Bizzle likes him some Dunkers

An owl. In a towel. Awwww…

We evil RWDBs do love us some cute l’il owls.  Here’s recently-rescued short-eared owl “Chopper” in a towel.  Because really.  An owl in a towel.  How adorable is that?

All together now: "Awwwwww!"

Huge win for freedom

There are some, among them a certain troll who likes to hijack my blog’s comments for his small-minded rants, who are of the opinion that journalists must be accredited and licensed in order to hold that “lofty” title. I disagree wholeheartedly; had that sort of constraint been in place 250 years ago, individuals such as Patrick Henry would have been proscribed from publishing their treatises against the King of England, and we might still be no more than ragtag pommy colonies.

Apologies in advance to any Brits offended by the preceding paragraph. I was just being cheeky.

No, the tradition of the citizen-journalist is at the very bedrock of rights the founding fathers held most dear. Troll-boy’s protestations to the contrary, the reporting of news and spouting of opinion by mere commoners is of vital importance to the health of a republic.

And now a federal judge agrees.

Boston lawyer Simon Glik was arrested on October 1, 2007 when he used his cell phone to record officers making a drug arrest, and later sued the city and the officers for violating his rights. After the officers tried to having the lawsuit dismissed on the basis of qualified immunity, a Federal Appeals Court denied the motion last week and ruled that filming and photographing police is in fact protected by the First Amendment. They also note that the rights extend not just to professional news gatherers, but ordinary citizens as well:

“[…] changes in technology and society have made the lines between private citizen and journalist exceedingly difficult to draw. The proliferation of electronic devices with video-recording capability means that many of our images of current events come from bystanders with a ready cell phone or digital camera rather than a traditional film crew, and news stories are now just as likely to be broken by a blogger at her computer as a reporter at a major newspaper. Such developments make clear why the news-gathering protections of the First Amendment cannot turn on professional credentials or status”.

How big is this news? Beyond big.

As I reported well over a year ago, it is a felony crime in the State of Maryland People’s Republic of Maryland to take video of the Maryland State Police Schutzstaffel in the course of executing their duties (such as shooting pet dogs, for example). Or, should I say, it was.

Now that we can confidently record the jackbooted jagoffs in action, I’m willing to bet that their behavior toward we mere commoners might just be a little less strident. We can only hope.

Remember the live cattle trade ban?

With all the hoohah over the past few days over PM Gillard’s carbon (dioxide!) tax, it’s perhaps easy to forget some of the other current stuff-ups Labor is actively involved with.

Ten weeks on and there’s still no deal with Malaysia over a refugee swap.

There’s the mining super profits tax – not just the carbon tax – that our biggest industry with have to put up with.

There’s the $36 billion NBN that still somehow has to be paid for. Meanwhile, a bloke who just bought a new house can’t get a copper phone line connected – Telstra have stopped doing that – and has to wait three-odd years for his fibre cable.

And there’s the ongoing damage from the government’s naive decision to stop the live cattle trade (since resumed but so much damage is yet to be undone).

The suspension, prompted by cruelty concerns, was lifted last week and Indonesia plans to issue fresh import permits to get things moving over the next three months.

But Gulf Savannah Development says trade is still dependent on permits flowing through quickly.

The group’s chairman, Carpentaria Shire mayor Fred Pascoe, said it could take years to recover the costs from missing an important trading period with Indonesia.

“To be honest, I think we’d rather front a category 5 cyclone than the high pressure storm created by the government,” he said.

Mr Pascoe said it could take months to re-establish supply chain protocols.

Meanwhile, the Queensland manager of Australia’s largest livestock transport company doubts business will ever be the same.

Road trip!

Let’s do it!

How about the cattle farmers stick it back to that Gillard?

Click for full size.

Yes. We’re talking loading 100-odd trucks – or more – with now unsaleable cattle and sending them down to the lawns of Parliament House. There’s lush green grass there for them to feed on and even a water fountain for them to drink from (not to mention the sprinklers could be utilised).

Bugger all else they can do with that season’s worth of cattle now, is there?

It would send a clear message.

Spot has even included a handy directions guide (where the map comes from).

