POLL: Does Australia Need A Climate Commissar?

The Australia is running a poll: Is Tim Flannery the right person to be Australia’s climate commissioner?

They assume that Australia needs a “Climate Commissioner” in the first place.

We encourage readers to vote early and often.

Ref: See this, this, this and this via Mean Ol’ Meany Tim Blair for background.

Yikes.

A dire warning from Tim Blair:

“He’s watching us, people. Remain vigilant.”

Be afraid.  Be very afraid.

Blog Wars Redux

The latest in the Blog Wars (you really have to follow the links & comments to get the gist):

◊ Andrew Bolt

◊ Tim Blair

◊ J.F. Beck

◊ Teh PP-Boyz

◊ Lavatory Rodeo

◊ Skeptic Lawyer

◊ … and even Ned the Bear?!?

spot_the_dog sez: "Wake me up when it's over, m'kay?"

UPDATE:  via Margo’s Maid’s Shadowlands another pup, having trouble maintaining interest, succumbs to sleep

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UPDATE #2: Margo’s Maid’s Shadowlands also has some terrific commentary and link rounds-up on the all-singin’ all-dancin’ Goat Rodeo this blog war is morphing into.  “Circle the wagons“ and “Nerd Wars Update.”

Go.  Read.

The Australian Bushfires: An Ongoing News & Comment Round-Up [Updated]

Yesterday Nilk wrote an excellent post here at Tizona on the recent (ongoing) bushfire disaster here in Australia, and because of the number of hits it’s attracted and because of the still ongoing nature of the disaster, I thought I’d put together a collection of links in chronological order to the many updated reports both the Sydney Daily Telegraph’s Tim Blair and the Melbourne Herald Sun’s Andrew Bolt have been posting on this.

I’ll start with the first piece I saw, which was Andrew Bolt’s from Saturday night (Feb 7th) and continue in chronological order with his subsequent posts, then I’ll move on to Tim Blair’s from Sunday morning (Feb 8th) and similarly continue in chronological order with his subsequent posts.

Please please please, feel free to add via comments any other links you want added, and I’ll check back in the morning and add them in, and generally try to keep this updated as a general resource clearing-house, especially for our friends overseas who are touchingly concerned but are some of them having trouble finding very much news coverage or commentary on the issue.

All of the pieces linked below  have multiple updates, links to other news sources, and vivid if heartbreaking pictures, as well as Tim’s and Andrew’s commentary on many of the issues this disaster has brought up.

**List of links below the fold:

Tunnel Kittens of Gaza

Now that we’ve all had our fun with PETA’s “Sea Kittens” both here and at Blair’s,  I thought I’d throw a quick post together memorialising some of the best captions from Tim Blair readers for the photo below, featured in Tim’s post

“SUBTERRANEAN HOMESICK GOAT.”

There are even more good comments on the site – go see for yourself.  But of course, no Tim Blair post would be complete without at least one humourless self-righteous Lefty huffing and puffing about the evil heartless racist  flying-monkey RWDBs who mindlessly respond to Blair’s “Dogwhistle of Racism,” so preach it, Brother Toaf!

Dunno, Comrade – I for one think we don’t hear nearly enough “racist jokes about bestiality” these days.  But then, I’m not a self-professed “pinko-commo terrorist-lover,” so what would I know?

Lyle Republished

This has been going through my head all freakin’ day for absolutely no reason, so I’ll share that joy with you all. It’s one of Lyle’s greatest, a rather competitive title considering the genius of the man, but expressed in just the right sing-song voice gets completely stuck in your head.

I give you “A Squirrel Poem For Children”, originally published at the Lair of Blair:

A Squirrel Poem for Children

My squirrel plays the bagpipes;
He keeps them in my car.
He plays those nasty bagpipes
Wherever squirrels are.
Colt forty-five, meet bagpipes
And blast them all to hell.
Though squirrel plays the bagpipes
He does not play them well.

If anyone knows how to get it out of my head, I’d really appreciate it. I think I may have to gnaw my arm off to distract.

Green Awards Poll: Vote Now

Vote below for the candidate who should win News Ltd’s Green Award for the “Could Do Better” category.

Do it Chicago style!

Amazingly True

Written by Dan Lewis over at Tim Blair‘s:

Supporters suggest the technology could reduce the need for high-level policing on roads, make speed cameras irrelevant

The Government could have prevented “Speeding” any time they ever wanted to in the last decade, by putting a speed camera on every street, or a speed limiter in every car. However, no more “speeding” = no more fines revenue.
It will never happen. Like banning cigarettes.

Roads Minister Eric Roozendaal said speeding was the biggest killer on NSW roads

Bullshit. NSW Roads are the killer. People driving in excess of 200kmh in Germany manage to survive, all the time.

It comes down to your definition of “speeding”. For me, “speeding” means driving at a speed unsafe for the prevailing conditions. Not exceeding the posted speed limit, which hasn’t been raised ever, despite advances in driver technology and safety.

There is no reason why dual-carriage, dead-straight, multi-lane sections of the Hume Highway, for example couldn’t be Autobahns. Right now, the biggest risk is falling asleep from boredom.

Meanwhile, there are 100 year old goat-tracks, signposted 100kmh which is asking for trouble in the wet. Yet people drive at that speed, because we have been programmed to trust the sign, and not our own driving ability.

