“And I put one in my arse”, says future MENSA candidate.

This story from Australias best newspaper will bring tears to your eyes.

Its the story of a young man pushing back the boundaries of science in his quest for knowledge, pyrotchnics and human endurance.

But seriously how can you go past a front page like this one…

Genius, pure genius.

 

A few choice highlights from the reporting.

A MAN who suffered serious burns when friends lit a firecracker in his bum says he was just showing his visiting mates a Territory good time.

Alex Bowden, 23, of Wagaman, Darwin, put a spinning “flying bee” winged firework in his butt crack during a party at a rented house on Rossiter St, Rapid Creek on Saturday night.

His mate Todd Lovell lit the fuse.

“I had a few lads up from Queensland and I had to put on a good show,”

…..

“It didn’t burn my balls or my back,” the fitter and turner said. “Just my fingers and my arse. “It was a pretty loose one, hey.”

….

His mate Reece McEwen said: “He screamed a little bit and there were a fair few f-words”.

But Mr Bowden denied that there were tears.

“You can’t sit here crying,” he said.

 

Anfd how is his family coping with the shame and embarassment??

Mr Bowen said his mother “thought it was funny”.

A long fisking of a stupid Parlimentarian

I caught Christine Milne (Greens Tasmania) on ABC news radio yesterday  on Thursday during the opening speeches about the minerals taxation bill.

The sheer “did she just say that” stupidity was breathtaking… That she hasnt been pilloried in the press for it speaks volumes about the poor state of political reporting in Australia today.

So Im going to fisk it a little, its a loooong speech, so it will take quite a while, her speech will be plain text, my observations will be bold.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT (Senator Crossin):

Order! The Senate is considering the minerals resource rent tax legislation as a package.

Senator MILNE

(Tasmania—Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens) (19:30):

I rise tonight to discuss what sort of future we aspire to have in this country, because, whilst the specific is the Minerals Resource Rent Tax Bill 2011 and associated legislation, the context in which we are debating this tax is what sort of vision do we have for Australia in the next 20, 30 or 50 years. How you raise the money and where you spend it will determine that kind of country, because the future is actually an extension of the present and it is shaped by the decisions and actions we make.

Here Christine is using her amazing intellect to tell us time is linear, and actions have consequences… probably the highest point of her speech

More, oh so much more.. under the fold

Modern Australian education

Just received this bit of coursework from a mates son in year 8 school, Ive removed the names but its first hand, not one of the usual “internet memes” that you get 45th hand.

A year 8 English poem!!!   Bought home by ****** for an assignment. Opinions please!!

 

TIME IS RUNNING OUT
The miner rapes
The heart of earth
With his violent spade.
Stealing, bottling her black blood
For the sake of greedy trade.
On his metal throne of destruction,
He labours away with a will,
Piling the mountainous minerals high
With giant tool and iron drill.

 

The face of evil?

In his greedy lust for power,
He destroys old nature’s will.
For the sake of the filthy dollar,
He dirties the nest he builds.
Well he knows that violence
Of his destructive kind
Will be violently written
Upon the sands of time.

 

A pristine peoples nest, before the miners move in?

But time is running out
And time is close at hand,
For the Dreamtime folk are massing
To defend their timeless land.
Come gentle black man
Show your strength;
Time to take a stand.
Make the violent miner feel
Your violent
Love of land.
Oodgeroo Noonuccal.

My opinion?

What a heap of steaming greenie shit wrapped up in a “poor blackfellah me” story to try and give it respectability. The lady that wrote it was a Communist, and the name it was written under was her original one  Kath Walker, but plain old Kath Walker wouldnt sound mystical enough for the education department would it?

 

This type of bullshit propaganda completely ignores any of the massive plus sides of a modern manufactured life. Pencils, air con, computers, coal for electricity, steel, all used to improve the lives of millions of Australians.

Ignored for some mystical greenie gibberish which makes a fetish of a stone age way of life.

