13 at 3:50 pm
572. Dangerous carbon pollution, says Dreyfus

     Yeah, it’s no longer ‘climate change’ and ‘climate pollution.’

     It’s now ‘dangerous climate change’ and ‘dangerous climate polution.’

     

     C.L.

     14 Feb 13 at 3:56 pm
573. The Coalition’s dams proposal is the first glint of a big ‘f*ck you’ truck heading towards the greens.

     I hope we see more of it.

     

     duncanm

     14 Feb 13 at 3:58 pm
574. Thats ver funny Rousie.

     It’s possibly true. The stock market s beginning to discount the end of this nightmare.

     

     JC

     14 Feb 13 at 4:06 pm
575. Stock market is going up due to interest rate returns going down, plus better profit reports.

     Who forgot to ring the bell for the bottom?

     

     pete m

     14 Feb 13 at 4:10 pm
576. Yeah, it’s no longer ‘climate change’ and ‘climate pollution.’

     It’s now ‘dangerous climate change’ and ‘dangerous climate polution.’

     We slipped into a world of focus group tested Orwellian Doublespeak so easily.

     

     twostix

     14 Feb 13 at 4:17 pm
577. http://www.news.com.au/technology/biztech/libs-foaming-over-nbn-coffee-perk/story-fn5lic6c-1226577436159

     STAFF building Australia’s high-speed broadband network have been issued with $164,000 worth of coffee machines.
     NBN Co has justified the purchase by saying it increased productivity, because staff didn’t need to leave the office to buy a coffee.
     The 31 machines are costing almost $4000 a month in beans and their maintenance has cost more than $10,000.

     lol.

     

     Yobbo

     14 Feb 13 at 4:29 pm
578. Just quietly, how much would it have cost to hire a guy who does nothing except run to Starbucks?

     

     Yobbo

     14 Feb 13 at 4:29 pm
579. Pete

     Falling interest rates are a sign of economic weakness, not strength, so all things being equal stock indices actually fall when rafe’s are going down.

     

     JC

     14 Feb 13 at 4:31 pm
580. I’m not sure you can use NBN and productivity in the same sentence.
     Perhaps they are on to that coffe that is crapped out by beavers or elephants or some such.

     

     Rousie

     14 Feb 13 at 4:51 pm
581. Gillard is definitely getting new advice re her clothes. She’s rolled out a number of new ensembles. The one worn today was quite nice.

     

     C.L.

     14 Feb 13 at 4:58 pm
582. Vale a wonderful young woman.

     But should a green 19 year-old girl – during “seasonal employment” – have been at the frontline of a massive bushfire?

     

     C.L.

     14 Feb 13 at 5:01 pm
583. Young farmers make up the bulk of the firefighting forces in regional Australia.

     

     Yobbo

     14 Feb 13 at 5:08 pm
584. I was a volunteer fire fighter in country WA at 15. Probably illegal now, but there you go.

     

     tbh

     14 Feb 13 at 5:12 pm
585. Just quietly, how much would it have cost to hire a guy who does nothing except run to Starbucks?

     Quite right. They could have employed a tea lady with a trolley for less.

     Alternatively there are plenty of entrepreneurs who set up mobile cafe bars in foyers or outside office blocks.

     

     Splatacrobat

     14 Feb 13 at 5:23 pm
586. The money they spent on those machines, they could have opened their own coffee shop.

     

     Yobbo

     14 Feb 13 at 5:30 pm
587. Quite right. They could have employed a tea lady with a trolley for less.

     Alternatively there are plenty of entrepreneurs who set up mobile cafe bars in foyers or outside office blocks.

     Yep. With that said, we have similar machines in our office. I’ll be we pay a lot less for them than the NBN Co. though.

     

     tbh

     14 Feb 13 at 5:32 pm
588. The court heard that until three months before the blaze last May, “highly controlling” Philpott shared his cramped three-bedroom semi-detached home with his wife, mistress and all 11 children he had with both women. The court heard he also fathered five other children from two other women.

     RTWT

     All in the name of free money…

     Even though this story is out of the UK we must ask how can this be stopped, because there is no doubt that this type of welfare must come to an end!

     

     Old Fridgie

     14 Feb 13 at 5:35 pm
589. Brendan O’Neill, in his “Is the Pope Catholic?”, misunderstands infallibility—a doctrine (promulgated in 1870) which means that the Pope, only when speaking ex cathedra is incapable of error, not that he always determines scoreless draws in English FA faultlessly.
     Benedict himself said in 2005, “The Pope is not an oracle; he is infallible in very rare situations”.

     

     Deadman

     14 Feb 13 at 5:38 pm
590. Give em free tap water and nothing more.

     

     jumpnmcar

     14 Feb 13 at 5:38 pm
591. Roos can swim.
     For a bloody long time.

     

     Winston SMITH

     14 Feb 13 at 5:56 pm
592. Septimus, I’m thinking we won’t know the extent of the damage until an audit is conducted after the election.

     10/10 Rabz. I think so too.

     

     Septimus

     14 Feb 13 at 6:04 pm
593. Roos can swim.
     For a bloody long time.

     So can crocodiles.
     But a flood like that makes me sad for the earth worms.

     

     jumpnmcar

     14 Feb 13 at 6:08 pm
594. But a flood like that makes me sad for the earth worms.

     But I’m a happy wormoginist.

     

     Rudiau

     14 Feb 13 at 6:26 pm
595. Bugger the earthworms, jump.
     There’s billions of tons of the bastards – evolution will just sort out the ones that can swim.

     

     Winston SMITH

     14 Feb 13 at 6:26 pm
596. Paterson, without a scratch, returns from the ABC front.

     In the diary of this week’s Spectator, the IPA’s James Paterson describes his latest foray deep into ABC territory – and onto the panel of Q&A:

     A sympathetic tweeter asks me why me and my colleagues bother turning up to events behind enemy lines. The obvious answer is that it is a great platform to advocate for freedom. But it’s also true that sending the Left into fits of rage is actually pretty fun.

     Lol.

     

     Rudiau

     14 Feb 13 at 6:33 pm
597. Cowardly Combet didn’t show his face at Question Time today– TLS made his excuse — he wasn’t attending for personal reasons. Yes the Pecksniffian git had to got and get a personality adjustment but had to find a personality first.

     

     Tintarella di Luna

     14 Feb 13 at 6:33 pm
598. Ah, l’amour, toujours l’amour. Valentine’s Day today so Mrs Sept and I took each other to see ‘Anna Karenina’, an excellent movie.

     

     Septimus

     14 Feb 13 at 6:53 pm
599. Good for you Septimus. Glad you had a lovely day.

     

     Tintarella di Luna

     14 Feb 13 at 6:57 pm
600. But should a green 19 year-old girl – during “seasonal employment” – have been at the frontline of a massive bushfire?

     I went to my first fire when I was 12 – my father grabbed me and my 16 year old sister to man the tanker with him because he couldn’t get hold of anyone else. It was a pretty frantic 20 hours till they got it under control and we could go home for a sleep. That is how it works in the bush.

     

     Tim

     14 Feb 13 at 7:14 pm
601. Valentine’s Day! Ah, Da Hairy Irish Ape didn’t mention it.

     I held out till about 4pm when I sent him a loving email saying he was da wun for me, also outlining my day – all sorts of Criminal Court dramas emergent with a very disturbed and thankfully distant relative. Doing wot I can, working the phones. Thought I might have to fly to Sydney today, but in the event it looks like Monday is da day. Luckily HIA is at some big shot management ‘retreat’ on Monday through to Wednesday, which frees me up a bit to engage in some speciality management peculiar to the circumstances of my life prior to the HIA.

     He will retreat a bit tonight too if no flowers appear.

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     14 Feb 13 at 7:18 pm
602. Those Euroweenies love them some welfare. How much do they love it?

     Paris: A jobless French man fatally set himself alight Wednesday in front of an unemployment bureau in the western city of Nantes.

     The 43-year-old man, who no longer was receiving welfare, was protesting over the agency’s demand that he repay a sum of money he received to which he was not entitled, a manager at the state Pole Emploi agency told French radio.

     Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/world/jobless-frenchman-sets-himself-on-fire-20130214-2ee4k.html#ixzz2KrLnp95c

     

     Infidel Tiger

     14 Feb 13 at 7:18 pm
603. Roos can swim.
     For a bloody long time.

     The pouch traps air like a built-in Mae West. See – the Good Lord was working to plan.

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     14 Feb 13 at 7:23 pm
604. Jack Andraka – Age 15

     Invented diagnosis for Pancreatic Cancer, Ovarian cancer and Lung Cancer. 3 cents and 1 hour.

     He discusses how!!!

     http://www.wimp.com/newmethod/

     

     Mike of Marion

     14 Feb 13 at 8:01 pm
605. Tony Bourke today displayed the sort of dumb talent for ridicule that wins Labor politicians unending praise from the rustadons and the stenographers, but doesn’t stand up to any routine scrutiny.
     His “take down” of the 100 dams idea was along the lines of “they want their dams to be always full, always, empty, but always flowing”.
     Out of any quantity of dams, a normal intellect could and would divine that some dams will be more one thing than another, but often fill two roles. Hydro dams will be more select, requiring a degree of height above the turbines for their headstocks (those large pipes that feed the power station) to build pressure to turn those turbines.
     Given Australia’s tendency to have droughts followed by flooding rains, some dams might be able to first fill while “mitigating”, then hold water for the drought to follow.
     If a large number of dams are built, it is reasonable to expect that some will be optimised for one purpose, some may serve two. Most of them will not cover more than two, and it would be surprising if any did. Even so, there are options for supplementing the Murray’s flow from the Snowy if required and if the water is there. The genesis of that scheme was noting the amount of water avaialable as snow thawed, and the heights avaiable to be worked with. Adding tunnels was an engineering marvel, and made it all more useful, including subterranean power stations, backflow: sending water back up at low off-peak rates to be reused at peak times, and re-routing water so it could flow through several stations on the way to the river proper.
     Burke’s attack may have pleased some, but it is a threadbare diatribe, easily dismissed.
     It is a terrible truth that even if an ideal location was to be found for a hydro scheme, the environmental objections would be shocking. And that’s despite the fact that it is the best form of so-called alternative, sustainable energy – short of Nuclear.

     

     blogstrop

     14 Feb 13 at 8:06 pm
606. A new demographic study by KPMG has debunked a number of myths about the impact of the mining sector on regional Australia, finding incomes and educational attainment are higher, unemployment is lower and there are more families and working aged residents in Australia’s mining regions than in regional Australia more generally.

     well they would say that, wouldn’t they…trying to change the narrative to the truth..

     

     Will

     14 Feb 13 at 8:11 pm
607. 
     

     His “take down” of the 100 dams idea was along the lines of “they want their dams to be always full, always, empty, but always flowing”.

     And of course if you don’t build them in the first place, the only possible circumstance is “none of the above”.

     

     entropy

     14 Feb 13 at 8:17 pm
608. MoM
     Brilliant, thank you.
     Jack Andraka, get him on the AGW case.

     

     jumpnmcar

     14 Feb 13 at 8:30 pm
609. Hear hear, blogstrop.

     

     C.L.

     14 Feb 13 at 8:41 pm
610. Was Valentine’s Day a thing in Australia in the old days?

     I’ve never heard oldsters talk about it.

     Am I right to suspect it has emerged as vital here via American television?

     

     C.L.

     14 Feb 13 at 8:42 pm
611. Bourne is one

     

     Infidel tiger

     14 Feb 13 at 8:42 pm
612. should a green 19 year-old girl – during “seasonal employment” – have been at the frontline of a massive bushfire?

     She was employed by the Department of Sustainability and Environment — an extremist government-funded organisation hiding thousands of Green activists that has a clear hierarchy of priorities for fighting bushfires: 1. Protection of plant life is paramount; 2. Protection of animal life is secondary; 3. Protection of human life will be awarded priority after objectives #1 and #2 have been achieved.

     I hope the girl’s family sues DSE’s arses off.

     

     Tom

     14 Feb 13 at 8:48 pm
613. Has there ever been a dam built that Australia has regretted building?
     No.
     %100 approval rate in hindsight.

     

     jumpnmcar

     14 Feb 13 at 8:54 pm
614. She should never have been there.

     

     C.L.

     14 Feb 13 at 8:55 pm
615. Was Valentine’s Day a thing in Australia in the old days?

     I’ve never heard oldsters talk about it.

     Am I right to suspect it has emerged as vital here via American television?

     I bought wifey a box on nice chocolates which I’ve progressively scoffed down through the evening.

     

     Jc

     14 Feb 13 at 9:17 pm
616. You did the right thing, JC. So proud.

     

     Tom

     14 Feb 13 at 9:20 pm
617. Acting Superintendent Michael West said the outfits were purely practical because police officers would stand out too much if they wore the traditional navy blue uniforms.

     Honesty in advertising, I see.

     

     nilk

     14 Feb 13 at 10:10 pm
618. Caroline Wilson, possibly the most repulsive female that god ever breathed life into, is currently defending her peddling of rumours and personal opinions that men she doesn’t like should be punished for crimes they did not commit. The Nine Network will hire anyone with a proven ability to desttroy ratings.

     

     Tom

     14 Feb 13 at 10:15 pm
619. My Valentine’s day sweet nothing to Mrs Splat (with a hint of good fellas accent)
     Roses are red, a scent that lingers
     Be my valentine or I’ll break your fingers

     Sleeping on the couch tonight, but hey, it’s just like camping!

     

     Splatacrobat

     14 Feb 13 at 10:19 pm
620. Was Valentine’s Day a thing in Australia in the old days?

     In the ’seventies, I remember the newspapers publicising St. Valentine’s Day messages in their classifieds sections.
     I recall reading in The Examiner, around 1979 or so, a Valentine’s Day message from someone who suggested that his beloved be Heloise, signing himself Abelard. This is one (perhaps unfortunate) bloke, I thought, who’d failed to read the whole story of the famed lovers.

     

     Deadman

     14 Feb 13 at 10:19 pm
621. Caroline Wilson, possibly the most repulsive female that god ever breathed life into, is currently defending her peddling of rumours and personal opinions that men she doesn’t like should be punished for crimes they did not commit. The Nine Network will hire anyone with a proven ability to desttroy ratings.