On “Double Points” long-weekends, it’s not unusual to see convoys of dozens of cars, travelling at precisely 110kmh, mere inches away from each other, the drivers’ eyes fixated on the speedometer lest they surely get a ticket. Can anyone seriously tell me this is an improvement to safety? No, I don’t have sour grapes having not received a speeding ticket in over a decade. But the whole government attitude towards road safety sucks.

In this country, most people were taught to drive by their father. He was taught by his father. So it follows, if your Great Grandfather was a lousy driver, so are you. So by all means, turn without indicating. Hog the right lane. Tailgate other vehicles. Under-inflate your tires, overtake in the left lane, brake too hard. It’s all acceptable to the NSW Government, who never enforce laws against these hazards. But heaven forbid you should “speed”. That would be dangerous!

Daniel Lewis (Reply)
Sun 18 May 08 (01:37pm)

Except for the part about learning to drive from fathers, it’s all true.

Lair Relocated

In a cunning move, The Lair of Mr. Blair has been relocated to the Daily Telegraph site.

Time will tell how successful this move is.

Update: Andrea the Mighty reflects.

Hillary Clinton: She’s a Lawyer, and Her Lips are Moving

This is both sad and hilarious.

From a blog I’d never heard of before, The Jed Report. This guy is good. Very good. I’m bookmarking him!

Via Tim Blair.

Quote That Made My Day

From Richard Sharpe at Tim Blair‘s:

If you need a 30 round magazine to nail a porcine beastie then quite frankly, you don’t deserve a rifle.

Allies. And friends as well.

This was posted over at Tim Blair’s blog by Dave S.

An Australian soldier writes to his father about the American soldiers he’s fighting alongside in Baghdad.

It’s more good news out of Iraq. Incidentally Dave S. would like to hear from anyone who thinks they might have found his missing surname. The bank manager’s getting antsy and complaining about those incomplete signatures on his cheques.

Sneaky Column Published

This column here was snuck into the Daily Telegraph by a certain opinion editor. How… sneaky. How… cunning!

Column Deemed Excellent

The latest from Tim Blair.

Highlights:

What’s then to become of Mosley, who is still clearly youthful enough to survive a five-hooker sexcapade and presumably would seek to apply his talents in other international fields?

The answer – and one that’s staring us in the face: put Max Mosley in charge of Earth Hour.

*SNICKER*

This is a spectacular accomplishment. He’s somehow sold a sport to millions that involves ugly, howling, near-identical cars driven by terrible European midgets.

Hold me, I’m tearing up at this. It’s so true, and so funny.

The only thing preventing an Antarctic Grand Prix is the difficulty of finding suitable grid chicks among the local penguin population.

I’ll dress up as a penguin if you let me be a grid chick!

That’s quite a call; F1 cars chomp through 80L of fuel every 100km, which is on a level of environmental friendliness about equal to woodchipping a Wollemi pine.

If that’s the kind of pine tree I had to get cut down and chipped, cool! Those tree climbing boys with the chainsaws were kinda nice to watch… and offer drinks to. Ahem.

It’s a truly excellent column. Do make sure to read it.

Hwaet!

“Hwaet!” is the opening of Beowulf in the original Old English, the equivalent of “Listen!” Chanting his poem, the poet is calling his audience to attention.

In the video below, Karl Rove’s recent speech to the ladies and gentlemen attending a Young America’s Foundation conference is interrupted by moonbats operating undercover in order to exploit the opportunity to accuse Rove of war crimes. Asked afterward why he has become such a mythical monster in the left’s fevered imagination, Rove likens himself to Grendel in Beowulf — the monster frequently heard of but rarely seen. Rove demonstrates a bit of an edge over his detractors in good humor, civility, and numerous other departments including literacy. (Via Ed Morrissey at Hot Air.)

In a recent interview with Matthew Sheffield of NewsBusters, Rove described his “media diet on an ordinary day,” enumerating a list on which we are proud to be included (go to Sheffield’s interview for links to each of the cited sources):

I get Mike Allen’s overnight summary from Politico, I cruise RealClearPolitics.com, I get Taranto from the Wall Street Journal, I visit the Corner. I check Drudge, I check Fox News, I have a list of favorites that I sort of thumb through if I’ve got the time. I obviously read papers, the New York Times; the Wall Street Journal; when in Washington, the Washington Post if not, I get it online. I check out, most days, Instapundit, Power Line, Hugh Hewitt. Occasionally I’ll dip into Just One Minute or visit the Captain’s Quarters, I check out Michael Barone’s blog, and I look forward to getting Opinion Journal, and I get the NCPA summary. And I also get a news summary, a news clip early in the morning of all the clips.

Power Line

Karl, We aren’t on your list. We feel terribly hurt. We have been very good RWDB (thank you, Nilk…lol)

_____________________________________________________________________________

As a side note and an IMPORTANT ONE. Texas Bob, is posting again at Blair’s. I’ve have saved him an editorial place here. I shall contact the man, to see if he chooses to use it OR if he is busy enough protecting our asses, so all can type in safety.

Thank God, he seems OK. I had been checking casualty lists regularly and had feared the worst.

Freeeeeeeeedom!

Tim Blair has escaped (or been discharged) from hospital.

This is excellent news!

Europeans demand “the right to vote”… A CALL TO ARMS. (UPDATE)

It’s like deja-vu all over again … Once again, the Euro-weenies seem to feel that they have some sort of a right to participate in U.S. elections. The Brussels Journal reports that a 3 January 2008 editorial in the Brussels newspaper De Standaard whines, “…the world should be given the right to vote. Because the current situation is a blatant case of taxation without representation, against which the Americans rebelled in 1776.”