Why the desire to pull the troops out of Iraq in the first place?

*posted first on Friday Feb. 10, here*

In the Australian today:

NO sooner did President Barack Obama welcome home American troops from Iraq and laud that country’s stability and democracy than an unprecedented wave of violence across Baghdad and elsewhere revealed the severity of Iraq’s political crisis.

Unfortunate, yet hardly surprising, even to the most casual of observers.

And whilst I can understand (yet not agree with) the Left’s position not to send troops into Iraq in the first place – an argument, largely moot, for another day – what I don’t understand is their fervish desire to pull the troops out.

It always smacked of idealism, ideology, rather than hard-nosed practicality.

After all, what was so bad with having a US troop presence there to help maintain Iraq’s fragile democratic stability?

One could argue that I am biased because a) I am centre-right politically and b) because I live in South Korea, a nation that has had a US troop presence – some 37,000  28,000 or so currently – since the armistice between North and South Korea and have seen what a permanent US troop presence looks like.

I am happy to accept those labels and can gladly tell you that such a presence ain’t that bad.

By and large,  US bases in Korea – and Japan for that matter – haven’t been a problem.

Sure, issues pop up from time to time, but if one looks at the big picture, then a strong US presence here can only be seen as a good thing, a safe option, a pretty darn good insurance policy against North Korea trying anything major on.

Almost 60 years we’ve had US troops over here without any major problems. In fact, many major problems (a full-scale Nork attack comes to mind) have arguably been averted thanks to this presence.

So, why the rush to leave Iraq essentially free of any US military  before even a decade is up and before, as is clear now, the job is done?

OK, so perhaps it’s a bit like comparing apples and oranges. US troops in Korea, aside from those stationed at the DMZ, aren’t on active duty as they were in Iraq.

However, it’s not a completely dissimilar situation. Perhaps a good analogy would be to compare mandarins and oranges.

US troops not only provided safety and stability in the fledgling democracy that is Iraq – a country still steeped with sectarian and tribal rivalries – but surely they also provided a deterrence to anybody or any groups who want to destabilise the nation.

What takes years to build can take mere seconds to destroy, and I fear a lot of hard work is being undone on the whim of a flawed, feel-good, ideology.

So why?

The only practical reason that I can see for Obama pulling his troops out of Iraq is that with an Iranian confrontation looming which includes action needed in Syria, Iraq frankly isn’t important enough any more or at best, an impractical option for a potentially over-stretched military.

Of course, Obama – a man of the progressive Left – can’t actually come out and say that but it is reasonably well-known to those who don’t just get their news from the MSM that Obama is actually more of a war-time president than Bush was, having committed more troops to both Iraq and Afghanistan, and for a longer period of time.

So whilst the MSM might play along with the “bringing the troops home” narrative, the evidence indicates this simply isn’t the case.

Some 20,000 marines, seamen and air crews from half a dozen countries, a US nuclear aircraft carrier strike group and three US Marine gunship carriers are practicing an attack on a fictitious mechanized enemy division which has invaded its neighbor. It is the largest amphibian exercise seen in the West for a decade, staged to simulate a potential Iranian invasion of an allied Persian Gulf country and a marine landing on the Iranian coast. Based largely on US personnel and hardware, French, British, Italian, Dutch, Australian* and New Zealand military elements are integrated in the drill.
Bold Alligator went into its operational phase Monday, Feb. 6, the same day as a large-scale exercise began in southern Iran opposite the Strait of Hormuz. This simultaneity attests to the preparations for a US-Iranian showdown involving Israel behind the words on Feb. 5 of US President Barack Obama (“I don’t think Israel has decided whether to attack Iran”) and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb. 3 (“The war itself will be ten times as detrimental to the US.”).

(*BTW, I don’t recall Aussie PM Gillard highlighting that one.)