     The woman is a gossip journalist who thinks it is acceptable to write about unsubstantiated claims about people.

     

     Andrew

     14 Feb 13 at 10:23 pm
622. Was Valentine’s Day a thing in Australia in the old days?

     According to trove there’s plenty of mentions of it in the papers back to the 19th century:

     http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?q=valentines+day

     From a Victorian letters page Friday 13 February 1880:

     ST. VALENTINES DAY. St. Valentines day has come again, And faces are pressed to the window pane ; We are waiting to hear the loud double knock, That comes so regular at ten o’clock.

     Ah, now he is turning the end of the street ; How full is his bag, and how slow seem his feet; He has letters to leave at one, three, and four, But at last he approaches our own cottage door,

     He is smilingly handing our letters to Jane, When Alice flies down like a wee hurricane Then up she comes bounding, three steps at a time, With a laugh and a shout she tosses me mine, There is one for Walter, and two for Will, There are five for Janet, and three for Nell. And one for wee Maudie from a sweet- heart of seven, Who thinks her an angel come straight down from heaven.

     I lay down my own to study each face, As they open each envelope, cover, and case. Walter turns red, as he discloses to view, A party, whose name is no doubt known to you On his pitchfork he’s bearing to regions below A redheaded youth, with a face full of woe But loud is Will’s laugh, when his first he descried To be a fat butler, with a mouth a yard wide, Still louder he laughs when the next one he shows, Lean open mouthed donkey dressed up in boys clothes, The other faces I scan, and smiles are on all From Janet, the stately, to Maudie the small. When at last in my room they leave me alone, With a proud happy heart I open my own, Suffice it to say, none nicer could be, Than the pretty love tokens now smiling at me. But ’tis time now to close, lest of me you should tire. And that I acknowledge I do not desire, So to all my young friends who read this short rhyme I wish many a pretty and sweet valentine.
     BESSIE VICKERY.

     Nice going Bessie.

     

     twostix

     14 Feb 13 at 10:42 pm
623. In the late 1800′s it seems to have died and then had a revival in the late 1930′s:

     The Australian Women’s Weekly FEBRUARY 13, 1937:

     ST. VALENTINES DAY

     SUNDAY of this week will be Saint Valentine’s Day – a day associated since time imme- morial with “val- entines,” cards of greeting between lovers, and other old romantic customs.

     The actual date, the four- teenth of February, was a day of gifts even before the time of Saint Valentine (the third cen- tury A.D.). On a moderate estimate the festival is at least 2000 years old.

     Yet, age-old and firmly en- trenched in popular favor as the St Valentine’s customs appeared to be, they gradually waned towards the close of the nineteenth century.

     This was perhaps due to the more romantic customs becom
     ing forgotten. One of the most picturesque was the token
     which was sent to a sweetheart anonymously or merely marked with initials to arrive on St. Valentine’s Day.

     The sender then visited the recipient of the valentine, and, if acceptable, claimed a kiss and became his (or her) acknowledged sweetheart.

     Later the custom dwindled to the exchange of gifts or highly decorated cards between lovers; and finally came the caricature card which ridiculed some trait of character or physical feature supposed to be possessed by the recipient.

     These naturally lent themselves to the perpetuation of petty spites and squabbles, and in Australia died out gradually in the present century.

     In Britain and America, the romantic Valentine has had
     quite a popular revival. St. Valentine’s Day cards and gifts are freely circulated, not only between lovers, but between husbands and wives, as tokens or reminders of affection.

     It is, perhaps, a good sign, a token that all romance has not vanished from this era of crude facts and mechanisation.

     

     twostix

     14 Feb 13 at 10:48 pm
624. Da Hairy Ape came home, swept me in his arms, told me that I was the Singularity itself (a Goddess, before time and place, beyond ken, or words to that effect), certainly up there in the Qantum stakes anyway, and that he loved me dearly. So – who needs roses when the blarney is just rolling off the tongue?

     He had a Guinness or two on the way home (beer, actually) because the florist was closed (which florist? he doesn’t know any florists) and he wanted to impress me with some magnificent rhetoric.

     Mission accomplished. He is adorable.

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     14 Feb 13 at 10:50 pm
625. ”I know as far as my department goes it seems like the minister thinks we’re the enemy.”

     Pretty fricken hilarious when leftard ministers suddenly think their leftoid public servants are the “enemy”. Canberra would have to be the friendliest place in the nation to a Labor government.

     

     boy on a bike

     14 Feb 13 at 10:59 pm
626. My 3:08
     I misheard
     The son pushed the mother down the stairs the father was defending the mother and the son had a knife and topped (literally) the father.

     

     kae

     14 Feb 13 at 11:00 pm
627. Popular culture and its beta-male and old crone feminist foot soldiers keep telling me that in the bad old days women were kept barefoot and pregnant and brutish men were free to beat them as they saw fit.

     How does that narrative match up with this news clipping from Braidwood on the 25th of July 1874:

     Alfred Greenwood, found guilty of assaulting his wife with intent to do her grievous bodily harm, was sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment in Braidwood gaol.

     12 months gaol for domestic violence in 1874?

     Isn’t that a far, far worse sentence than most wife beaters get now?

     

     twostix

     14 Feb 13 at 11:04 pm
628. Valentine’s Day special for me. Da Hairy Ape just drew my attention to this report on frequency of sex and effects on male health, including heart attacks and prostate cancer.

     Report in 2010 but he has just spotted it.

     Two times a week for da heart, five for da cancer, he says, counting.

     You can include (self-pleasuring) he says (although he used another word; I am avoiding the spaminator).

     Can’t remember when I last did that, he ruminates.

     Then he reflects: Hey Lizzie, I can safely say dat I am not a (self-pleasurer).

     You’re full of health and sobriety, I confirm.

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     14 Feb 13 at 11:20 pm
629. Yes unless they are indigenous persons with a history of alcoholism, violence and sexual assault. Then they get let out after sobering up with no support or counselling.

     

     WhaleHunt Fun

     14 Feb 13 at 11:22 pm
630. Craig Hutchison ‏@craighutchy
     Garry and caro still tense back stage after @FootyClassified stoush. Very willing tonight. #whowon?

     Craig Hutchison ‏@craighutchy
     Caro making noises about not doing next weeks show. Serious.

     

     Harold

     14 Feb 13 at 11:34 pm
631. A rant…

     Is there an android app that will allow me to transfer all the bought apps – and particularly some $1k of music / audiobooks from iTunes to the android equivalent?

     If not – to anyone from Google (or Microsoft for that matter) reading this – this is a way to get a disgruntled iPhone user to your platform? That is what has kept me locked in… If there isn’t one – build it and I will BUY it.

     [And for those who have to know... Some 6 months ago my ten year olds iPad2 screen died... Went to apple and they said 13 months? Sorry that's out of warranty ... But we can sell you a reconditioned one for $300! Is that cash or charge? [I had a LOUD dummy spit in the shop and go it for free]. Then in October my new iPhone 5 was non-functional out of the box…. And today my wife’s less than 2 mth old iPhone 5 just died. Just died – wasn’t dropped drowned or dicked around with in any way. Just died. At the most inconvenient time to boot – leaving my primary school age kids stranded and waiting to be picked up as my wife was delayed]

     And for all you Apple people reading this – your product sucks. And it’s overpriced to the point of avaricious piracy to boot. Steve Jobs is rolling around in his grave! I already bought a HP system for half the cost of a Mac (which I REALLY REALLY wanted a year ago), and so if someone shows me how to re-use my iTunes library… The minute my contract expires — so long amigo! My Apple experience has gone pear shaped.

     

     Arnost

     14 Feb 13 at 11:53 pm
632. This Oscar Pistorious thing is big news.

     Charged with murder for shooting girlfriend in the head 4 times. Claims he thought she was an intruder.

     Now look at this tweet of this.

     Frankie Boyle…

     Oscar Pistorious holds a lot of records, including worst Valentine’s present ever

     The tragedy is that if Oscar Pistorius had no arms, this would never have happened

     

     Harold

     15 Feb 13 at 12:01 am
633. Jack Cashill on “Pope Benedict XVI Still Unnerves the Media”:

     The European media had been preparing their audiences for this announcement the way they might have an Ebola outbreak. When Cardinal Ratzinger emerged as a leading candidate for the papacy, the eminent U.K. Times headlined its main story, “Papal hopeful is a former Hitler Youth.”
     Seven paragraphs into the Times story the reader began to learn the facts of Ratzinger’s youth. He was six when Hitler came to power. His father was so outspoken an anti-Nazi the family had to move multiple times. He joined the Hitler Youth at 14 only when membership became compulsory. He quickly got a dispensation to join the seminary. When conscripted into defense work, he deserted and ended up in a concentration camp.
     Although almost no one in Europe goes to church any more, the announcement consumed the European media for the two weeks I was there and was headline news for a solid week. Back in America, the media were nearly as hysterical. The Daily Kos greeted Ratzinger’s selection as Pope Benedict XVI with the headline, “Call Ratzinger Nazi Pope.” The hysteria barely subsided as the years went by. In 2008, to deflect criticism of President Obama’s ties to crackpot reverend Jeremiah Wright, Chris Kelly of the Huffington Post blustered, “Bill O’Reilly—who claims to love America—spent Sunday at a ‘church’ run by a former Hitler Youth named Joseph Alois Ratzinger.”
     Added the daringly blasphemous Kelly, “Ratzinger has gone to elaborate ends to hide this connection, including taking on the absurd pseudonym “Pope Benedict XVI.” In the one religion Kelly and friends have seen fit to defend, that kind of insult could provoke a well-deserved fatwah.

     

     Deadman

     15 Feb 13 at 12:13 am
634. Coalition’s dam draft paper states “up to 100 dams could be built across the country to prevent floods, fuel power stations and irrigate a food boom to feed 120 million people across the Asia Pacific region”. Tony Burke has poor comprehension and even less sense.

     “Only the Opposition could up with a policy where dams would be always full, always empty and always flowing.”

     Have no idea what he is trying to say, however it sounds like he is speaking as though Labor are already in opposition.

     He wants to know how the Coalition would fund these damn dams. Well it wouldn’t be a good idea to rely on the carbon tax or MRRT now would it, Mr Burke?

     

     Gab

     15 Feb 13 at 12:28 am
635. How will it be funded?

     Out of the budget, of course!

     

     kae

     15 Feb 13 at 12:57 am
636. This Oscar Pistorious thing is big news.

     Charged with murder for shooting girlfriend in the head 4 times. Claims he thought she was an intruder.

     Oscar Pistorius’ ‘I am the bullet in the chamber’ Nike ad pulled from sprinter’s website. Nike is also already removing the billboards with the same tagline.

     Good thinking.

     

     sdog

     15 Feb 13 at 12:57 am
637. Also, the “burglar” theory looks like weak sauce.

     

     sdog

     15 Feb 13 at 1:00 am
638. The PAC supporting Rubio, Reclaiming America, was quick to jump on the “water bottle” bandwagon. Heh.

     

     sdog

     15 Feb 13 at 1:17 am
639. Your Phone is Not at Wayne Dobson’s House

     There’s a bug in Sprint’s Find My Phone system in North Las Vegas that always says your phone is at his house – it’s not.

     If a cellphone GPS system can’t get a specific read on a device, the system will return a general location. For Sprint users in North Las Vegas, the general location returned is the home of Wayne Dobson, and over the last couple years, several people have knocked on his door looking for their phone with the Find My Phone feature. These situations are generally diffused when Dobson calls the police, and he’s even invited people in to wait for the police to show up.

     via ONT at Ace

     

     sdog

     15 Feb 13 at 1:45 am
640. Latest news on Pistorious (Lateline) is that police are surprised by the burglar story in the media. He is under arrest for murder and they have many witnesses. Police also confirmed previous visits to the couple’s apartment.

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 1:52 am
641. In “Jesus would have no time for clerical vipers” [$], Baz Blakeney, who “would […] if it doesn’t sound oxymoronic [it does], consider [him]self a Christian atheist”, defends Jesus—whom Christians call the Christ, the Saviour and Redeemer of all mankind, who died horribly so that all might have eternal life—as “a decent bloke”:

     I think Jesus was a decent bloke. Probably as good as you’re going to find, no matter how long you look.
     He and Gandhi and Dr Martin Luther King pretty much have the good guy angle sewn up, in my view.

     Mr Blakeney considers Mohandas Gandhi, who, inter alia stulta, once said that Jews “should rely wholly on the goodwill of Arabs”, an almost perfect man—of course he does.
     Mr Blakeney, in the Herald Sun—a major metropolitan newspaper, I’m led to believe—slights the eximiously learned head of the Roman Catholic Church, calling him “Pope Benny”, but also slights those who sneer at Jesus:

     Sneering, post-modern types love to make fun of Jesus. I’m not sure why.
     Jesus seemed to genuinely care about people. Didn’t worry too much about money, could take it or leave it. Allegedly healed people when they were sick. Made a mockery of meaningless, worthless traditions.
     He liked a drink (let’s never forget his first miracle was getting some extra grog after they’d run out at the party). Good man. Legend.
     He liked kids (suffer the little children to come unto me), was good at catering (loaves and fishes), had a happening look with the beard and hair (very pre-Woodstock). […]
     One of the greatest men to ever stride the dusty roads of Palestine told his followers to give away their worldly goods. Give it away. Now the churches own billions of dollars worth of property. Immeasurable billions.[*]

     Notice that the author doubts stories of alleged healing, but accepts without question that Jesus mocked traditions. His referring to Jesus wandering around Palestine—though the land was then, for the most part, properly called the Roman province of Judaea—might reveal some authorial bias.
     Mr Blakeney continues:

     Who[m] would Jesus pick for the next pope? None of the candidates, that’s for sure. Certainly not our Mr Pell.
     Jesus would pick a humble peasant. Someone without a robe or a pointy hat or a soul full of prejudice and spiteful ambition.

     An athiest who believes in a soul? If prejudice be a bad thing, why is it right to accuse others, whom (I expect) he knows not, of “prejudice and spiteful ambition”? By “our Mr Pell” he means Cardinal Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney. Clearly, Mr Blakeney is one of those sneering, post-modern types, with an egregious lack of biblical or theological knowledge, who love to make fun of Christians, yet he nonchalantly asserts that he’s able to determine the mind of Jesus. I’m not sure why.
     The wise Mr Blakeney, having applied his big brain to the problems of Holy ministries and papal succession, might soon turn his attentions, I hope, to providing much needed advice to our beloved PM’s problems of secular ministries and prime-ministerial succession

     * With the Emperor Julian I doubt the economic sagacity of exhorting all “to give away their worldly goods” but, though descended from some saints, I’m not a Christian.

