Happy Birthday to Sarah Palin (via The Black Sphere)

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A Birthday Tribute to Governor Sarah Palin.

By honorary-Australian-any-old-time-he-finally-manages-to-get-his-butt-down-here Kevin Jackson of The Black Sphere.

Couldn’t have said it any better myself, so I’m not even gonna try.  I may not be real smart, but I’m smart enough to know when I’m beat. 😉

Seriously.  READ IT.

And while you’re there, have a browse through the site & the left sidebar.  Lots of good stuff there, about Kevin and what he’s about, about others on his team & how to support them.  Heaps good links ‘n’ stuff, plus Obama photoshops galore.  Plus the Black Sphere Radio Show links (which I’m not smart enough to embed directly – failed the “fetch” unit an’ all).

Bonus! There’s a Perth connection (there’s always a Perth connection, watch any Perth news broadcast, ask any0ne sheltering a piece of Skylab in their back shed, ask John Glenn!) , as one of Kev’s team members Dave (now in Texas)  lived in Mt Pleasant (a Perth suburb) in the early 70’s whilst his father, a Geophysicist, worked out in the Great Sandy.

Perth/Western Australia and North Carolina – the two main nexuses (nexii?) of the universe.  Forget that “six degrees of separation” stuff, with WA and NC there’re never more than two or three degrees of separation between any major world event and these two places.  Honest.

Now.  Go away and read.

*(update below the fold)*

Senator Chuck Shyster: Americans Don’t Care about Pork

The inimitable Chucky Sleaze Shyster, the lowest of the scum-sucking, maggot-out-of-hell, shyster-politicians in the US Senate – and there’s some serious competition there – thinks that Americans don’t care about the billions of dollars of porcine spending that he and other Democraps have injected into the stimulus porkulus bill.

Get a load of this ass hat:

Of course, Sen. Shyster is wrong, as, while voters continue to support President Obama, they don’t favor the stimulus porkulus bill by much of a margin at all, and the trend is for approval numbers to drop more.

What an abject fuckwit.

LOL UPDATE: Rasmussen Poll shows that 67% of Americans think they could do a better job fixing the economy than a member of Congress.

“When it comes to the nation’s economic issues, 67% of U.S. voters have more confidence in their own judgment than they do in the average member of Congress.”

I hate to say I told you so… no I don’t.

Take that, Schumer.

Update on Sam the Koala, Bushfire Survivor [with video]

CFA volunteer David Tree helps a distressed koala in burnt-out forest at Mirboo North. Pic: Russell Vickery

UPDATE on yesterday’s post, “Here you go, Mate” — Hope from the Ashes

*New pictures, updates and new video below the fold to save loading time…

Australian Flag Collection

For some reason, we’ve been seeing a really large number of incoming searches for the images of Australian flags which are scattered here and there on our various posts, especially our Australia Day pieces, so as a public service and because I’m stuck waiting on hold trying to find out why I suddenly have no (not low, but no) water pressure and so have a bit of time to kill, I thought I’d stick a collection of Australian flags up here on this page, so they’re all in one easy-to-find place.  They’ll be below the fold, to keep our main site from taking forever to load.  (And if one of our “found” images [some are originals, some are “found”] belongs to you and you want credit, just email us and it’ll be done).

The originals are of varying sizes and resolutions – click on the thumbnails below for full-sized images.

Space weapons; to ban or not to ban

Thoroughly interesting article by Instapundit having a dive into the future of space weapons.

Critics might argue that a ban on space weaponry would just breed complacency among law-abiding nations, while giving cheaters the advantage of surprise. On the other hand, a crude improvised system probably wouldn’t be that useful, while a more sophisticated space-based weapons program (one that went beyond maneuvering exploding satellites close to their targets) would probably require a fair amount of testing, making cheating difficult.

…

The result of any such attack would make space as unusable for the attacker as for the target. In the next decade or two, the biggest threats are likely to come from rogue nations with some space capability, like Iran (which last week launched a satellite on its own), or North Korea—countries that have the ability to attack spacecraft from the ground, but not a lot of their own satellites at risk. Perhaps Obama thinks that a space-weapon ban among the spacefaring nations will encourage them to close ranks against rogue states that are a threat to everyone. That would certainly be a positive development.

UPDATE (16/01/09)

More on North Korea’s so-called ‘space program’ here. If their new missiles actually worked properly, they could theoretically now reach Alaska.

Fat chance, Ahmadinejad

From the Times Online.

Iran’s hardline president appeared to hint at a softening of relations towards the US today, claiming he was “ready for dialogue” if President Obama changed American policy.

And just kind of changes is he looking for?

“It is clear that the change [by Obama] must be fundamental and not tactical,” the Iranian leader said.

Fundamental, eh? Don’t think so, pal.

Following those comments, Mr Ahmadinejad set tough conditions for any breakthrough, demanding that Washington withdraws its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and that it apologises for what he said were decades of US “crimes” against Iran.

Tell him he’s dreamin’.

How about this one, Iran? Quit your nuke program. Like the hand Obama is extending to you, do the same towards Israel. Voila, you might get your ‘breakthough’. Hardly likely, though, with Israel’s Likud party as front-runner for the elections today and with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni heading ‘number two’ party, Kadima. Well, we’ll see. She does favour a two-state solution to the Israel/Palestine conundrum.

Oh, and Jules Crittenden, in an Obama wrap up of sorts, notes the POTUS isn’t unaware of Iran’s support for Hamas and Hezbollah, either.

Did the president of the United States actually intend in his first press conference to kiss mullah ass? To his credit, Obama managed to summon up a mention of Iran’s support for terrorism and its pursuit of nuclear weapons. He specifically indicated that Iran’s support for Hezbollah and Hamas is not appreciated, a not insignificant observation. He said that when his administration holds face-to-face talks with the murderous, terrorism-supporting, nuke-seeking mullahs, who desire to dominate the region, he’ll let them know that support for terrorism and pursuit of nukes are not acceptable. Unclear about the regional domination part. I’m sure the mullahs, when they have their big primetime moment on equal terms with the Great Satan, will be very impressed, but will have their own thoughts about all that. Obama didn’t indicate how he intends to impress the unacceptability on them, though he said the United States must use all the tools at its disposal, including diplomacy. That may suggest the soft talk comes with a big stick, though a big stick you don’t care to use is basically kindling.

Methinks the mullahs ain’t gonna be happy. But at least the media will probably be onside this time ’round.