And this:

As the US and Israel carried on bickering over the right time to strike Iran’s nuclear sites, their war preparations continued apace. debkafile’s military sources report that flight after flight of US warplanes and transports were to be seen this week cutting eastward through the skies of Sinai on their way to Gulf destinations, presumably Saudi Arabia, at a frequency not seen in the Middle East for many years.

Add into this mix reports that China will reportedly help Saudi Arabia build a nuclear bomb, and that both China and India have started paying Iran for its oil in gold thus helping thwart current US/UN sanctions (more of which were recently thwarted by Russia and China), then we see a stage set for a showdown and we see the reality that rhetoric aside, Obama won’t be bringing many troops home at all.

To someone who doesn’t know any better, it’s as if Russia, India, and China – all wannabe first chickens to the trough – are ganging up on America.**

PS Who wouldn’t love to be a fly on the wall listening in to what the US is really saying about China? Their ever-expanding use of soft power is in many ways, stuffing it all up for America. China must surely be becoming an ever-increasing pain in the neck.

This leaves Australia in an interesting position. Our main export partner is China. Our main ally is the US. We send China our goodies to help them get rich and rival America. We practice shooting our guns with America to help keep America on top.

And yet China and America are also so deep in each other’s pockets. America buys China’s goods. China buys America’s debt.

Fun times.

** I highly recommend reading The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom. Part of the book talks about the pecking order of nations.

Another Australian underclass house.

Had a call letting me know a couple of my customers had abandoned their state house,  I went around to see if any of my goods were still there.

I was there on Thursday about 1500, and the house was locked up, bailiff notices on the doors, all secure.

Friday morning I went to the house with the lady from the Department of Housing, I beat her by about 5 minutes and found the place had been broken into overnight. Empty houses in an underclass neighborhood are an open invitation to burgle.

I confirmed a bit of the gear was mine (barely worth retrieving) and left. I went back a bit later with my other half and the camera, I think its necessary to document why some of the “poor” should be left in the street as an example to others.

 

The rather inviting front...This place was occupied for only around 8 months, on average it takes Homeswest a good 3 months to "take back" an abandoned property. Side of the house.

There is a very large backlog of people looking to get into Homeswest housing (government), due to it being cheaper than normal rent, and generally more secure tenure.

Yet people are able to treat them like this and walk away, homeswest know its useless trying to get anything back, and also know that in a few years they will have the same tenants applying again, as various houses (all taken under different family members names) are wrecked and abandoned.

My fathers wife is Vietnamese, her opinion “They should be allowed to die”, harsh but bugger me, the indirect misery and cost these feral turds cause is enormous.

The Homeswest lady tells me the place might be ready for a new tenant in 2 weeks.. Id be surprised if it was that quick.

 

 

Many more under the fold… Lots of piccies.

Forest rescue, brains of mush…

For those who came in late..

Forest rescue is yet another of those tedious self anointed savers of the world. In there world every form of industry and progress is bad and must be stopped, usually by pooling their dole payments and weed and strapping themselves to bits of machinery.

Unfortunately said machinery is not generally allowed to be switched on as long as they are strapped to it.

Recently 3 tools boarded a Japanese whaling vessel in an attempt to cause maximum drama.. The Japs havent played ball and offloaded them to an Australian customs vessel and they returned to Australian soil today.

Yes thats "captain" Watson visiting the ferals at their camp site. Wonder if they entered into a conspiracy to break the law while they were there?

 I thought Id have a look at their website to see if they received any corporate funding, apparently they dont… A rather non-transparent organisation when it comes to funds.

But I hit the mother lode when I had a look at the poems/drawings section on the website. A psychologist would have a field day analysing this stream of bong-smoke drivel.

All glory to the Hypnotoad.....

 

A second one for your viewing …pleasure… 

Abscence of organised religion isnt the same as non-religious.

There is a heap more at the site, including a lot that focuses on the twin themes of smoking dope and getting laid. The other major theme is hatred of anyone not them…

I need a better class of customers.