     

     Deadman

     15 Feb 13 at 2:56 am
642. Oops, athiest above is a typo for atheist, and not a superlative of the positive athy—meaning “anti-religiously sneery”, perhaps—and comparative athier.

     

     Deadman

     15 Feb 13 at 3:03 am
643. The Creation of Psychopharmacology – David Healy(Review)

     

     John H.

     15 Feb 13 at 3:07 am
644. Potemkin’s Village

     Vaccinating boys will also further benefit women… here

     

     Grigory Potemkin

     15 Feb 13 at 3:37 am
645. Vaccinating boys will also further benefit women… here

     The first link which you provide in support of your anti-vax stand is swimming in koolaid.

     And if that article wasn’t enough, I clicked on another featured story at that site and learned that AIDS testing is a scam because “FDA-approved HIV tests do not detect HIV and cannot be used to diagnose HIV” and that “AIDS drugs cause cancer and kill”. They’re also still pushing the “vaccines cause autism” barrow.

     Wacakdoodles.

     

     sdog

     15 Feb 13 at 5:59 am
646. Wacakdoodles = Wackadoodles, of course.

     Also, here are some more dogs riding in cars, in California this time.

     You’re welcome.

     

     sdog

     15 Feb 13 at 6:01 am
647. The Untold Story of Gun Confiscation After Katrina.

     “This is like Australia .. all of a sudden boom they got our rights.”

     H/T American Thinker.

     

     Rudiau

     15 Feb 13 at 7:03 am
648. Bypassing the Politicians on Gun Control.

     Pursuant to the Second and Tenth amendments to the United States Constitution No governmental body of the State, County or Municipality will enforce, or assist any other agency in enforcement of any Federal law unless such law is in compliance with both the state constitution and the constitution of the United States of America.

     

     Rudiau

     15 Feb 13 at 7:09 am
649. This is one (perhaps unfortunate) bloke, I thought, who’d failed to read the whole story of the famed lovers.

     Not as uncomprehending as the fucking twit from the US who glorified Bonnie and Clyde in one of his rap songs (I forget his name and I don’t really care to be reminded). Yeah, like you really want yourself and your girlfriend to end up the way they did?

     

     perturbed

     15 Feb 13 at 7:13 am
650. Former Labor senator John Black says the Australian Crime Commission investigation of drugs in sport is an “amateur hour” diversion to get ICAC off the front page:

     The Black inquiry, conducted nearly a quarter of a century ago, covered virtually the same ground being explored by the ACC, including the possibility of organised crime infiltrating sport through the supply of drugs, the danger associated with athletes being administered drugs intended for veterinary use and the involvement of corrupt doctors and sporting officials.

     Ironically, Black recommended the creation of not just a drug-testing authority to come under the control of the health minister but of a separate investigative body – much like the ACC – that would be subject to a law-enforcement minister…

     …But he has little regard for the way the present investigation has been handled and sympathises with innocent athletes and sports angered by the fact they have been embroiled in what he views as a fairly cynical political exercise.

     “Well, why the hell wouldn’t they (be angry)?” he asked. “It was just amateur hour. You looked at it and you thought, ‘Oh my god, this is going to end in tears.’ But it kept the Eddie Obeid (ICAC) inquiry off the front pages for a week, so that was the purpose of it.

     “It was clearly some kind of media diversion but it was at the expense of sport. It’s had a melancholy and predictable conclusion, that very little is going to get done, I think, out of this. And unfortunately, people are going to be much more wary of people crying wolf next time.

     “Next time there is a problem, they will be that much more reluctant to act on it. I think it has been poorly handled, the whole thing. If you’ve got intelligence, almost by definition you sit on it and you use it. You don’t tell the world.”

     

     Tom

     15 Feb 13 at 7:34 am
651. Hey Deadman, there is a special ‘religion’ thread for that sort of stuff now, so’s it doesn’t clog up our important discussion of mobile phones.

     Yes, I have a new mobile. Yes, it is a multi-function polis and big screen Android. First problem was answering it. You have to swipe a green handset across and over to the red handset circle. Counter-intuitive, no? Help, I thought, is this my future.

     It also fades to black, like an early cinema verite movie, the minute you look away (a bit like driving my new car where the engine has a built-in cut out at the traffic lights, like you can’t drive and have stalled it – disable that now, I instructed the dealer).

     New technology doesn’t defeat you, Lizzie, says Da Hairy Technological Expert. You just work around it.

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     15 Feb 13 at 7:39 am
652. Jay-Z. He got 99 problems but a high IQ ain’t one.

     

     sdog

     15 Feb 13 at 7:41 am
653. .’ But it kept the Eddie Obeid (ICAC) inquiry off the front pages for a week, so that was the purpose of it.

     I think Labor even prefer the humiliation of the failed MRRT and budget blowout on the front page than ICAC revelations.
     Batting off incompetance claims is easier for them to deal with as they have plenty of experience but corruption evidence cuts deeper with the electorate.

     

     Splatacrobat

     15 Feb 13 at 7:47 am
654. Ramirez cartoon: http://www.investors.com/editorial-cartoons/michael-ramirez/644434-entitlements-barack-obama-america-state-of-union

     Spot on.

     

     sdog

     15 Feb 13 at 7:47 am
655. Beating the Green Taliban at their own game

     Why I voted Greens.
     Greens – The Wankers Choice.

     Lol

     

     Rudiau

     15 Feb 13 at 7:47 am
656. a special ‘religion’ thread for that sort of stuff now

     I apologise; I considered, perhaps wrongly, that Blakeney’s piece in the Herald Sun was more an example of smug prejudice and wanton offensiveness in a major newspaper (and, as such, appropriate for a general forum) than a narrowly religious matter.

     

     Deadman

     15 Feb 13 at 7:49 am
657. “And I had my bible, and I had my gun, and I felt safe.”

     Says it all. So they take the guns and they’re working on the bibles.

     

     nilk

     15 Feb 13 at 7:51 am
658. Caroline Wilson gives fish-wives a bad name.

     

     Leigh Lowe

     15 Feb 13 at 7:52 am
659. Was Valentine’s Day a thing in Australia in the old days?

     My parents were married on Valentine’s Day – 50 years ago… It aint exactly a new thing.

     

     Fleeced

     15 Feb 13 at 7:59 am
660. Robert McClelland appears to hate this government almost as much as the non-mooching public hates this government:

     THE government could be pressured into a by-election, with Labor MP Robert McClelland planning to quit his Sydney seat within weeks.

     The former federal attorney-general is likely to win a job with the NSW Industrial Relations Commission. Prime Minister Julia Gillard is expected to argue the resignation would be too close to the September 14 election date for a by-election to be necessary, further fuelling speculation the poll decision was simply a strategy to defend that position.

     Labor holds the southern Sydney seat by 6.9 per cent but the party would almost certainly lose a by-election.

     While the minority government would still have the numbers in parliament to retain power, losing another MP – even without a by-election – would cause a “psychological injury” – as one Labor MP described it.

     That would further destabilise Ms Gillard’s leadership and again open the door for Kevin Rudd to attempt another tilt for the top job.

     State government sources have confirmed a decision on Mr McClelland’s job application is as little as one month to two months away.

     He is understood to be prepared to jump out of parliament immediately to take on the role.

     

     Tom

     15 Feb 13 at 8:02 am
661. Australia has always had a 14th between the 13th and the 15th. At least since Euro settlement.

     

     WhaleHunt Fun

     15 Feb 13 at 8:06 am
662. State government sources have confirmed a decision on Mr McClelland’s job application is as little as one month to two months away.

     If they dither around like FWA & Shagger then McClelland might be waiting until the 2013 election to be put out of his misery.

     

     Splatacrobat

     15 Feb 13 at 8:22 am
663. … Gillard is expected to argue the resignation would be too close to the September 14 election date for a by-election to be necessary, further fuelling speculation the poll decision was simply a strategy to defend that position.

     Unacceptable. If he resigned in the next two months or so, as far as I’m concerned a by-election would have to be held.

     However, given a 6.9% swing would be needed for labor to lose Barton, I can understand why lardarse would refuse…

     

     Rabz

     15 Feb 13 at 8:46 am
664. Deadman, I disagree with Lizzie, and for the reason you’ve just given. I think the first exposed not simply studied ignorance but outright malice on the part of the media.

     

     dover_beach

     15 Feb 13 at 8:50 am
665. FFS, what an indescribable imbecile:

     Swan’s refusal to rule out income tax rises in the budget (since ruled out), and his ”mistake” in quoting the unemployment rate as 5.1 per cent instead of 5.4, sent government morale further south.

     labor will introduce income tax increases if the goose gets to deliver his final triumphant (non surplus) budget. It will be an act of sheer malice, as it sets up the Coalition for attacks if they then repeal the increases, especially given the likely enormity of the deficit.

     I am utterly fed up with the standard of the both the lobotomised lamestream meeja and the equally braindead politicians infesting this country.

     They shit me to tears.

     Not. Good. Enough.

     Warning: Link is to the yaged.

     

     Rabz

     15 Feb 13 at 9:07 am
666. BTW, a handy resource for people – the Green Ant’s 2013 electoral pendulum.

     

     Rabz

     15 Feb 13 at 9:09 am
667. Was Valentine’s Day a thing in Australia in the old days?

     It’s a huge day of the year for lovers of decimal currency.

     

     Infidel tiger

     15 Feb 13 at 9:18 am
668. Earnest G. Smith, Representative for the Georgia House of Representatives District 125, is none too pleased about a recent rather crude but arguably complimentary bit of Photoshop satire which imposed his head on the body of a porn star. So he’s come out in favor of making such vulgar satirical use of Photoshop illegal in Georgia. “No one has a right to make fun of anyone,” he says.

     No, I’m not kidding.

     Sounds like Nits Roxon’s soul-mate. Of course, he’s a Democrat.

     

     sdog

     15 Feb 13 at 9:20 am
669. Meanwhile, back at the Why is this News? Department, Matthew Newton, who has not yet worked out he could have enjoyed TV work for life whether he had talent or not, is appearing in a big, breathlessly important TV interview soon (says the Tele).

     The only bit to remember about his life is:

     “The 36-year-old has repeatedly avoided conviction on separate assault charges in Australia and the US, on the grounds of diminished mental health.”

     For the interview he assures fans that he will be in an un-insane state. Evidently he has one of those conditions which can be switched on and off as circumstances require.

     

     Mick Gold Coast QLD

     15 Feb 13 at 9:20 am
670. I forgot the now obligatory end note to such comments “If you feel the need to claim you’re nuts ring Lifeline.”

     

     Mick Gold Coast QLD

     15 Feb 13 at 9:22 am
671. In The Age (of Feb. 11), Tim Soutphommasane writes:

     There is a paradox at the heart of Labor’s current woes. It may be politically weak, but Labor in fact has a solid case for re-election. On any objective measure, the Rudd-Gillard governments have been good governments.

     I’m sorry; I can’t mock this. It would be like poking a chained retard in Bedlam.

     

     Deadman

     15 Feb 13 at 9:24 am
672. Metronomes make a metaphor:
     http://youtu.be/kqFc4wriBvE.

     

     Deadman

     15 Feb 13 at 9:36 am
673. Potemkin’s Village

     Vaccinating boys will also further benefit women… here

     Conservatives, your hero is an indescribable imbecile, anti-vaxxer nutjob.

     Please tell us again how hilarious their page is.

     

     Yobbo

     15 Feb 13 at 10:24 am
674. Yobbo???

     Who says Grigory is anyone’s hero?

     We believe it is ok for him to be free to speak, so if he makes a stupid statement it will be challenged.

     Creating a Cult of Personality is failing of the left.

     

     Token

     15 Feb 13 at 10:35 am
675. labor will introduce income tax increases if the goose gets to deliver his final triumphant (non surplus) budget.

     …as they will raid super viciously.

     I am just surprised the Obama-esque campaign full of bile and envy to stir the mob has not began.

     How has Goose resisted the temptation to be an arse and be vile about Gina & Twiggy?

     Looking at the Dumb, the fruitbats seem to be desperate to be stirred into a frenzy about Da Rich and Da Murdoch and Da Hate Meeja…

     

     Token

     15 Feb 13 at 10:39 am
676. Conservatives, your hero is an indescribable imbecile, anti-vaxxer nutjob.

     Hi, Yobbo. I self-identify as a conservative (more or less). Please see my 5:59am response to the cartoon in question.

     There are wackadoodle anti-vaxxers & AIDS troofers all over the political spectrum. I lift my metaphorical leg on all of them.

     Cheers.

     

     sdog

     15 Feb 13 at 10:46 am
677. My parents were married on Valentine’s Day – 50 years ago… It aint exactly a new thing.

     Yeah, I’m aware the 14th February and the date of St Valentine’s day have always been around. I’m asking if Australian men and women in the 1940s ran around buying flowers and cards and chocolates.

     I don’t think so.

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 10:56 am
678. Julia Gillard – hated everywhere:

     Senior Labor MPs are now talking about secret union polling over the past month that reveals the seat of Lindsay could return a swing against Labor of more than 20 per cent – which would set a Federal election record.

     Labor sources in NSW claim knowledge of a recent poll conducted by the Queensland branch of the Liquor, Hospitality & Miscellaneous Workers Union, taken in the key seat… The figures are hard to believe: Labor on a primary vote of just 22 per cent…

     This is an edited version of an unsolicited phone call to me yesterday from a fuming Rudd supporter who fears that the circus tent is about to collapse around the entire Labor Party.

     “There are two things operating here. One is that Rudd is insane, and the second is that NSW will blow this show up,” the MP said.

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 11:01 am
679. We believe it is ok for him to be free to speak, so if he makes a stupid statement it will be challenged.

     If?

     He’s done nothing other than that since joining. If his last one isn’t stupid, the world has no definition.

     Please feel free to challenge any time.