The inimitable Lyle, on the confessions of a desperate house cat

Via Tim Blair (who warns, DON’T TRUST THEM), a cat gets caught barking by a human and resumes meowing:

Via blog poet laureate lyle in comments:

Secrets of a Desperate House Cat

The houses and the streets grow dark 
And I sneak out to stroll the park 
Where all the rough dogs like to play 
And me, too; I was born that way.

My daytime friends are unaware 
And would be shocked but I don’t care, 
For only in the darkened park 
Can I be who I am, and bark.

You might think that it’s sex – it’s not – 
That draws me to Spike, Rex and Spot, 
But with my dogs I know I’m free 
To be a slob, and drool and pee.

And with them I don’t have to act 
With catlike cool, reserve and tact; 
When I’m around my dogs I’ve found 
I can express my inner hound.

lyle
Tue 28 Jun 11 (01:43am)

Just so.

At least it isn’t self-service

While the rest of the meal of seared Asian duck and pork and paua spring rolls sounds delicious – it is the Hoihoi tatea, or horse semen drink which is on everyone’s minds.

Green Man Pub chef, Jason Varley, said the drink was proving most popular with women

And to think that all this time people have been making sheep jokes about kiwis.

Are moderate Muslims in the same boat, effectively, as climate change deniers?

Recently, the frollickingmole over at Tizona addressed the stoppage of the live cattle trade export to all Indonesian abattoirs after about 11 or 12 were found to be killing the animals in horrific circumstances.

Indeed, what we saw a few weeks ago was horrendous. (graphic content warning)

But back to mole’s post, and he put up a video of how an abattoir works in the West.

Sure, it’s still certainly not for the squeamish, but perhaps can be likened to Morgan Spurlock’s documentary Supersize Me.

That put many of us off McDonald’s for a bit, but isn’t it good if (that!) there’s some bacon lying around in the fridge (not that I want to cook it just this minute)?

That porcine video was indeed a bit different to what we all saw on 4corners. Very surgical, clinical.

So what’s all this have to do with terrorism, Islamic radicals, moderate Muslims, and (caused-by-humans) climate change, and its deniers?

Read more of this post

Throat cutting in Australia

There has been quite a stink in Australia over the cruel slaughter of cattle sold to the Indonesian meatworks. The footage shown was of people who had no idea how to do their job.

The stink has caused the Australian government to impose a complete ban on ALL exports of cattle to that country. The greens and non-thinking animal rights mobs have of course scented blood, and are now pushing for a complete ban on all live animal exports.

So the government is going to engage in collective punishment rather than actually go after the “bad eggs”. Indonesia relies heavily on “wet markets”, which is to say non refrigerated meat sales, as poverty puts refrigeration out of reach for many.

Its quite plain to me most of the people making decisions have never been involved in animal handling or slaughter. I have killed/butchered many hundreds of sheep back when I was shearing/woolpressing, depending on the size of the team usually one or 2 per workday. I havent slaughtered any cattle, and only a couple of pigs.

Heres some basics on animal handling and slaughter.

1: To move stock you have to scare it into the direction you want it to go. You dont ask it politely, if you can “trick” the stock with blinds or bluffs then good. Stock generally hates going from light to dark, smell of blood, loud noise and stripes of light and shadow.

2: Stock is much easier to slaughter if it isnt “whipped up”. When you are working with knives the last thing you want is animals kicking around.

3: Slaughter is slaughter, it isnt nice or clean. Even done properly it looks “nasty”.

4: Stressed meat is tough meat, the less panicked the beast prior to slaughter the better the meat should turn out.

5: Animals have to be bled as quickly as possible, preferably with the heart still beating, and be hung upside down to drain better.

6: Cruelty is very much in the eye of the beholder, I have had dozens of people assist in moving stock who thought using polly pipe/dogs and sacks on the sheep was “cruel” quite gladly use all 3 after trying to “gentle” sheep into a shed for an hour or so.

7: There is no money to be made in damaged or dead stock, you can’t eat it, sell it or breed it. So in generally cruelty is STUPID in the context of farming and stock handling. The non thinkers seem to belive companies/farmers are indifferent to stock losses, this is bullshit, every dead or unsaleable animal costs money. Companies are formed to make money, dead stock costs money. Therefore companies tend to invest in solutions to stock losses,

My basic sheep killing was knife “stick to behind the windpipe, cut forward, then cut back and break the neck, all up less than 5 seconds. The sheep would then bleed out and be hung, after a couple of minutes the body would be skun and gutted then left to set overnight. Breaking the sheep up into cuts of meat would take 20min to 1/2 an hour per animal.