Apologies for slacking off on the blog, but business has been draining at the moment, the last couple of weeks have been “special”….

 

Heres a few highlights.

Nice customer of mine, sweet old lady looking after her kids in a crap street. Department of housing just dropped 3 families from “out of town” there because of feuding in Mullewa.

Surprise, surprise they are still fighting in town, culminating in a street fight with about 150 or so people involved, sticks, rocks, shanghais and lots of fisticuffs over a day and a half. Right on the corner of my clients house. She moved everything of value she could into her bedroom as she expected her house to be smashed as well.

I had a chat to her for a while and she informed me Homeswest (public housing) had refused to put on security screens as she wasnt in a “high crime” area.

I gave our local MP a ring and it appears homeswest might be changing their mind on this one…

Yesterday, go to a clients place to pick up a washing machine for repair, spot police forensics at the end of the street taking photos. Pull up in the driveway and noticed I was parking on a heap of blood splatter.

A 15 year old girl had stabbed 3 people there the night before, off her tits on speed, my customers have decamped, I think its his sister who did the stabbing.

Today, bumped into a customer, he described some of the trials hes been in for the last few weeks. Brought a foil of dope from a dealer and had left the dealers house when he was bashed unconscious and had his dope and money stolen. Hes a Willuna bloke so hes got a few of his boys out looking for the assailants, says he will “cripple them” when they are found. Hes about 55.

His daughter had all her possessions stolen when she was about 2 weeks away from giving birth. In addition some blokes shot her in the head with ball bearing from a shanghai, split her head open but didnt drop her. Spoke quite proudly of how the doctors said “if your skull wasnt so thick it might have killed you”.

I might buy this soon...

Speaking to another older lady customer of mine and she blames a lot of it on facebook. Apparently the young ones are flat out baiting each other into fights and whole families are joining in.. plus the written word lasts longer than a spoken insult.

Im pretty sure my town will see a few murders soon, there have been a number of people bashed unconscious, and it just seems to be escalating. My mate the copper reckons its most likely to end with some house fires as people try to drive others out of town…

Nearly every bit of this dysfunction is people on welfare, black and white….

“Happens all the time.”

Yes.  It can and does.  Frequently.

We blame Global Warming.  Also, Tony Abbott.

Next?

-via @AwkwardMsgs1111

A Decade of Tim Blair — Blogger, Legend

Gavin Atkins at Asian Correspondent marks the milestone:

Blogger/journalist Tim Blair has never been one to take a lot of notice of plaudits, awards or milestones – in fact, he assiduously ignores them – but the recent passing 10-year anniversary of his blog should not go by without comment.

For many Australians of a conservative or libertarian bent, about ten years ago, just reading or watching the news was like being asked to wade through a floating garbage dump of dogma to try and read what was written on the ground. What’s more, most of us were left cursing, as only the most watered down of our thoughts would ever make it through as a letter to the editor.

Tim Blair changed all that with his blog that tackled the idiocies of the left pretty much as they happened. His blog filled a niche that conservatives were crying out for, and his comment sections soon became almost as entertaining as the articles. […]

Along the way, he has invented terms such as Blair’s Law and the Gore Effect as well as alerting the world to the alarming tendency of lefties to tilt their heads in photographs.

And then there’s the Plastic Turkey meme, the new verbs “to beclown” and “to Fisk,” and probably a whole lot more that others can add in comments.

One thing Gavin didn’t mention was how global Tim Blair’s appeal has turned out to be  – in fact, one sledge often thrown at him by some of his resident trolls is that he has “too many” American fans and commenters.  For some reason, his Leftoid Australian detractors believed that was some sort of fatal “gotcha”.

Ah, his trolls!  Not only have Tim’s blogging efforts attracted some of the most clever and witty commenters over the years, they’ve seen him collect some of the most dedicated, demented, obsessive and sometimes just chuckleheadedly-silly assortment of sockpuppets and trolls ever seen in one place.