     

     Yobbo

     15 Feb 13 at 11:03 am
680. Israel really needs to explain why they threw an Australian citizen in a solitary dungeon without trial – and a Labor government needs to explain why they were cool with that.

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 11:04 am
681. I’m sure they have explained. Just not to the media.

     

     Yobbo

     15 Feb 13 at 11:06 am
682. Explaining to the media (the public) is what happens in a democracy.

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 11:09 am
683. He was a dual citizen of Australia and Israel, C.L.

     It raises interesting questions about what happens when a dual citizen commits a crime. Double dipping?

     Julian Assange should have thought of that!

     

     johanna

     15 Feb 13 at 11:10 am
684. At a NSW Planning Assessment Commission meeting into a CSG proposal, the negative responses to the proposal included:

     Professor Melissa Haswell-Elkins from the Public Health Association of Australia raised concerns about a lack of scientific data on water and air pollution, and the psychological impacts of changing the landscape.

     Wow – the psychological impacts of changing the landscape ?!

     That’s even better than deploying the show stopper well-known toxic by-product of economic activity – dust.

     That’s the end of human development, thanks to the social scientists.

     

     Myrrdin Seren

     15 Feb 13 at 11:13 am
685. What was the crime?

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 11:14 am
686. C.L. As a teenager in the mid 60′s, I had a pen friend from The Philippines. I received a Valentine’s card one year and if I’d known the expression at the time, it would have been “WTF?”

     I also have elderly friends who celebrated 59 years of marriage yesterday. They’ve stopped admitting to waitresses that it is their anniversary because the reaction is “How sweet. You were married on St Valentine’s Day” No, it was no big deal in 1934.

     

     eam

     15 Feb 13 at 11:16 am
687. Explaining to the media (the public) is what happens in a democracy.

     You sound like Julian Assange.

     

     Yobbo

     15 Feb 13 at 11:16 am
688. I also have elderly friends who celebrated 59 years of marriage yesterday. They’ve stopped admitting to waitresses that it is their anniversary because the reaction is “How sweet. You were married on St Valentine’s Day” No, it was no big deal in 1934.

     Are they also time travellers?

     

     Yobbo

     15 Feb 13 at 11:18 am
689. Yeah, I’m aware the 14th February and the date of St Valentine’s day have always been around. I’m asking if Australian men and women in the 1940s ran around buying flowers and cards and chocolates.

     I’m sure it’s commercialised in a different way now, yes (not that that’s necessarily a bad thing)… but if my parents were soppy enough to get married on the day 50 years ago, then I’d say there was always something there.

     I view it the same as I view complaints about the commercialisation of Christmas – it’s the free market in action. Make of it what you will.

     

     Fleeced

     15 Feb 13 at 11:19 am
690. Well, C.L., that’s the point. He was an Israeli citizen, living in Israel, employed by the Israeli government, and whatever happened to him happened under the auspices of the Israeli government.

     I am not suggesting that what happened was right or wrong – I simply don’t know.

     But people with a single citizenship only have one government to appeal to if they get into trouble. Dual citizens theoretically have two. Doesn’t seem fair to me.

     

     johanna

     15 Feb 13 at 11:20 am
691. Yes, Yobbo – expecting an ally and our own government to explain why an Australian citizen was thrown in solitary (apparently for life) makes me Julian Assange.

     Don’t be silly.

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 11:21 am
692. They’ve stopped admitting to waitresses that it is their anniversary because the reaction is “How sweet. You were married on St Valentine’s Day” No, it was no big deal in 1934.

     My parents went out of there way to do it 50 years ago (soppy bastards) – it was mid-week and everything, so if it was not a big deal 69 years ago (or 59, or whatever), it seems that this changed shortly after.

     

     Fleeced

     15 Feb 13 at 11:23 am
693. Yes, Yobbo – expecting an ally and our own government to explain why an Australian citizen was thrown in solitary (apparently for life) makes me Julian Assange.

     Don’t be silly.

     Sounds like cherry picking to me. I don’t recall you being so outraged about David Hicks.

     

     Yobbo

     15 Feb 13 at 11:25 am
694. I view it the same as I view complaints about the commercialisation of Christmas – it’s the free market in action. Make of it what you will.

     Right. I’m not criticising the market or even ‘complaining’ about it. I’m just saying its ultra-importance on the Australian calendar is a recent invention. It was never a big deal in Australia – not even when I was a teenager.

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 11:29 am
695. As a teenager in the mid 60′s, I had a pen friend from The Philippines. I received a Valentine’s card one year and if I’d known the expression at the time, it would have been “WTF?”

     I wasn’t around then, but it looks from all the mentions of Valentine’s Day in Australian media from the 1960s that is was, indeed, a Thing.

     

     sdog

     15 Feb 13 at 11:30 am
696. Abbott flags $10billion saving
     http://www.nationaltimes.com.au/opinion/political-news/abbott-flags-10bn-in-savings-through-job-program-cuts-20130215-2egxu.html

     Bye, bye – 12,000 public servants
     – School kids bonus
     – Increase in humanitarian intake

     That does not include savings from the MRRT and the waste associated with the carbon tax.

     In more good news, an internal Labor poll in the seat of Lindsay projects a primary vote of 22%. Oh dear! Probably not entirely true but it is a good sign of what is to come.

     http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Labor-looking-at-setting-all-the-wrong-records-in-2013/

     

     Andrew

     15 Feb 13 at 11:31 am
697. Sounds like cherry picking to me. I don’t recall you being so outraged about David Hicks.

     Can’t say I’m all that outraged over Hicks, either. He was picked up in a warzone, fighting for the enemy side, and was imprisoned awaiting trial… Don’t know anything about the guy in Israel, though.

     

     Fleeced

     15 Feb 13 at 11:32 am
698. I’m just saying its ultra-importance on the Australian calendar is a recent invention. It was never a big deal in Australia – not even when I was a teenager.

     Same goes for Halloween. FWIW I don’t think anyone over 40 takes either seriously.

     If you don’t get a day off, it’s not a real holiday. End of story.

     

     Yobbo

     15 Feb 13 at 11:33 am
699. Sounds like cherry picking to me. I don’t recall you being so outraged about David Hicks.

     You’re again being silly.

     We knew exactly where David Hicks was and what he was accused of; we were also kept laboriously informed of the legal proceedings planned for him. His military lawyer toured Australia canning the US and Australian governments.

     You sound like Clive Hamilton selling the “suspension of democracy.”

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 11:34 am
700. Right. I’m not criticising the market or even ‘complaining’ about it. I’m just saying its ultra-importance on the Australian calendar is a recent invention. It was never a big deal in Australia – not even when I was a teenager.

     Perhaps the commercial aspect is more recent… so what? What’s the big deal? Companies have a vested interest in pushing it – just as with any other campaign. Sometimes these things take off, sometimes they don’t.

     

     Fleeced

     15 Feb 13 at 11:35 am
701. Same goes for Halloween.

     Yes… funnily enough, a lot of the resistance /i’ve encountered over Halloween seems to be less about it’s “over-commercialisation” and more because:

     1) It’s seen as an American thing (and people love to hate on the US – even though it has its roots elsewhere)
     2) “We didn’t have it when we were kids!”

     I think it seems like a fun event… happy to import it.

     

     Fleeced

     15 Feb 13 at 11:39 am
702. I wish steak and blowjob day had taken off.

     

     Yobbo

     15 Feb 13 at 11:39 am
703. Halloween is even more fun for adults. Costumes are more likely to be slutty than scary.

     

     Yobbo

     15 Feb 13 at 11:40 am
704. Yobbo – so you missed out?

     

     Sinclair Davidson

     15 Feb 13 at 11:40 am
705. I wish steak and blowjob day had taken off.

     Don’t they say supply creates demand?

     

     Fleeced

     15 Feb 13 at 11:42 am
706. Spot, your Women’s Weekly links (of which there are actually very few) are from the 1960s – not really the old days but the decade when Australian culture started being Americanised.

     This sort of ties into our Prince William/wedding band discussion. When I was growing up, I didn’t know any men (father, uncles, neighbours, coaches etc) who wore wedding rings. They were virtually unheard of in Australia. When I went to secondary school, I noticed some of the younger staff wearing them – so I guess that became a ‘tradition’ in the 1970s.

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 11:46 am
707. Jeez things are crook.

     Even Farr Out can’t summon the energy to pick up his pompoms. Not even a token AbbbottAbbottAbbott. Link if you can be bothered. Let’s hope Ol’ Leathery can do better.

     

     H B Bear

     15 Feb 13 at 11:47 am
708. Oops – underestimated Farr Out’s alternative reality,

     The Opposition is hugely vulnerable on its fiscal management, and Tony Abbott has a mounting list of promises and proposals he has yet to back up with any identification of funding.

     .

     Can’t think of anyone else who might have the same problem.

     

     H B Bear

     15 Feb 13 at 11:55 am
709. I didn’t want a wedding ring but gave into the wife’s wishes. It’s a nice shield from the hordes of desperate old bangers.

     A mate of mine got one with a diamond in it. It’s the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     15 Feb 13 at 11:57 am
710. It’s a nice shield from the hordes of desperate old bangers.

     I’ve heard it can have the opposite effect.

     A mate of mine got one with a diamond in it. It’s the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

     What sor of ring does his husband have?

     I kid, I kid… I must admit – wedding rings on men always seemed normal to me (my Dad had one, after all), but it never occurred to me that the men’s would be anything other than a gold band.

     

     Fleeced

     15 Feb 13 at 12:04 pm
711. Wedding rings on men just doesn’t seem… masculine.

     Sort of on a par with men having long hair, earrings, and pink Don Dunstan shorts.

     

     Steve at the Pub

     15 Feb 13 at 12:09 pm
712. but it never occurred to me that the men’s would be anything other than a gold band.

     Titanium.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     15 Feb 13 at 12:10 pm
713. from the 1960s – not really the old days

     Because I singled those out, as I was replying to someone who claimed that Valentine’s Day was unknown in Australia in the 60s.

     My parameter was 1960-1969… remove that and “view all” and there are plenty more.

     

     sdog

     15 Feb 13 at 12:11 pm
714. labor will introduce income tax increases if the goose gets to deliver his final triumphant (non surplus) budget. It will be an act of sheer malice, as it sets up the Coalition for attacks if they then repeal the increases, especially given the likely enormity of the deficit.

     I have heard from an impeccable source that the Gubbermint are developing a tax on sugar similar to the Alcopops tax.

     You know it make sense cause the minions don’t know what is good for them, the Gubbermint need to tax the minions away from sugar and all the nastiness it foists upon them – you know fat peoples and all that…

     Has anyone else heard such rumours? Is anyone in the know?

     

     Old Fridgie

     15 Feb 13 at 12:17 pm
715. Rad Hadley 2GB now confirmed by Canberra.
     Secret case of Tuberculosis of Serco worker now in hospital. The case of TB has been hidden for weeks. Probably contracted on Christmas Island. Source of infection not yet revealed. How many more?

     

     stackja

     15 Feb 13 at 12:19 pm
716. It’s a nice shield from the hordes of desperate old bangers.

     They don’t yell, they don’t tell, they don’t swell and they’re grateful as hell.

     

     Pickles

     15 Feb 13 at 12:21 pm
717. William A Jacobson has a bit of a Prisoner X update post up.

     This is a follow up to yesterday’s post about Prisoner X.

     I’m not sure there is much greater clarification of why he was imprisoned, but it’s clear he was not secretly imprisoned, as the Australian Embassy was informed, he had a lawyer, and the courts were aware.

     By the way, there’s someone in comments there who seems to have set him/herself up as the spokesperson for all things Australian on this and the last Prisoner X post. E.g.

     I think Professor – you are wrong on this because that is what you want to believe. The world of Israeli influence is spinning out of orbit. They have lost another Anglo partner [i.e. Australia].

     Most interestingly Zyglier’s father is the CEO of The B’Nai Brith Anti – Defamation League. This often bully body is all for the despicable anti discrimination model that you yourself mocked on LI recently. BTW this at least got rid of the Attorney General who had to resign.

     I would like to ask around but it is not a good time for the Jewish community in Australia. I personally think this is the end of the Zionist here. They had an excellent run. [emphasis mine]

     In case someone feels like jumping in with another viewpoint.

     

     sdog

     15 Feb 13 at 12:21 pm
718. Old Fridgie 15 Feb 13 at 12:17 pm

     The window tax was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house. It was a significant social, cultural, and architectural force in England, France …
     Next a door tax, roof tax, air tax….?

     

     stackja

     15 Feb 13 at 12:23 pm
719. Are they also time travellers?

     Oops… That was a real Senior’s moment. They were only born in 1932. They were married in 1953! It was 60 years yesterday.

     that is was, indeed, a Thing.

     I really can’t remember noticing Valentine’s Day till the mid 70′s. It is much too commercialised today.

     

     eam

     15 Feb 13 at 12:27 pm
720. It is much too commercialised today.

     I don’t really understand this complaint… Are you saying it’s too popular? Is it just the commercial nature of the popularity you dislike? I don’t get it…

     

     Fleeced

     15 Feb 13 at 12:37 pm
721. The Opposition is hugely vulnerable on its fiscal management…

     LOL.

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 12:43 pm
722. He’s done nothing other than that since joining. If his last one isn’t stupid, the world has no definition.

     Please feel free to challenge any time.

     I note that you, Abu and a raft of others challenge him regularly.

     To be honest I stopped reviewing his work after the 229th image about abortion.

     

     Token

     15 Feb 13 at 12:47 pm
723. Yeah, that’s the Libs weak point – fiscal management… LOL. They don’t realise how stupid they look when they write this stuff, do they?

     

     Fleeced

     15 Feb 13 at 12:48 pm
724. Did anyone see Turnbull on Lateline last night?

     He told Jones to “lighten up.”

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 12:48 pm
725. To be honest I stopped reviewing his work after the 229th image about abortion

     Oh, Potemkin still posting? Never understood the attraction there – but not my blog… so he’s an anti-vaxxer, as well?

     

     Fleeced

     15 Feb 13 at 12:53 pm
726. Senior Labor MPs are now talking about secret union polling over the past month that reveals the seat of Lindsay could return a swing against Labor of more than 20 per cent – which would set a Federal election record.

     Secret polling? I’m sure Gillard has not seen this as I believe every word she says .