Amount of suffering?

Less than 5 seconds with the neck broken, unless you believe it feels pain past a broken spinal cord.

The Best Australian Mining Ad Which Has Nothing Much To Do With Mining

…But About The Human Faces Of Those Involved With It.

Earlier this morning, Tim Blair posted one of the several “Australian Mining: This Is Our Story” pieces which are being put out to raise awareness of the importance of the mining industry to Australia, and to all Australians.

Although I like that one, it’s not my favourite.  My favourite is a story Ken and Val Lamb told during the filming of this one:

Now below is the story of Ken Lamb’s dog Ernie, as related by Ken and his wife Val.  This is the one that’s my favourite.

If you get a chance, please pass your favourite “This Is Our Story” pieces around as best you can, to demonstrate to the industry’s critics that Australian mining isn’t all about the ALP’s & Greens’ cartoonish caricatures of the rich greedy Gaia-raping mining magnates they love to hate (Gina Rinehart seems to be the one singled out for this month’s Two-Minute Hate) but about the 750,000 ordinary Australians the mining industry provides work for and the entire  communities all across the country it supports.

The people who want to end or cripple “Big Mining” either out of misguided Green idealism or for reasons rooted in not much more than base envy of the “rich bastards” (and “bitches” – good on Gina for bringing the gender equality!) they’d like to see taken down a peg or two need to understand that they’re not going to hurt the mining magnates (and baronesses – again, Gina!).  They’ve already got a lot of money, money they can pull out and invest elsewhere.  It’s the hundreds of thousands of ordinary Australians and ordinary Australian communities – including Indigenous communities – who are dependent on the mining industry for their livelihoods who are going to cop it.  People like Len Thong, Bruce Chater, Ken Lamb, and their families and communities.

Oh, and don’t watch the backstory on Ken’s dog Ernie anyplace where you’re going to be embarrassed to get a tear in your eye.

UPDATE: And on that subject, Ron Hardin, whose own dog features heavily in his photo blog, suggests “check out the best advice on dogs Vicki Hearne Oyez a Beaumont (pdf).”   Do.

HONEY BADGERS — F**K YEAH!

Honey badger don’t care.  Honey badger don’t give a sh*t.

UPDATE:  Speed turtle.

Abandoned puppy update.

As I posted a couple of weeks back we picked up a couple of abandoned new born pups at one of my clients houses.

Both had been left abandoned in a caravan out the back while the mother (and any other pups) were taken 550 km away.

We were told they would be put down as they were too expensive/time consuming for the local vets to raise (fair enough for them, they do a lot of cost price only work for the local dog rescue).. My missus decided she’d/we’d have a shot at raising them. We were told the first 2 days were critical, and neither was expected to live.

After being fed every 3 hours for the first 2 days they both began to guzzle the milk properly, and a couple of days after that were a pair of butterballs.

Full as a tick

 

They are now both starting solids and we will look after them for a few weeks more before they are rehomed through a local dog rescue organisation.

So the only thing left for them to do is track down their original owners and exact terrible revenge….

They wont see it coming...

Antipodean Marsupial Comparison, Round II

John Hawkins at RightWingNews:

I Now Know Why You Don’t Typically See Baby Possums On Cute Overload

Quite.

A post dedicated to bacon

Because we love our Muslim and Jewish brothers and we love our bacon, too! Get on in here GG (check yahoo addy)!

From the first vid youtube description…

I was making BLTs and Lauren starting doing this when I took the bacon out

Related.

UPDATE

Just eat the damn bacon, pussy! But thanks, regardless, for not rolling round in your own shit… and for being super cute… and evil.

Bacon vids, folks!

Speaking of the Gillard Government…

What we’ve got here, is a #GoatRodeo.  With monkeys.  And dogs.

Although they actually seem a little more well-organised and disciplined than Julia Gillard’s Labor-Green minority government.

“Labor has lost its way.”

h/t William A Jacobson (@LegInsurrection)

Hey you kids, get off my porch

Spot, do you want Obama to lose or not?