Go over and read Gavin’s whole piece, and be sure to leave your thoughts & favourite memories/recollections in comments either here or there.

Happy Tenth Blogiversary, Tim!

P.S. Where’s Wronwright with that mead…?

P.P.S. As our blogroll has been rather neglected of late, if you are one of the #BlairNation troupe of bloggers (new motto, #WeAreUs – thanks Julia!) and aren’t listed over on the right-hand side there ——->
just drop your blog link in comments and we’ll get it updated. Cheers.

UPDATE:  More comments now at The Blogfather’s here:  TEN YEARS OF LOVE.  As Puce would have said, CLICK.

A Willuna artist work.

Fro those who dont know Wiluna is a predominantly Aboriginal town in Western Australia’s North West.

I used to shear at a few stations near there a while back, and its as rough and tribal a town as you could envisage.

Theres not many pubs that have a “No soliciting” sign on the back fence. as well as an old bloke roasting a goanna on an open fire out in the front car park.

Well I had a visit from a distant relation last week, his daughter is an artist in the Aboriginal style (dot painting etc) and he was in town trying to sell one of her works.

Ive never been a huge fan of the style, but this was good,

bloody good.

 

Pic is well worth a close look

Its a huge picture 2m by 1.5m, if you can click on the pic and try and get the detail, what looks like solid colours and smudges is actually detailed.

The bloke was chasing a couple of grand for it, I posted it on a few sales sites for him and hope he has some luck. If anyone is interested I can contact the artist, her and her dad are both “battlers”, Id rather call her a talent rather than some “dump on a bed” artist like Tracey Emin.

Some of the detail under the fold.

Holy fools.

In my hometown we have a chap who probably qualifies as a “holy fool”. (Ps: Im not religious myself)

 

In using the term holy fool I harking back to the old meaning of the term, a person living a life without regard for day-to-day realities, devoted to prayer and meditation.

Our own holy fool is Barry Kelly, I first saw him at a set of traffic lights in the centre of town, he took off his thongs (flip-flops for you Americans) placed his knees on them (for padding) and began to pray. The lights changed and I drove off, I told the other half about it and we both had a laugh at the “crazy” man.

Geraldtons own holy fool.

Then I began to see him walking along the main highway, covering large distances, sometimes praying, more often walking, head down, oblivious to the world around him.

Then something strange began to happen, instead of a figure of ridicule people began to feel protective of the bloke. I keep an eye out for him driving around, as do many others, its quite strange the effect seeing someone so “shamelessly” living their beliefs can have. There is already a facebook page, a newspaper article, what next a movie deal?

He has had abuse and objects thrown at him, and also had people stopping and giving him drinks, and in one case a local shop have him a high visibility vest.People have left money at the servo he stops at coffee for and nearly every person Ive spoken to about him is worried about his getting hit by traffic, rather than any “harm” hes causing.

 

Ill leave you with his own words from the newspaper interview.

“I just love walking and praying,” he said.

“There are so many bad things going on in the world to pray for, don’t you think?”

Question time in Australias parliment.

While I was in Canberra I ducked into the gallery to watch question time. I got to see Julia and the 3 ringed circus in action, and was present when Mr Shorten made his rather silly “Economic white Australia policy” speech.

 

Here was my impressions.

Tony Abbott was walking around like he had 3 testicles not 2. It was fairly obvious from his demeanour, and that of his party they have the whip hand at the moment. Activity on the opposition benches seemed purposeful, and smooth.

The government benches looked a little different, much less confident, and fully aware they were under siege. The front bench looked ok, but Swan was all fluff and no substance and most of the rest of the bench were variously slouching, distracted or morose.

As for Julia, only one word to sum her up, brittle.

She looked extremely uncomfortable, but trying to radiate a sense of calm and control, but nowhere near pulling it off.

While I was in the gallery 2 people were ejected for disrupting proceedings, one went fairly quick, the other made a bit of a spectacle of himself.