     

     Splatacrobat

     15 Feb 13 at 12:54 pm
727. TONY JONES: OK, let’s go to another area of your Communications portfolio. The Government gave the ABC a $10 million funding boost for its news and current affairs division last week. Do you support that?

     MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well I don’t need to support it, but I welcome it.

     TONY JONES: Do you endorse it? Do you think it’s a good idea?

     MALCOLM TURNBULL: I am a great supporter of the ABC. It is not entirely immaculate. It does have some flaws. Even you err on occasions, Tony. But the … smile! Lighten up! But seriously though, the ABC is more important than ever.

     It was quite amusing actually because when Turnbull said “even you err on occasions” Jones arched the brows and had a very shitty look on his face.

     Happily, he got his Valentine to crack it for a smile.

     From 6:50 ———->>>>>>>>>>>>

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 12:54 pm
728. To be honest I stopped reviewing his work after the 229th image about abortion.

     Fool you once, shame on him – fool you two hundred and thirty times, shame on you… we all learn eventually

     

     Fleeced

     15 Feb 13 at 12:55 pm
729. Lateline link:

     http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3690871.htm

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 12:56 pm
730. The window tax was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house. It was a significant social, cultural, and architectural force in England, France …
     Next a door tax, roof tax, air tax….?

     20 years ago (pre-Kennet) the Victorian Alpine Resorts they used to raise rates based upon different basis at Hotham (# of beds), Falls Creek (total ground square meters) & Buller (enclosed square meters)

     As a result:

     * the buildings at Buller had a lot of “unenclosed” annexes which were not found at the other mountains,

     * the buildings at Falls are tall with narrow base, and

     * at Hotham they fitted out the lodges with easy to assemble/disassemble beds and with storage space where the planks could be hidden at audit time.

     (I think I got that in the right order, its been 20 years)

     

     Token

     15 Feb 13 at 12:57 pm
731. Window Tax… A tax on holes in the wall.

     Oh well, Gillard has beaten that with the air tax.

     

     Fleeced

     15 Feb 13 at 1:00 pm
732. Labor MP Tim Holding confirms resignation

     

     stackja

     15 Feb 13 at 1:06 pm
733. I am a great supporter of the ABC.

     They’re pretty keen on you too, Malcolm.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     15 Feb 13 at 1:06 pm
734. The Estate Tax and the Window Tax completely changed the look of Britain.

     Thousands of historic home were demolished to avoid the estate tax. Bill Bryson’s Home has a really good account of both taxes and their affects.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     15 Feb 13 at 1:13 pm
735. The hide. The audacity. The temerity. The relentless stupidity. The relentlessly audacious stupidity.

     http://nottrampis.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/catallaxy-lift-your-game.html

     Homer Paxton is now a blog reviewer for consumers, blames his MBA for his general stupidity etc.

     Items Homer has not defended thus far:

     *Telling us that service stations do not try to maximise profits on impulse items

     *Fuel watch would have worked, besides being dumped by its proponenets

     *Telling a conveyancing lawyer how conveyancing works

     *His bizzare “Skan Kee Ho” comment, that she was a Chinese warlord’s mistress, everyone in the ALP right knew this, and Albrechtsen was wrong to take it as being called a “dirty street hooker”

     *Mark Latham was going to hit John Howard like a Mack Truck

     *If you’re not a confessing Christian, there is no way to get salvation, despite what theology says and the sheer bastardry of such a comment

     *Attacking catallaxy whilst giving “consumers” a caveat about ignoring criticism of Krugman because “some people attack him over his politics”

     *He believes, contrary to Adam Tooze’s research, that the Nazi war machine contributed greatly to German income, economic welfare and there was no illegal or secret funding of war materiel.

     *People have fond memories of German slave labour

     *You were free to leave

     *It was the equivalent of a work for the dole programme

     *No one was ever shot for desertion (the Nazis never did anything extra-judicial, apparently)

     *The German Government was not taken over department by department by parallel Nazi organisations

     *The German High Command and Nazi Party never used labour battalions in combat

     *Superannuation should be 15%, regardless of unemployment it would cause or how hard a 6% drop in income would make buying a home

     *The President of the Australian Senate gets a casting vote.

     Some current “gems” Homer recycles from hysterical anti smoking crusader, Harry Clarke

     *The Government isn’t spending like crazy

     *The stimulus worked in Australia (yes just look at those job ads now)

     * Obama didn’t increase the deficit with a Democrat Congress, it’s Bush’s fault

     *Cutting the budget by 1% of GDP will devastate the economy.

     *”The ALP can still win the next election IF history repeats itself!”

     *Education will take off once the NBN gets up.

     *The Community Reinvestment Act, had nothing to do with the GFC, not even in the smallest way. It’s in a Fed paper.

     *Sinclair Davidson has won the first “Goebbels Award” for saying that GDP figures are biased towards Keynesian policy.

     *A 54-46 poll in favour of the LNP is “a swing to the Government”.

     *Scientific American is the final word on global warming and the predictions have been bang on.

     *Terms of trade are not at record or near record levels

     *Bumbling and semi literate Homer thinks it is miracle that Steve Kates and Samuel J have a job.

     

     .

     15 Feb 13 at 1:16 pm
736. Oh, Potemkin still posting? Never understood the attraction there – but not my blog… so he’s an anti-vaxxer, as well?

     This gist of his argument is ok: that radical man hating nut jobs like Tanya Plibersek desire to medicate boys against ailments that are almost entirely related to girls in order to “protect” unvaccinated girls.

     Now if we’re going to get all paternal about females again and start self-sacrificing for their benefit that’s cool but lets not pretend that at any more than a superficial level jabbing young boys with Gardasil has anything to do with boys health.

     

     twostix

     15 Feb 13 at 1:19 pm
737. Ray Hadley Tuberculosis in Villawood

     Ray breaks the news a female staff member at Villawood Detention Centre has been diagnosed with a case of tuberculosis and is now in isolation in hospital. Ray also speaks with Shadow Immigration Minister Scott Morrison comments on the case of tuberculosis in Villawood and detainee issues at the Manus Island processing centre.

     

     stackja

     15 Feb 13 at 1:25 pm
738. Here’s ABC Online footage of Plibersek explaining to children why they’re now vaccinating boys. She avoids using the word “girls” – preferring “young women.”

     Boys, though, she calls “boys.”

     I think the logic here is similar to men being in labour wards: totally unnecessary but ‘fair’ because if females endure it, boys should too.

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 1:25 pm
739. I didn’t want a wedding ring but gave into the wife’s wishes. It’s a nice shield from the hordes of desperate old bangers.

     In my experience it doesn’t seem to stop them.

     

     Will

     15 Feb 13 at 1:28 pm
740. Perhaps the commercial aspect is more recent… so what? What’s the big deal? Companies have a vested interest in pushing it – just as with any other campaign. Sometimes these things take off, sometimes they don’t.

     Yes religious observances have been a boon for many commecial sectors.

     Florists: St Valentines day
     Fishmongers: Good Friday
     Chocolate manufacturers: Easter Sunday
     Retailers: Christmas/Boxing day
     Flour Miller: Pancake Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday)
     Booze,BBQ & Brothels:Labour Day

     Ramadam however can have a negative commercial impact during fasting periods where it is reported Kebab shops suffer a significant decline.
     My local chinese takeaway closes down for the whole month due to Chinese New Year but I suspect this has more to do with being open every other day of the year than reverence to a new animal on their calendar.

     

     Splatacrobat

     15 Feb 13 at 1:29 pm
741. Labor sources in NSW claim knowledge of a recent poll conducted by the Queensland branch of the Liquor, Hospitality & Miscellaneous Workers Union, taken in the key seat… The figures are hard to believe: Labor on a primary vote of just 22 per cent…

     This sounds as it should be – out of every 10 people, 2 are absolute window licking morons and rent seeking moochers.

     

     Will

     15 Feb 13 at 1:30 pm
742. In my experience it doesn’t seem to stop them.

     I also have a terrible personality which helps.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     15 Feb 13 at 1:33 pm
743. Apart from the gender thing – which almost sounds like sacrificing boys for the good of all girls – her explanation about “boys” at risk of various cancers was excruciatingly jejune and quite frankly embarrassing.

     

     Gab

     15 Feb 13 at 1:33 pm
744. I think it’s a miracle homer either has a job or hasn’t.

     Think about that one. It makes sense.

     

     JC

     15 Feb 13 at 1:33 pm
745. How long til we make boys have pap smears?

     

     Infidel Tiger

     15 Feb 13 at 1:40 pm
746. How long til we make boys have pap smears?

     Not until we have trained large numbers of asian female doctors with little fingers

     

     Pickles

     15 Feb 13 at 1:46 pm
747. Just a joke, Deadman (and Dover). Sorry, I do not want to sound like someone ordering someone else around when on here. I leave that for the home front usually where there is much good that a woman can do in that regard if she puts her mind to it.

     But I jest of course. I just can’t stop it.

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     15 Feb 13 at 1:46 pm
748. I think the logic here is similar to men being in labour wards: totally unnecessary but ‘fair’ because if females endure it, boys should too.

     This.

     Also in The Aus it was hailed that unvaccinated girls would be “protected” now that boys are getting it too. So it’s gently shifting the burden of womens health onto “boys”.

     What a triumph for the feminist old crone faction.

     

     twostix

     15 Feb 13 at 1:47 pm
749. Women rarely get HPV (which is a cause of cervical cancer) from other women. They get it from men. Trust me, I know, because my allegedly monogamous partner of the time gave it to me. I had no symptoms, until after he had been given the boot, and I had to have cauterisation of the cervix to kill the warts. Fortunately it was picked up before it got a chance to progress to anything worse.

     Sorry chaps – as the carriers of a common and potentially fatal disease vector, asking you to get an immunisation shot is not unreasonable.

     It should be noted that people who carry HPV do not always have visible symptoms.

     

     johanna

     15 Feb 13 at 1:48 pm
750. Sinc,

     Could we have a separate thread for schlong/vagina/poo/wee/buttplug/STD matters, please!

     

     Rabz

     15 Feb 13 at 1:54 pm
751. Apart from the gender thing – which almost sounds like sacrificing boys for the good of all girls –

     Long lines of fresh faced boys dutifully lining up to “do the right thing” and make a self-sacrifice: “take their medicine” in order to “protect” the girls.

     Can you believe though that Plibersek, a hardline feminist, was overtly and cynically manipulating the natural paternal instinct that boys feel towards girls, an instinct that she and her ilk have spent their lives denouncing as the source of all that is wrong in the world?

     

     twostix

     15 Feb 13 at 1:55 pm
752. Sorry chaps – as the carriers of a common and potentially fatal disease vector, asking you to get an immunisation shot is not unreasonable.

     But why will we need to if girls get it anyway?

     I can see more holistic, privatised systems like HMOs doing this. There is no incentive to do it in Australia, except by mandate.

     If a man got vaccinated as a teenager, on average, he’d lower the risk for younger women in the group of getting HPV over their lifetime.

     …and so with competitive market pressures, as he reduced negative cross subsidisation of others in the pool and reducing total systemic risk, he should receive a deduction from his premium.

     

     .

     15 Feb 13 at 1:56 pm
753. Could we have a separate thread for schlong/vagina/poo/wee/buttplug/STD matters, please!

     Under the heading Not So Secret Women’s Business

     

     Splatacrobat

     15 Feb 13 at 1:57 pm
754. I didn’t want a wedding ring but gave into the wife’s wishes. It’s a nice shield from the hordes of desperate old bangers.

     Mate, you certainly don’t want TLS to spot it. She is attracted to plain gold bands like a blowfly is to a turd.

     

     Huckleberry Chunkwot

     15 Feb 13 at 1:58 pm
755. Labor sources in NSW claim knowledge of a recent poll conducted by the Queensland branch of the Liquor, Hospitality & Miscellaneous Workers Union, taken in the key seat… The figures are hard to believe: Labor on a primary vote of just 22 per cent…

     Why is a Qld branch of a union conducting polling in a NSW seat?

     

     DriftForge

     15 Feb 13 at 1:59 pm
756. This gist of his argument is ok: that radical man hating nut jobs like Tanya Plibersek desire to medicate boys against ailments that are almost entirely related to girls in order to “protect” unvaccinated girls.

     Fair enough… I admit a bias against Potemkin (as I said, I never understood the attraction), but this sounds like a much more nuanced argument than being a mere anti-vaxxer (though if I understand sdog’s post, he linked to some wackadoodle sites).

     

     Fleeced

     15 Feb 13 at 2:01 pm
757. Ramadam however can have a negative commercial impact during fasting periods where it is reported Kebab shops suffer a significant decline.

     Some places cater to the post-fast binge quite well… winners and losers in any campaign.

     

     Fleeced

     15 Feb 13 at 2:04 pm
758. …and so with competitive market pressures, as he reduced negative cross subsidisation of others in the pool and reducing total systemic risk, he should receive a deduction from his premium.

     The same could be said for breast cancer charities. When I get bailed up (with monotonous regularity) by breast cancer fundraisers I aways ask if they donate money towards prostate research? Only fair that if I give them money for their breasts, they will they give me money for my prostate?

     

     Splatacrobat

     15 Feb 13 at 2:07 pm
759. Sorry chaps – as the carriers of a common and potentially fatal disease vector, asking you to get an immunisation shot is not unreasonable.

     Silly argument… Where do the boys get it from?

     

     Fleeced

     15 Feb 13 at 2:08 pm
760. Fair enough… I admit a bias against Potemkin (as I said, I never understood the attraction), but this sounds like a much more nuanced argument than being a mere anti-vaxxer (though if I understand sdog’s post, he linked to some wackadoodle sites).

     I only looked because Yobbo had such a spaz about it and called him the “conservatives hero” which was weird.

     I don’t know anything about Gardasil so wouldn’t know about the rest of his statement or who he’s linking to.

     

     twostix

     15 Feb 13 at 2:13 pm
761. Goat rodeo watch:

     Simon Crean adds to confusion over mining tax design.

     CABINET minister Simon Crean has added to mounting confusion over the Gillard government’s mining tax, suggesting it would be redesigned before denying such a move was being contemplated.

     On Sky News this morning, Mr Crean said there was a “design flaw” in the tax that the government was seeking to address.