It’s really that simple: Back Trump, or Obama wins, and that’s the Realpolitik of the situation.

Related.

Dog, bed; dog, bed.

Ain’t it always the way.

via @GavAtkins

Moo-Dog

That is all.

via the wonderful @LATunleashed. CLICK

Okay. Now I want a turtle.

.

h/t @GavAtkins at Asian Correspondent

Islam in action.

Bastards, pure asshole bastards.

Screaming woman publicly flogged by laughing policemen in shocking video from Sudan

Its possible the offence was wearing trousers under her burqa, so 53 lashes, delivered by a laughing thug in public for wearing jeans?

Islam is a mental disorder.

Drunk Aussie and the crocodile

First the story. A chap decided to get himself thoroughly refreshed at the local tavern, not far from the crocodile farm.

For a rather vague reason he then decided to climb the fence then try and get on a 5m long crocs back.

G'day mate...

Croc got a little grumpy and gave the blokes leg a bit of a nibble.

What kind of man could perform such a deed?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/07/14/2953392.htm

Heres a few more facts.

A MAN whose leg was bitten by a five-metre crocodile called Fatso after he climbed into its pen says he wanted to play with it and feel its skin.

Mr Newman, who was dubbed Crocodile Dumb-dee in The West Australian newspaper on Wednesday, had earlier been turfed out of a Broome tavern for being drunk.

He made his way back to the tavern after the attack and even had a beer before being taken to hospital.

Now a confession.

I too have been massively refreshed at the same pub a few years back, I wasnt kicked out but wobbled out at closing time.

I was staying at a resort nearby, and the walk took me around the back of the crocodile farm, part the way around I decided to sit down for a rest and dozed off….

I woke the next morning with a blue heeler licking my face through the fence, If Id wobbled another dozen of so meters It would have been a croc having a lick…..

Not my finest hour…

Pubs and croc farms should be well separated.

Just like this one....

Busy busy…

Apologies for the lack of posts lately, moving house/internet stuffups/work/and the general business of running (at last) my own business have all conspired against me.

Just how willing am I to prostitute myself/loved ones for sales?? Watch the youtube of our promotion last week  and recoil in horror as the bizarre man/kangaroo/rat hybrid dances for your amusement…

Thats my other half in the costume, I got to do most of the next day. Our score was disappointing, only one small child terrified to run into 4 lanes of traffic, 1 near smash of cars, and about 10 children terrified into tears by the costume…

Still I hope to get a bit more posting in soon, so hang loose till then,

Cheers, Mole!

Antipodean Marsupial Comparison

A quick hemispherical battle of the marsupials

The Southern Hemisphere :

the kangaroo – awww, how cute… It’s like Bambi learned to stand upright and hop. With a pouch!

The wallaby – awww… like a kangaroo, but fun-sized.

The koala – awww… it looks like Pat Morita and a Teddy Bear had a love child – but in a good, mostly cuddly way.

The sugar glider – awww… tiny with big round eyes, a prehensile tail, pocket sized, it can fly. It is like a cartoon character with real fur. If it could talk it’d be one of the Rescue Rangers. (if only the wallaby looked like a moose instead of a deer. This is the reason to support genetic engineering. Upright moose + flying squirrel = real life Rocky & Bullwinkle)

The Northern Hemisphere :
North America has marsupials : Opossums (aka possums).

black shiny beady eyes, vampire teeth, a raspy hiss and naked, furless fingers

baby possums are almost as ugly as the parents but have more of a rat like appearance. Several ugly child possums will clutch on to the back of the parent making it appear to be a multiheaded monster.

Unlike other skittish animals like rabbits, mice or squirrels, a possum doesn't run away. It either keels over to play dead or it takes its time and will slowly walk away as if daring you to follow it back to hell.

Until the science of genetic engineering improves, I think the Southern hemisphere is winning the cuteness category but the Northern wins the ability to reflexively play dead category..

UPDATE [@s_dog]:  Antipodean Marsupial Comparison, Round II

Random image dump, cutest cat in the world?

Just a bunch of pics I havent found an excuse to post before, indulge me…

So cute you'll puke.

 

Cant they both lose?

 

Just wrong