At that stage the speaker of the house warned the gallery it would be cleared if there continued to be disruptions.

Then came the most pathetic, schoolyard bully boy bullshit I’ve seen for a long time.

Julias cabinet spokesman, yesterday..

The ALP side of the house swiveled their collective heads and tried to stare down/intimidate the gallery. It was ridiculous, it came close to me standing up and telling them to pull their heads in and stop being so childish. It reminded me of nothing more than this silly old clip from the movie “Beetlejuice”.

(the scene at 00:34 sums the look up)

The sight of the government of Australia acting like a bunch of kids was disappointing, not surprising, given the 3 ring circus it has become, but sad all the same.

Also sad was the amount of too-ing and fro-ing between the government and opposition benches and Mr Winsors seat, with multiple notes being passed to the “most important man in Australia”, sad.

Back from the trip, convoy of no confidence.

Im back, the convoy went well, numbers wernt as high as hoped though.

For the trip from WA we had 2 trucks (3 for a while) and 5 other vehicles. On the way I had at least 200 “thumbs up” or positive signs and a grand total of 2 thunbs down or negative signs.

Every place we stopped people came for a look, signed the petition and gave us encouragement.

There was a concerted effort made to minimise disruption to Canberra residents, the coppers were for the most part helpfull, but there was a deliberate lack of senior figures to make decisions on the ground. I was for instance forbidden access to the parlimentary parking area until I got out and spoke to the copper and pointed out I had medical gear in the back which was for the rally.

There was a point made by the chief minister on the ABC that they had to spend a lot on preperations for the rally. None of that spending included any medical units I saw, just police.

The start of the rally was a fizzer, only about 200 (as reported) arriving on time. the convoy I came in with arrived about 10:00 I was towards the front of this group and there was about 1.5km of trucks and other vehicles behind me. One of the WA trucks broke down (clutch problem) and held things up a little, but was quickly towed away.

There was a good turn out of Canberra citizenry supporting the convoy, with only 2 individual protesters spotted negative, and well over 300 positive.

One problem for many of the trucks was a lack of parking, some were told to park on the verge, but were then ticketed, others only got parked up and back to the rally after lunch.

I got to see speeches by Abbott, Prof. Carter and quite a few others, most made the point the government was a shambles, and climate change was a crock of crap. All good stuff.

Now the Allan Jones controversy. Notice how it became the “focus” story for the MSM? No other hook for the story?

Heres what I saw.

There was talk in the crowd of another convoy due in, I was fairly sure it had allready joined us just before we came in. Please note nearly every person with truck radios knew this, but as trucks were still looking for parking or circling the parliment there wasnt anyone fully informed.

Truckies were annoyed we hadnt been allowed to go past the actual bulding, and no light vehicles (myself excepted) with convoy markings had been allowed to drive up to the main building once the trucks arrived.

So there was quite a bit of confusion, if anyone was to blame it was the organisers.

Jones was handed a mobile phone (Im not sure who handed it to him) and had a couple of words with the bloke who handed it to him, listened to the phone a bit then had his rant on a convoy being turned back.

Without knowing who told him that its hard to apportion fault. But as best I could tell he was reporting in good faith what he was told, he left less than a hour later he left, could he have corrected his story by then? Dunno.

But it was a good day, Id estimate about 1500 people at its peak, there were a few strange folk (Truther alert!!), but for the most part a good natured bunch of Aussies assembled peacefully to protest an incompitent government.

Numbers should have been better, but considering (as one speaker mentioned) many of the cattle communities affected havent had an income for 10 months, its hardly suprising not many could afford the trip.

I have most of my piccies below the fold, I was pretty well suck in one place with my medical gear so missed quite a bit though.

WA truck

Off we go

Im off for a few weeks for the convoy of no confidence. Need to pick up some medical gear in Perth for the trip, then leaving at 0630 from the Belmont Park racetrack in Perth.