     “We’re seeking to actually now change the design because of the way the states, without any criticism from Tony Abbott, have put up their taxes on mining and they themselves become a deduction under the agreement that we reached,” Mr Crean said.

     Then, at a doorstop interview this afternoon, Mr Crean said the tax would not be overhauled, confirming any change to the regime would be the result of negotiation with the states.

     “I didn’t say it was being redesigned. Go back and have a look at the transcript. Let’s get your facts right,” he told reporters.

     Mr Crean is the second senior Gillard government minister to flub his lines in as many days.

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 2:17 pm
762. Where do the boys get it from?

     Good girls and Bacardi Breezers.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     15 Feb 13 at 2:21 pm
763. “We’re seeking to actually now change the design because of the way the states, without any criticism from Tony Abbott, have put up their taxes on mining…”

     There had to be an Abbott angle in there somewhere…

     

     Rabz

     15 Feb 13 at 2:21 pm
764. Shoot ‘em all:

     Child critical in Brisbane hospital with bat virus.

     Seriously. Dodo the mofos.

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 2:24 pm
765. The ALP meme about Abbot is turning on them. They have made his a folkloric, quasi President.

     This does nothing but rob themselves of legitimacy.

     It’s as though the States could have been vetoed by Abbot.

     

     .

     15 Feb 13 at 2:27 pm
766. A WOMAN”S bid for $1.3 million damages from her university and an upgrade of a C+ grade that destroyed her hopes of a career as a professional counsellor has been rejected by a court.

     Glad this was thrown out… How did it “end her career” anyway? Couldn’t she just retake the subject?

     

     Fleeced

     15 Feb 13 at 2:29 pm
767. Sorry chaps – as the carriers of a common and potentially fatal disease vector, asking you to get an immunisation shot is not unreasonable.

     It’s not to any statistical interest potentially fatal to us, only to you. And since all males initially catch it from infected women, and it’s only really fatal to women it’s not actually “reasonable” for you to expect us to get vaccinated for it to protect women who could get vaccinated themselves but don’t want to.

     

     twostix

     15 Feb 13 at 2:29 pm
768. HPV is nature’s way of ensuring that wives despise their mothers in law.

     

     .

     15 Feb 13 at 2:32 pm
769. he linked to some wackadoodle sites

     His third link is to Wired (Weird misspelled?) – bad site – wouldn’t let me leave. Had to kill and re-boot the laptop.

     

     Septimus

     15 Feb 13 at 2:33 pm
770. Da Hairy Irish Ape does not wear a wedding ring as a babe repellant; he says he has me to fend dem off now. Neither does he believe in fussing over either Valentine’s Day or Wedding Anniversaries, and even Birthdays can be forgotten, although he will use all of these special dates as reasons for immediate sex when it suits him and if he remembers.

     Failing such feats of calendrical recall, ‘hello darlin’, you been missing me?’ becomes the main mode d’emploi for calling up conjugal joy. Any absense, he believes, will make the heart grow fonder. Even an hour away will sometimes do.

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     15 Feb 13 at 2:35 pm
771. It’s stupid to say that boys don’t need a vax because the disease only affects girls.

     Boys might not die from HPV-related cancers, but genital warts aren’t exactly much fun either.

     It’s the exact same argument that anti-vaxxers use against measles and mumps vaccinations. “I had those when I was a kid and I was fine!”.

     Except that not everyone who gets them ends up fine.

     Not getting a vaccination that’s available for any widespread disease is completely retarded. The only reason this is a debate at all is because HPV is spread by sexual contact, which offends parents who think their precious snowflake will never have sex.

     It’s not like this is a rare disease. 1 in 3 people have it.

     

     Yobbo

     15 Feb 13 at 2:37 pm
772. 1 in 3 people have it.

     Stats alert.

     

     jupes

     15 Feb 13 at 2:40 pm
773. 1 in 3 people have it.

     33% Labor primary vote? (crank up twighlight zone theme music)

     Does this mean only Labor voters are carriers? Pliber’s might have to start innoculating the whole caucus as they seem to be always rooting each other

     

     Splatacrobat

     15 Feb 13 at 2:48 pm
774. Stupid question

     Why can’t older people get Gardasil or a similar product?

     I always assumed there was a physiological reason.

     Elementary scanning of the web infers that the US FDA basically blocked its use because there wasn’t a demonstrable benefit to consumers (for cancer, there was a benefit for genital warts).

     Seems like a case of choice being eliminated and the results being society worse off.

     

     .

     15 Feb 13 at 2:48 pm
775. 33% Labor primary vote?

     There would an irrefutable correlation between leftism and STI’s. It’s another reason we must ban leftism and neuter its proponents.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     15 Feb 13 at 2:52 pm
776. Something I learned today is that HPV also causes some kinds of head and neck cancers, including mouth cancer.

     If we have compulsory HPV vaccinations, we can get rid of plain packaged tobacco.

     

     .

     15 Feb 13 at 2:53 pm
777. If we needed any further proof as to how mentally incompetent this government is, then the following certainly adds to the rap sheet.

     http://delimiter.com.au/2013/02/15/secret-data-retention-docs-display-gross-technical-ineptitude/

     A treasure trove of previously confidential documents pertaining to the Government’s data retention policy and released this week under Freedom of Information laws display an astonishing technical ineptitude on the part of the Attorney-General’s Department with respect to the controversial project.

     This data retention policy is anti-freedom and I would look at the Coalition too and say “don’t even think about it.”

     

     tbh

     15 Feb 13 at 2:55 pm
778. Technical ineptitude?

     In the Gillard government?

     On Nicola Roxon’s watch?

     I’m indescribably shocked.

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 2:57 pm
779. Could we have a separate thread for schlong/vagina/poo/wee/buttplug/STD matters, please!

     Rabz, it’s called sfb’s blog.

     

     dover_beach

     15 Feb 13 at 2:57 pm
780. it’s called sfb’s blog

     Of course!

     

     

     Rabz

     15 Feb 13 at 3:02 pm
781. Homer Paxton – stupid git.

     Posts to this insane piece of shit article by Ezra Klein.

     http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/30/government-is-hurting-the-economy-by-spending-too-little/

     These guys have no shame or decency. They are not economists and they never had the ambition to be one.

     Their ambition is being a political leader of country spending immense sums on their own personal glorification. Paid by the little guy.

     

     .

     15 Feb 13 at 3:02 pm
782. It’s stupid to say that boys don’t need a vax because the disease only affects girls.

     Boys might not die from HPV-related cancers, but genital warts aren’t exactly much fun either.

     Except that not everyone who gets them ends up fine.

     It only “protects” against 4 strains of HPV, and only two that cause warts, there’s over 40 strains that cause genital warts.

     It’s the exact same argument that anti-vaxxers use against measles and mumps vaccinations. “I had those when I was a kid and I was fine!”.

     If women want to be protected from the effects of the virus they should get vaccinated. Demanding boys get vaccinated to protect the women who don’t want to be vaccinated, now that’s stupid.

     So it’s “exactly the same” argument by being nothing at all like it.

     Get it? It does nothing for boys, it’s purely to protect women who don’t get vaccinated themselves.

     The only reason this is a debate at all is because HPV is spread by sexual contact, which offends parents who think their precious snowflake will never have sex.

     The only people who think people like this exist are single male internet warriors who sit around and construct fantasies about what “parents” in the real world think so they can then rage against the constructed fantasy.

     

     twostix

     15 Feb 13 at 3:04 pm
783. The only reason this is a debate at all is because HPV is spread by sexual contact, which offends parents who think their precious snowflake will never have sex.

     Hard to say this is wrong. Few people are anti measles vaccinations.

     Personally, I’m pissed off there wasn’t a chicken pox vaccine when I was a kid.

     

     .

     15 Feb 13 at 3:09 pm
784. Rabz, it’s called sfb’s blog.

     Ah, memories of happier times, when, buoyed by his psephological triumph over the Black Jesus’ re-election, Steve from Brisbane would seek to double-up on the Australian election, assuring us that the electorate would any minute now see with blinding clarity the misogyny, racism, climate-change denial and 19th-Century-mill-owner-IR-policies of the Abbottmonster, and re-embrace the girl next door, the plucky workers’ warrior, Joolya.

     It was delusional if not clinically insane……but touching, all the same.

     Sadly, since his self-sectioning, Steve’s informed comment on how Australia is and will always be better off under Labor is lost to us.

     

     James in Melbourne

     15 Feb 13 at 3:09 pm
785. Boys might not die from HPV-related cancers, but genital warts aren’t exactly much fun either.

     Its not as common, but men do die of HPV related cancers. HPV can cause penile, anal, and tonsil cancers.

     

     Chris

     15 Feb 13 at 3:11 pm
786. It only “protects” against 4 strains of HPV, and only two that cause warts, there’s over 40 strains that cause genital warts.

     The 2 it protects against cause 90% of all genital warts.

     Get it? It does nothing for boys, it’s purely to protect women who don’t get vaccinated themselves.

     The same strain that causes cervical cancer in women can also cause anal cancer in men, although much less common. It does something for everyone, it prevents genital warts and cancer in everyone. It’s just that the risk of cancer is much higher in women.

     The only people who think people like this exist are single male internet warriors who sit around and construct fantasies about what “parents” in the real world think

     Really?

     In both the California and Texas mandate deliberations, people worried that promoting Gardasil was an endorsement of sexual promiscuity.

     

     Yobbo

     15 Feb 13 at 3:12 pm
787. Personally, I’m pissed off there wasn’t a chicken pox vaccine when I was a kid.

     Me too. There was someone around here recently advocating chicken pox parties. Just because most cases of chicken pox are fairly benign, doesn’t meant that all of them are.

     

     Chris

     15 Feb 13 at 3:13 pm
788. Nate Silver would have looked like a turd eating chump if not for Hurricane Sandy.

     What were his 2010 predictions, exactly?

     

     .

     15 Feb 13 at 3:13 pm
789. It is tough call for best tv series at the moment:
     Survivor Canberra or Political Idol.

     Though I am looking forward to the final episodes of My Kitchen Cabinet Rules and Showdown at Little Nambour

     

     Rousie

     15 Feb 13 at 3:16 pm
790. Technical ineptitude?

     In the Gillard government?

     On Nicola Roxon’s watch?

     I’m indescribably shocked.

     It’s a surprise to me also CL.

     

     tbh

     15 Feb 13 at 3:16 pm
791. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-42844522/mercks-next-target-for-its-hpv-vaccine-gay-men/

     http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/news/archive/cancernews/2007-02-23-gay-men-seeking-hpv-vaccine

     

     Gab

     15 Feb 13 at 3:17 pm
792. Homer Paxton – stupid git.

     Tell us something we didn’t know.

     Dot, the idiot spends his time simmering over the fact that he’s banned from here.

     Homer is the only person I know who’s been banned from three blogs i I know of for general idiocy and rank stupidity. It has to be a first in ozblogdom.

     

     JC

     15 Feb 13 at 3:22 pm
793. Guardisil for gay men

     - Merck targeting gay men.

     - Cancer Research UK

     

     Gab

     15 Feb 13 at 3:23 pm
794. Me too. There was someone around here recently advocating chicken pox parties. Just because most cases of chicken pox are fairly benign, doesn’t meant that all of them are.

     I’m certainly a proponent of getting your kids vaccinated where the benefits are high and the risks are relatively low. We didn’t even think twice about having the suite of vaccines for MMR etc when our kids were born. I mean, what kind of retarded parent puts their kids at risk like that, especially in light of the Wakefield scandal of not long ago?

     When it comes to HPV vaccines, however, I’d want to talk to a doctor I trust before having it administered to my son especially and probably my daughter as well. You just want to be informed of the pros and cons before doing something that might affect the health of people who aren’t getting a say in it.

     

     tbh

     15 Feb 13 at 3:24 pm
795. There was someone around here recently advocating chicken pox parties.

     No one was advocating any such thing. They were recounting incidents from their childhood.

     There is a difference.

     

     Rabz

     15 Feb 13 at 3:26 pm
796. No one was advocating any such thing. They were recounting incidents from their childhood.

     There is a difference

     How dare you present facts and argue with a lefty’s reconstructed memory of events!

     

     Token

     15 Feb 13 at 3:32 pm
797. There was someone around here recently advocating chicken pox parties.

     Grey, SFB, Monty have been advocating “a pox on both your house parties” for years.

     They are carriers of a virus far worse than chicken pox…communism

     

     Splatacrobat

     15 Feb 13 at 3:35 pm
798. Jonathan Green from The Drum hits a new high of left craziness.

     http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-14/green-the-facts-wont-speak-for-themselves/4517146

     He contends that Labor are doing badly because the people don’t know the facts about the good job they are doing.

     

     Andrew

     15 Feb 13 at 3:42 pm
799. [Jonathan Green] contends that Labor are doing badly because the people don’t know the facts about the good job they are doing.

     If only the media weren’t so obviously in the tank for Tony Abbott.

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 3:46 pm
800. He contends that Labor are doing badly because the people don’t know the facts about the good job they are doing.

     Poor JG, it is going to be many years before him and his chums get to beat their Abbott Pinata.

     

     Token

     15 Feb 13 at 3:52 pm
801. Poor, unrestrained Margo Kingston, surpassing her ordinary lunacy (whereby, for instance, people unoffended by someone’s words stridently take offence on behalf of other unoffended people) demands that the ABC be even less balanced (rather like when the Stalinist hag, Sen. Rhiannon, thought that the Soviets were too soft on rebellious Czechoslovakians), and is dreadfully peeved that anyone could be allowed to say that Gillard’s fawning poodle, Jon Faine, could be anything less that a perfect host:

     Looks like ABC #Faine story will be yet another long hard climb …aliansforhonestpolitics.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/sto… so I’ve lodged an FOI request righttoknow.org.au/request/abc_de…— margo kingston (@margokingston1) February 15, 2013

     

     Deadman

     15 Feb 13 at 3:56 pm
802. [Jonathan Green] contends that Labor are doing badly because the people don’t know the facts about the good job they are doing.

     In other words, the ALP needs to hire a new media.

     

     dover_beach

     15 Feb 13 at 3:57 pm
803. There was someone around here recently advocating chicken pox parties.

     That was me Chris, except IIRC, I said “does anyone remember…” and I’m sure it was about German Measles.

     As for the immunisation of HPV thing, the immediate effects of immunisation can be quite nasty – anaphylaxis is one, but it’s pretty bloody rare. So maybe the point is to decrease the nasty side effects in girls, and get the boys to drop dead instead.
     It’s the way Feminists think.

     

     Winston SMITH

     15 Feb 13 at 3:57 pm
804. Jonathan Green writes the old speal about Labor not being so bad but victim of dishonest reporting.

     He backs this up with Crikey’s Possum analysis of the pink bat fiasco.

     Now here’s where it gets interesting. Possum had two main articles about pink bats:

     - His first article was all based around his own analysis.
     - Second article was where he attempts (poorly) to reconcile the CSIRO’s subsequent findings with his own. The CSIRO found that JG pink bats did have an enhanced fire risk.

     (much of the argument sits around short vs long term fire rate. it’s obvious why long term is irrelevant – the dangerous installations burn as soon as you flick the switch, turn the heater on etc)

     So of course Jonathan Green links to the first article and ignores the CSIRO’s comprehensive analysis entirely.

     

     Harold

     15 Feb 13 at 4:02 pm
805. GILLARD GOVT IN CHAOS

     Gillard’s frenetic attempts to shore up her position may well be in vain if resignations displace her undemocratic notion to avoid by-elections.

     Insufficient Gillard numbers on the floor of the House and Abbott becomes caretaker Prime Minister. Writs are immediately issued, Parliament is prorogued and an election, including half the Senate, will be called in six weeks’ time.

     

     Rudiau

     15 Feb 13 at 4:09 pm
806. He backs this up with Crikey’s Possum analysis of the pink batts fiasco.

     LOL. I remember it well. Possum argued the four deaths and 200 house fires weren’t really a debacle at all. No no – it was a great success.

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 4:11 pm
807. Lizzie, your exhortation not to “clog up our important discussion of mobile phones” let me know that you weren’t completely serious; but, nonetheless, I was content to offer sincere apologies largely because, following the example of our Beloved Leaders, I’ll apologise for anything (a) wherefor I’m not responsible and (b) whereto I have no power to redress suffering. Accordingly, I regularly apologise for such unfortunate events as the War of the Spanish Succession or all slavery everywhere.

     

     Deadman

     15 Feb 13 at 4:15 pm
808. And under the Green article a commentator tells us that the CSIRO found no danger…

     “A CSIRO analysis found households at risk of fires from insulation installed under the $1200 rebate offer has fallen to 2.5 homes a year in every 100,000. Before the rebate, fires occurred in 2.4 homes a year out of every 100,000.”

     (quoting SMH)

     Again, they’re looking at the LONG TERM rate i.e. “if the installation hasn’t burnt after a year it’s chances of burning are…”.

     The dodgy installations burn early!

     

     Harold

     15 Feb 13 at 4:16 pm
809. The sad fact of the matter is that we have to pay for that partisan hack.

     

     Andrew

     15 Feb 13 at 4:17 pm
810. Accordingly, I regularly apologise for such unfortunate events as the War of the Spanish Succession or all slavery everywhere.

     What about the War of Jenkin’s Ear – Deadman?

     There has never been a satisfactory apology for that kerfuffle.

     

     Token

     15 Feb 13 at 4:24 pm
811. Media Watch Dog #170 is up
     

     THIS WEEK – READ ALL ABOUT:

     ● Stop Press: Malcolm Turnbull Relatively Happy but ABC Remains a Conservative-Free Zone

     ● Maurice Newman Segment: ABC Group-Think Aplenty re Benedict XVI

     ● A Linda Mottram Moment: On Pope Benedict XVI as Divisive

     ● Five Paws Award: Step Forward Cassandra Wilkinson, Miranda Devine and Scott Stephens

     ● Can You Bear It? Comrade Alex Mitchell Returns to the Barricades With a Bad Memory; The Search for Literary Grants Continues

     ● Nancy’s Pick-of-the-Week: Christian Kerr’s Reflections on The Global Mail; the “forthcoming” Guardian Down Under; Greens Activist Graeme Wood and More Besides

     ● The Mysterious M – A Centenary of Post-Publication Proof-reading

     ● Phil (Call me Fool) Kafkaloudes’ Comedy Stint on News Breakfast

     ● Great Media Predictions: The Canberra Times on the ACT Liberals

     ● History Corner: Warwick Hadfield Defames the Late John Wren and Good Old Collingwood

     ● Correspondence: On Peter Tatchell’s Same-Sex Marriage U-Turn

     

     Cold-Hands

     15 Feb 13 at 4:42 pm
812. With contrite heart, Token, I wish to apologise for the pain and suffering associated with the War of Jenkin’s Ear.
     I am convinced, however, that anyone who feels inconvenienced or adversely affected, in any way, will feel some degree of succour—and even, I piously hope, reconciliation—by provisions of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and by my firm undertaking to do all I can to prevent such unfortunate conflicts ever reoccurring.
     I am truly sorry.

     

     Deadman

     15 Feb 13 at 4:53 pm
813. Sky News scoop:

     Holden boss backs government assistance.

     

     C.L.

     15 Feb 13 at 5:13 pm
814. Curiosity got the better of me. I had to find out if there really was a “War of Jenkins Ear.”
     There was, FFS.

     

     Winston SMITH

     15 Feb 13 at 5:18 pm
815. Sky News scoop:

     Holden boss backs government assistance.

     So the boss needs $275 million from the Government to inject $4 billion into the economy…right! Considering the job losses from these car companies even after the all the subsidies that were supposed to save jobs, how can the corporate welfare be justified?

     

     Andrew

     15 Feb 13 at 5:21 pm
816. Insufficient Gillard numbers on the floor of the House and Abbott becomes caretaker Prime Minister. Writs are immediately issued, Parliament is prorogued and an election, including half the Senate, will be called in six weeks’ time.

     I don’t think that the half senate election could be called. According to Antony Green, Section 13 of the Constitution prevents writs for a half-Senate election being issued before 1 July 2013.

     

     Cold-Hands

     15 Feb 13 at 5:23 pm
817. Only way we could have a senate election (which is what we want) before August 20 is through a double dissolution.

     

     Andrew

     15 Feb 13 at 5:27 pm
818. In other words, the ALP needs to hire a new media.

     You know, they probably stuff that up too, and end up with Smith and Pickering running it.

     

     mct

     15 Feb 13 at 5:38 pm
819. With contrite heart, Token, I wish to apologise for the pain and suffering associated with the War of Jenkin’s Ear.

     And your opinion of on the Sonderbund War? My all time favourite for obscure wars…

     

     mct

     15 Feb 13 at 5:40 pm
820. What about the War of Jenkin’s Ear – Deadman?

     There has never been a satisfactory apology for that kerfuffle.

     I blame the Welsh. I personally apportion 100% of the blame on Julia Gillard. She ought to die of shame!

     

     .

     15 Feb 13 at 5:46 pm
821. I, for one, mct, apologise for all wars which are seldom commemorated, including the Anglo-Zanzibar War which lasted 38 minutes on 27 August 1896.

     

     Deadman

     15 Feb 13 at 5:51 pm
822. I suspect we might now need a little-known, minor conflict thread.

     

     Deadman

     15 Feb 13 at 5:52 pm
823. Sky News scoop:

     Holden boss backs government assistance.

     You fuckers. The Mercedes CLA will retail in America for a touch under 30k USD.

     It ought to retail in Australia for about 28 560 AUD.

     These people are not just economic vagabonds, they are aesthetic and cultural philistines.

     If there was natural justice, Hecate would grant us an anti social behaviour order against these pond scum.

     

     .

     15 Feb 13 at 5:52 pm
824. Apologies didn’t acknowledge post above on same Green topic. Never saw it!

     

     Harold

     15 Feb 13 at 5:57 pm
825. Did Australia ever negotiate a peace treaty or are we still at war since 1932?

     

     Cold-Hands

     15 Feb 13 at 5:57 pm
826. And your opinion of on the Sonderbund War? My all time favourite for obscure wars…

     Sonderbund war Switzerland.
     178,000 combatants
     86 dead
     500 wounded
     Over in a couple of days

     Going into battle with Swiss army knives has an up side I guess, low casualty rate and exhaustion try to chase your enemy down with a can opener.

     

     Splatacrobat

     15 Feb 13 at 5:58 pm
827. Wait!
     Have you all forgotten the Battle of Winstons Duck, September, 1988?
     Yes. I thought so.
     How quickly do the victims get forgotten.
     And eaten.
     The duck was very nice…

     

     Winston SMITH

     15 Feb 13 at 6:00 pm
828. Did Australia ever negotiate a peace treaty or are we still at war since 1932?

     http://warbuff.wordpress.com/2008/08/27/did-you-know-australia-lost-a-war-in-1932-against-an-unarmed-enemy/

     If you hear about Australia’s military defeats you probably think of their participation in disasters like the Battle of Gallipoli, Vietnam War or the Iraq War.

     Err, no.

     

     .

     15 Feb 13 at 6:02 pm
829. I do not apologise for the Pig and Potato War (aka the San Juan Boundary Dispute or the Northwestern Boundary Dispute) nor do I apologise for the War of the Stray Dog. One must draw a line somewhere.

     

     Deadman

     15 Feb 13 at 6:03 pm
830. I had lunch yesterday with a few friends who are in various parts of the Fed public service. Juicy anecdotes of craziness and rage emanating from Ministers’ offices abounded. Government MPs are scared out of their wits and spend a lot of time calculating their retirement benefits and trawling websites that spruik tax-effective investment options.

     Anything, absolutely anything, is possible at present. The Caucus is angry, stressed, irrational and looking for people to blame (hence the batshit-crazy rants some of my former colleagues have to endure from pimply staffers). Party discipline hangs by a gossamer thread.

     From the sound of it, the only question of when there will be a bloodbath is the timing. As for the purported election date, I wouldn’t bet more than I could afford to lose on it.

     

     johanna

     15 Feb 13 at 6:04 pm
831. Just called a mate in Canberra. A fellow historian, he describes it as ‘Berlin on 15 April 1945, just before Seelow Heights started’.

     The trapped rats are scurrying frantically, no-one knows WTF is happening (let alone why), they are partying hard and shagging each other senseless while drinking the last of the good stuff at Radio Berlin the ALPBC and the Lying Slapper is in the bunker planning the counter-offensive with armies long ago gone into The Silence.

     Everyone is pretending it will all come good – but there’s no escape.

     He says it’s surreal.

     This is the start of the final collapse, I think. It can’t go on much longer.

     

     Mk50 of Brisbane

     15 Feb 13 at 7:04 pm
832. This is the start of the final collapse, I think. It can’t go on much longer.

     The final sign, then, will be when Our Leader suddenly weds.

     

     Deadman

     15 Feb 13 at 7:14 pm
833. A fellow historian, he describes it as ‘Berlin on 15 April 1945, just before Seelow Heights started’.

     With Rudd as Steiner?

     

     jupes

     15 Feb 13 at 7:16 pm
834. The final sign, then, will be when Our Leader suddenly weds.

     from Deadman.

     The Ides of ’45.

     

     Pedro the Ignorant

     15 Feb 13 at 7:28 pm
835. The middle class revolt.

     And if you’re one of them bugger you too.

     

     Rudiau

     15 Feb 13 at 7:29 pm
836. MK50 I was thinking the same thing. I recall watching a doco on the last days in Berlin and the goings on in Radio Berlin.
     Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die attitude whilst in the government offices they were still calculating production targets for secret weapons long overrun by allied units.
     I imagine when the final curtain comes down on this rabble there will be a fair few public servants that will collectively light up a cigarette like in downfall.

     

     Splatacrobat

     15 Feb 13 at 7:46 pm
837. From Rudi’s link at 4.09pm, I’d be astonished if this is not at least 90% accurate:

     So what stands in the way of the ALP at least saving some furniture? Bill Shorten stands in the way. He controls Caucus numbers via corrupt union mobsters.

     At the moment he stands covering Gillard’s back, but her support in a skittish Caucus is weakening by the minute as the realisation sets in that she really must go.

     Even the corrupt NSW Right is bemoaning its original decision to anoint her.

     One of my ALP friends, a backbencher (contrary to assertions, I have few friends in the Coalition) says the disquiet in Caucus is reaching resigned torpidity.

     “Our hands are tied, given a free vote we could throw her out. Something has to give soon, for every week she stays one more seat is lost”, he said.

     Media continue to promote a Rudd challenge… that simply won’t happen. As a lone commentator I have been saying for years that this can’t happen.

     If there is a Caucus decision to defy Shorten and dump Gillard it will not be to the favour of Rudd.

     A crucified Rudd hovers, Christ-like, savouring a second coming. But his true role can only be to wreak relentless vengeance on Gillard.

     

     Tom

     15 Feb 13 at 7:49 pm
838. But his true role can only be to wreak relentless vengeance on Gillard.

     Yes please. Pass the popcorn.

     

     jupes

     15 Feb 13 at 7:54 pm
839. The final sign, then, will be when Our Leader suddenly weds.

     That should please that Wong chap. I assume he’ll be the groom?

     

     Mk50 of Brisbane

     15 Feb 13 at 7:55 pm
840. I assume he’ll be the groom?

     Tim would be the groom, I should think. That other chap would be best man.

     

     Gab

     15 Feb 13 at 8:00 pm
841. That should please that Wong chap.

     What about if the Lying Slapper marries the Wong chap and Timmy elopes with Slippery Pete in a stolen Comcar? Seems far more plausible for this degenerate kleptocratic rabble.

     

     Tom

     15 Feb 13 at 8:00 pm
842. $75,000-a-Year Dating Service Matches Up Busy CEOs

     Like everyone else, high-flying international business people are looking for love. But it seems their demands, when it comes to dating, can be surprisingly stereotyped.

     “Italian men don’t want to meet Italian women. They think they will be very demanding and high-maintenance and give them a hard time. French women are a different story. They obviously have some feeling that French men are not very loyal.”

     So says Inga Verbeeck, head of European operations at Berkeley International, a dating agency for the very wealthy that is expanding across the continent to meet rising demand from well-heeled lonely hearts.

     When it comes to the British stereotype at this rarefied end of the matchmaking game – Berkeley membership costs a minimum €10,000 [$15,527] a year – the much-maligned (uptight, unromantic) British male is regarded as a good catch, she continues, possibly remembering she is talking to one. “There is this idea that they are very gentlemanly, they have that British humor, they are tall and classically handsome.”