Looks like it will be a fun week or so visiting the red Queen in Canberra.

Some of the poor Canberrans feel a little under siege allready, good, thats how most small businesses feel about what your town produces.

(PS: What sort of a blog is “Partnered” by the national gallery, and the ACT chamber of commerce? Even their blogs suck on the taxpayers teat FFS!!))

The Australian Liar bird.

A reminder of why people think this government  has no legitimacy.

Carbon Tax Fallout: tax rates for low-income earners up, plus, “what compensation?”

Packaged along with the much-ballyhooed “save the planet” carbon tax were some increases in marginal tax rates which the press went pretty quiet on.  And although the tax-free threshold was raised, the LITO (low income tax offset) was actually reduced, which along with rises in the marginal tax rates for the lowest two tax brackets means that this is not such a good deal after all, especially for lower-income Australians.

I’m not an economist (and I don’t even play one on TV) so I’m linking you over to both Professor Sinclair Davidson’s reckonings at Catallaxy and Clinton Mead’s at the Australian Libertarian Society blog.  As a layman I found Clinton Mead’s in-depth explanation and examples pretty clear and easy to understand – I recommend wandering over and having a look at both his post and the comments there.

In short, though, both economists do a good job of showing what the effects of the new tax scales and the alleged “compensation” will work out to for those on various incomes.  And it’s not nearly as rosy a picture as the government or its cheerleaders in the lapdog media would have us believe.

In related carbon tax news, analysis of the latest opinion polls throws up a pretty surprising figure:  62 percent of 18-34 year olds are opposed to Labor’s carbon tax policy.  Wait, what?  If you only listen to the ABC and GetUp and its related pseudo-grassroots lobby groups, you get the distinct impression that it’s only the old fogeys who are opposed to this tax; that the Yoof are all hip & jiggy wit’ it.  So what’s up that? Are we being fed yet another busted meme which is all about the narrative Labor and the MSM want to push but nothing much to do with reality?

Sinc has the full polling results here and they’ll be worth referring to later.  As he points out, “Both these polls can be considered pre-policy announcement benchmarks. If Gillard is able to sell her policy to the public we’ll be able to see changes of opinion here.”  So, bookmark ’em.

And also, just a memo to myself to remember to check out the Catallaxy blog more often, especially since I’ve pretty much gone off the comments thing at Bolt’s.  Some really good voices over there, and it doesn’t seem to be over-run by astroturfers and trolls (yet!).

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.

Is your name your destiny?

My missus sent me this one, I didn’t notice the problem at first, a fairly standard “pervy man” story…

See if you can spot the problem.

A Turners Beach man appeared in court and was fined for a public decency offence relating to an incident at Coles Beach earlier this year.

It is believed three men were summonsed to court, with Wayne King, 58, being the first to appear last week.

He initially entered a plea of not guilty to prohibited behaviour but pleaded guilty in the Devonport Magistrates Court on Thursday to a public decency offence.

He was fined $147.60.

I had to have it pointed out to me, the bloke has been done for flogging his log and flashing in public… his name Wayne King….

Id jail his parents for being that cruel…

NSFW cartoon under the fold…

Townhall meeting coming to a venue near you

OK, so PM Gillard reckons The Debate We Never Had™ is over, but that doesn’t mean – oh no siree – that folks aren’t standing up to have their say.

A townhall meeting in Brisbane:

Mr Hockey said merchants at a Brisbane market this morning told him they would not be able to pass on the cost of an estimated 10 per cent rise in electricity without sacking staff.

“Time and time again, as we went past every store, all the workers were coming out and saying ‘you have to stop this tax’,” he said.

Read on.

Best Australian Ad of the Year So Far: TradeTools Doesn’t {Heart} Julia

I love this ad.  I would marry this ad.  Hell, I would gay marry this ad.