     Speaking in the breakfast room of an upmarket hotel on the Rue de Rivoli, in the elegant heart of Paris, the 30-something Belgian is chic and relaxed as she discusses sorting out love matches for the super-rich. But until just three years ago Ms. Verbeeck was chief executive of her family’s €100 million steel trading business in Antwerp, where she lives. Then, she spent her days haggling with mills and manufacturers for reject steel to flog to clients around the world.

     Now she spends her time finding partners for singletons in the fast lane of global business. “It is the same thing,” she says. “In spot dealing, you have to do new business every day . . . [It's about] what deals can you make today. That’s the same as I do now.” The dating business involves moving quickly on to the next potential couple once you have successfully paired two clients to keep the business going.

     http://www.cnbc.com/id/100461420

     

     Jc

     15 Feb 13 at 8:04 pm
843. Tim?

     Is he not the peggee of this tawdry matter?

     

     Mk50 of Brisbane

     15 Feb 13 at 8:05 pm
844. Fuck he’s a nasty little prick.

     New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he intends to use his final year in office to push for more recycling and electric vehicles, a curbside food-composting pilot program and a ban on plastic-foam food packaging.

     

     Jc

     15 Feb 13 at 8:06 pm
845. As Andrew Bolt points out, the accusations against football clubs are yet to come up with any substance. The famous press conference, with Hot Lips Lundy smouldering in the background, is just another “volksturm” distraction on the path to Berlin, 1945.

     

     blogstrop

     15 Feb 13 at 8:09 pm
846. the Anglo-Zanzibar War which lasted 38 minutes on 27 August 1896.

     Was that the war, to quote Leut Blckadder, involved very sharp bits of fruit?

     

     Carpe Jugulum

     15 Feb 13 at 8:14 pm
847. What about if the Lying Slapper marries the Wong chap

     Well, she has form in breaking up marriages doesn’t she?

     MK50 at 7.04 – interrupted HIA’s news watching to read out your piece, and Deadman’s comment too, both of which left him in stitches. He is something of an armchair historian himself.

     Except for the fact that he’s too busy, I suspect he may even take a peek occasionally here, but he has been flat out at work. Great successes too. Turning the ship around, and praise abounds all over the place. Especially from me, whose cooking should improve to match the quality of the recipient.

     We are both sad because we must separate for four days next week due to our busy lives. Under his theories of absense however it should be a great homecoming.

     

     Elizabeth (Lizzie) B.

     15 Feb 13 at 8:24 pm
848. Gawd, just looked at the FTO TV options, and apart from the awful ABC offering, we have lame romcoms and lame sport movies about (sorry, spoiler here) how a person/team overcame adversity.

     It is getting more and more like the US, with 128 channels and nothing worth watching.

     I wouldn’t care, except that eight of the 18 channels are paid for by the government. And, the rest are in a constant state of negotiation about how to reduce their licensing fees and reduce competition – with satisfying results.

     Pah!

     That said, I went second-hand bookshopping the other day and have 8 unread novels of classic crime fiction, plus Knightley’s book about Philby.

     I’m very interested in the Burgess/Philby Maclean thing, and have found that decent books on it are hard to find. Do any Cats have suggestions?

     

     johanna

     15 Feb 13 at 8:35 pm
849. Do any Cats have suggestions?

     If you are in Melbourne i know a very good 2nd hand book shop in Moorabbin. It has everything from old medical texts, old dictionaries & encyclopedia to second hand sci fi paperbacks.

     A favourite of mine.

     

     Carpe Jugulum

     15 Feb 13 at 8:39 pm
850. is just another “volksturm” distraction on the path to Berlin, 1945.

     Lundy is starring in Downfall just like at 1.26 here . They all have a part to play in this production.

     Stephen Smith has been very quiet of late? Is he already in a fieseler storch at Templehoff Canberra Airport?

     

     Splatacrobat

     15 Feb 13 at 8:42 pm
851. Ackerman just lost a lot of money in the after market. Icahn just hosed him.

     Herbalige
     38.27
     +1.87 (5.14%)
     After Hours: 47.35 +9.08 (23.73%

     http://www.finalternatives.com/node/22910

     

     Jc

     15 Feb 13 at 8:54 pm
852. JC – there is a very entertaining avian outbreak on the religion thread. Go enjoy!

     

     Fisky

     15 Feb 13 at 8:56 pm
853. Thanks, Carpe, but I’m not in Melbourne.

     Considering what an earth-shattering scandal it was, presumably the Official Secrets Act and various other pressures explain why there is very little in the public arena about it.

     To this day, only watered-down versions of the story appear in public (eg the BBC mini-series).

     After all this time, the passion for secrecy tempts one to believe that senior people in the government, the judiciary and perhaps the monarchy were put in embarrassing positions. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but connections can be awkward, as Ian Macdonald’s friends have found.

     

     johanna

     15 Feb 13 at 8:56 pm
854. JC – there is a very entertaining avian outbreak on the religion thread. Go enjoy!

     There is. I missed it. Damn.

     

     Jc

     15 Feb 13 at 8:58 pm
855. Did anyone else watch the program on One about the electricity linemen in the USA? World’s Toughest Fixes.

     Fascinating! Working on live high-voltage wires.

     Amazing.

     Glad I work in an office.

     

     kae

     15 Feb 13 at 9:15 pm
856. Looking upthread, I find that some people have a problem with males (the principal spreaders) of HPV being immunised. Well, no-one has to be immunised against their parents’ wishes – there is a conscientious objection clause.

     If you know in advance that your special little snowflake with a penis will never, ever screw around (including the odd dalliance with another man) – nothing more to discuss.

     Rabz, sorry if discussion of what actually happens when a bloke with HPV infects a woman – messy surgery and all that – annoys you. Perhaps we should draw a veil over it?

     

     johanna

     15 Feb 13 at 9:21 pm
857. Masters of Money
     20 February 9:30pm – 10:35pm SBS HD
     Hayek And The Free Market
     Classified:GGenre:Documentary
     BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders turns her attention to the radical free-market economist Friedrich Hayek, who believed in the primacy of the market and that all attempts to regulate and control it were misguided and would end in failure. It’s a controversial message that few politicians have felt brave enough to rely on. But after the recent financial crash, the radical ideas of this Nobel Prize winning economist have been re-evaluated.

     

     Will

     15 Feb 13 at 9:22 pm
858. But after the recent financial crash, the radical ideas of this Nobel Prize winning economist have been re-evaluated.

     Don’t tell me:

     “… and lo, a BBC persona sayeth that indeed, this man hath spake the truth, and they that did tweak the market by insisting on unviable loans to the hoi polloi, and legislating that the banks and financial on-sellers should just suck it up did intervene in the free market and stuff it bigtime.”

     I guess not.

     

     blogstrop

     15 Feb 13 at 9:30 pm
859. The last days of the labor Turd Reich (1st shitlam, 2nd hawkey/keato)

     Golden Years…

     

     Rabz

     15 Feb 13 at 9:40 pm
860. … sorry if discussion of what actually happens when a…

     Joh – don’t be.

     The whole thread was laden with hideousness from the moment the potemkin posted his latest missive.

     

     Rabz

     15 Feb 13 at 9:42 pm
861. If you know in advance that your special little snowflake with a penis will never, ever screw around (including the odd dalliance with another man) – nothing more to discuss.

     It’s got nothing to do with that for me as a parent. I just want to know from a trusted medical source that any given vaccine is appropriate for my kids and the pros/cons. That’s it

     We did all the same research for the standard vaccines before the kids were born.

     

     tbh

     15 Feb 13 at 9:47 pm
862. Are we going to post some songs that reflect Swan’s failed surplus?

     

     Andrew

     15 Feb 13 at 9:48 pm
863. Wrong thread. Sorry!

     

     Andrew

     15 Feb 13 at 9:50 pm
864. I’m very interested in the Burgess/Philby Maclean thing,

     All were (ahem) ‘confirmed bachelors’, entrapped by the KGB in the 30s while at Kings College, Cambridge (same time as Keynes). A mix of idealism, intelligence and gay abandon had them working for the cause. Who knows who they touched in English society while on that path.

     

     Lazlo

     15 Feb 13 at 10:04 pm
865. Lazlo, your comment merely reiterates the received wisdom. What is noticeably absent is facts.

     To me, it is one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the 20th century. After all these years, despite it shaking the whole Intelligence community down to the foundations, there is bugger-all around about it.

     There are perhaps a few oblique references in the earlier works of Le Carre.

     

     johanna

     15 Feb 13 at 10:26 pm
866. Burgess, Philby, maclean, Blunt and cairncross.

     Traitors of the worst kind.

     

     Mk50 of Brisbane

     15 Feb 13 at 10:35 pm
867. Supposedly Contrarians panelists bagged Abbott because he was a fraud for volunteering and that he uses botox. Shameful. Peter van Onselen should be ashamed of himself.

     

     Andrew

     15 Feb 13 at 10:37 pm
868. If you are in Melbourne i know a very good 2nd hand book shop in Moorabbin.

     Please tell.

     

     dover_beach

     15 Feb 13 at 10:39 pm
869. Peter van Onselen should be ashamed of himself.

     That would require a basic level of self awareness.

     

     Carpe Jugulum

     15 Feb 13 at 10:40 pm
870. Stephen Smith has been very quiet of late?

     I expect he is hiding and hoping by dropping any mention of Labor on his election material he might just squeak over the line. He will be pretty lonely on the Perth-Canberra flights.

     

     H B Bear

     15 Feb 13 at 10:42 pm
871. Lazlo, your comment merely reiterates the received wisdom. What is noticeably absent is facts.

     That they were recruited in the 30s in Cambridge, and that they were homosexual, isn’t much disputed. Close enough to ‘facts’ I reckon. Who they touched along the way in the UK establishment is pure conjecture though.

     

     Lazlo

     15 Feb 13 at 10:45 pm
872. Poor Labor. They’ll always have Victoria and Tassie, bit what a sad demise.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     15 Feb 13 at 10:48 pm
873. They may not always have Tassie. What with forestry, the Tarkine and the super trawler, the Taswegians are starting to get seriously pissed off. Polls are showing at least two federal seats in danger for the ALP.

     

     Lazlo

     15 Feb 13 at 10:58 pm
874. They’ll always have Victoria and (the map of) Tassie

     And so called ‘South’ Australia?

     We freedom lovers don’t want the stinking psychopathic cesspit.

     

     Rabz

     15 Feb 13 at 11:03 pm
875. Van Onselen defending the fact that he had 3 lefties V 0 Conservatives on the show and that he barely did anything to stop such ridiculous claims about Abbott having botox and Abbott’s lifesaving being fraudulent.

     

     Andrew

     15 Feb 13 at 11:03 pm
876. Lazlo, I accept there are genuine Tasmanians who needn’t be shot, but that place is like a giant refugee camp for lunatics. Every harebrained, tree hugging, moocher from the mainland has moved there and is now living off our largesse. It’s beyond redemption.

     I’d let the French use it as an atomic testing ground.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     15 Feb 13 at 11:03 pm
877. Shit that was quick. Skyfall is now out on vid?
     

     

     Jc

     15 Feb 13 at 11:06 pm
878. I think that is what d’Entrecasteaux, Huon and Baudin had in mind. But then Waterloo intervened. I blame Wellington (Mt).

     

     Lazlo

     15 Feb 13 at 11:19 pm
879. Lazlo, Donald Maclean wasn’t remotely homosexual. There’s one of your “facts” banged up right there.

     It hasn’t occurred to you that there what might be called today a “narrative” here? Long before McTernan’s father had his first erection, the notion of “the narrative” has been understood by astute politicians.

     

     johanna

     15 Feb 13 at 11:22 pm
880. that was quick.Skyfall is now out on vid

     Very quick JC. The younger of our 2 daughters took me to see it at a special preview screening last November. An excellent James Bond movie.

     

     Septimus

     15 Feb 13 at 11:27 pm
881. johanna,

     A book on Kim Philby

     

     Lazlo

     15 Feb 13 at 11:28 pm
882. ridiculous claims about Abbott having botox

     Why the f*ck would Yabbott ‘have’ botox?

     So he could look as stupid, ugly and utterly clueless as lardarse?

     

     Rabz

     15 Feb 13 at 11:28 pm
883. Van Wrongselen needs to fatten up if he wants to be the new Jabba. Getting out on the piss with Farr Out would help for starters.

     

     H B Bear

     15 Feb 13 at 11:36 pm
884. Shit that was quick. Skyfall is now out on vid?

     It would have been available on the net and the streets of Asia the day it was released in cinemas. Got to be quick to cash in on the DVD market.

     

     Infidel Tiger

     15 Feb 13 at 11:39 pm
885. First footy since September and I still can’t drum up any interest in the NAB cup.

     

     sdfc

     15 Feb 13 at 11:43 pm
886. With you on that SDFC. The Super Rugby season started tonight though and I feel oddly better about that. Pity the Force lost (again).

     

     tbh

     15 Feb 13 at 11:55 pm
887. Paul Krugman, NYT Op-Ed: Rubio and the Zombies

     Provides us with yet more evidence of what a rancid small man he has become and who the Dems are afraid of:

     On the other hand, the G.O.P. reply, delivered by Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, was both interesting and revelatory. And I mean that in the worst way. For Mr. Rubio is a rising star, to such an extent that Time magazine put him on its cover, calling him “The Republican Savior.” What we learned Tuesday, however, was that zombie economic ideas have eaten his brain.

     

     JamesK

     15 Feb 13 at 11:55 pm
888. Why the f*ck would Yabbott ‘have’ botox?

     So he could look as stupid, ugly and utterly clueless as lardarse?

     Did some panel member say that with a straight face? What’s wrong with these people?

     

     tbh

     15 Feb 13 at 11:56 pm
889. What we learned Tuesday, however, was that zombie economic ideas have eaten his brain.

     Kruggers and Klein are pushing the “keep on spending no matter what” mantra.

     Fuckheads.

     These people are not economists. They do not aspire to be so.

     Their ambition is to rule a small country as a kleptomaniac and to bankrupt it with vainglories and grandiose monstrosities.

     

     .

     16 Feb 13 at 12:28 am