PDF of actual ad from yesterday’s Sunday Mail at link; text of the prize rant below for clarity:

It’s not Godwin’s unless it’s an *inappropriate* analogy

At Andrew Bolt’s, but bears re-blogging:

“I’m sorry, but the fascist analogy must now be drawn“

Bolt comments: [all links added by me for the benefit of those not familiar with these themes]

I never dreamed I’d live in a country in which Jewish businesses were boycotted and blockaded.

The shame. The utter shame.

But then I’d never dreamed, either, that I’d be taken to court for expressing my opinion. Or that a news organisation would be denied a government contact for being political unsympathetic. Or that news outlets would be banned by government ministers for asking basic questions. Or that academics could protest against free speech.

What the hell is happening here?

UPDATE: Flashback to Melbourne 2009 (via Nilk) … it’s not like they’re being subtle, people:  “Nazis Needed”

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Australians even get ripped off on DIGITAL book pricing

Why is the Amazon Kindle price of Ben Shapiro’s new book “Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV” almost double when I have my Kindle zone set to Australia?

Kindle 'Zone' set to Australia (click to embiggen)

Kindle 'Zone' set to USA (click to embiggen)

The takeaway lesson for Aussies would seem to be:  just set your Kindle “zone” to USA if you want to buy American books. No, I don’t know how “kosher” that is, but yes, I know that it works.

But the question remains:  why would a digital book, composed of nothing but zeros and ones, cost someone in Australia (who admits they’re in Australia) almost double?  This is what the blurb about “applicable taxes” says – as far as I know Australian GST is not charged on any internet purchases of under $1000 or so, and even if it were, a 10% GST would only add $1.29 to the price, not $10.18.

Is this still our protectionist luvvies in The Yartz at work, making sure we don’t find American books overly attractive?   (For background on Australia’s protectionist book pricing, see Tim Blair “Local Books for Local People” and “Luvvies Win”, and Bob Carr “Protectionism Means You Pay More For Books” and “It’s the Lunacy of Protectionism Write Large”)

Or is it just a matter of different publishers for the US and Aussie markets, each charging what they believe the market will bear?

And how realistic is that, really, in an Internet-enabled world where you don’t exactly need to be a rocket scientist to order from the most attractive market as opposed to being locked in to a local market?

Any thoughts &/or explanations most welcome in comments.

Our Langolier government

Most of you probably remember the book and/or movie, The Langoliers. Those little creatures would gobble up, or destroy if you will, everything – matter, space, time – they came across.

In a sense, the Gillard (and previously, Rudd) government has many similarities. Everything her Langolier eyes set themselves upon, they destroy.

The list is unbelievable.

Read the rest of this entry

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).

Green deceivers

The latest Green commercial states that “storms are more extreme and more frequent”.

This is flat out wrong. In fact, the opposite is true.

Yes. Storm frequency and intensity has actually gone down the past 30 years. Here’s data collected by Dr. Ryan Maue Ph.D at Florida State University.

Continue reading this entry

Brown Town [Video]

BROWN TOWN:  Ray Hadley reworks a Petula Clark classic in honour of Greens leader Bob Brown; @s_dog takes the liberty of putting some pictures to the song and uploading it to YouTube:

(Please feel free to pass it on – the URL for the video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM73CRgUPiY )

UPDATE:  Thanks, Bolta!  Link: A Lesson for Brown 

UPDATE II:  Critics.  Sigh.  “Brown Town” song parody proves right-wingers have no sense of humour

UPDATE III: Thanks to Menzies House for reposting; also GregoryNo6, Iain Hall, James Board, Mags 

UPDATE IV:  More linkers – thanks!  Quadrant Online, Blazing Cat Fur, Stop Gillard’s Carbon Tax, ASX Guru, DontCopIt, and thanks to Mark Sharma and the other ‘Aussies on the Right’ on Twitter for passing it around… (if I’ve missed any, let me know)  Also, @Western_Patriot just let me know that Ray Hadley mentioned my clip on @2GB873 this morning and it got positive feedback – I’ll post a podcast link when it’s up.