Thursday, August 24, 2006

Daily Rant, Thursday


Ambulance Missile Fraud
Originally uploaded by Sydney Weasel.
Pictured is an ambulance Hezbolah got a lot of media attention over. It was claimed Israeli missiles had hit an ambulance convoy, killing occupants. Turns out that the picture was staged. The events never happened.
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The Weasel posts a lot elsewhere. From today those posts will be collected and placed in line. Linked where possible. The Weasel is cooperating with DDB on this issue.

10 comments:

DaoDDBall said...

Abortion debate sparked by Dr controversy, where a doctor was charged with murder for performing an abortion. Dr was acquitted.
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/a_jury_hands_us_an_abortion_debate_like_it_or_not/#commentsmore

Perhaps we don’t need this debate, but my take is similar as with stem cell research. I think abortion needs to be legal and regulated. I think doctors need to be able to carry out the procedure on decision of the mother, or under extraordinary circumstance, by another.
The decision should never be the doctors.
There needs to be a mechanism for preventing a doctor being sued for a change of mind.

DaoDDBall said...

Now Human Rights Watch is also accused of helping Hezbollah by exaggerating “innocent” deaths in Lebanon:
HRW then:
"At the sites visited by Human Rights Watch—Qana, Srifa, Tyre, and the southern suburbs of Beirut—on-site investigations did not identify any signs of military activity in the area attacked, such as trenches, destroyed rocket launchers, other military equipment, or dead or wounded fighters.”
It apparently raised no eyebrows among HRW staff that of the fifteen “civilian” victims in Srifa it identifies in its report, all were men, and thirteen of them were of normal fighting age (17-35).
The New York Times now:
"Mr. Kamaleldin, the Sreifa [same as Srifa] official, estimated that up to two-thirds of the town’s homes and buildings were demolished, leaving more than 43 people buried in the rubble. A majority of them were fighters belonging to Hezbollah and the allied Amal Party, residents said.”

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

I'm confused now. The Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC led me to believe that the kidnappings and rocket attacks werte the last desperate acts of women and children wanting their men to return from jail.

DaoDDBall said...

Don’t know the governor general .. that’s ok

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

Silly Billy was the perfect excuse for G-G. Any opinion of his was safely held close to his chest, unless the political wind changed direction .. then he would occasionally show his hand as he changed his cards.

I don't need the GG's opinion. He is there to represent me to the world.

DaoDDBall said...

Gerard Henderson:
THROUGHOUT the 1950s and ‘60s, the Coalition won successive federal elections. However, this disguised the fact that the Left was winning the debate in its long march through institutions such as universities, schools, trade unions and the media (including the ABC).
Today this is reflected in the fact that there are so few home-grown political conservatives born before, say, 1960 who are prominent in the public debate. Many of Australia’s most influential contemporary political conservatives, of a certain age, have a background on the Left (Piers Akerman, David Barnett, Tim Blair, Ron Brunton, Jonathan King, P.P. McGuinness, Christopher Pearson, Imre Salusinszky, Max Teichmann, Keith Windschuttle) or within the social democratic tradition (Andrew Bolt, Bob Catley, David Flint, John Hirst, Ross Terrill).
Quite a number of contemporary political conservatives chanted “It’s Time” in late 1972 in support of Gough Whitlam and Whitlamism. It is somewhat ironic that the authors of the sympathetic biography John Howard: Prime Minister - David Barnett and Pru Goward - both voted for Whitlam in 1972.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s good to have one-time leftists and social democrats now standing up against the Left. Yet it says something about the relative failure of Australian conservatives in the culture wars that there are so few from cradle to grave conservatives in the public debate.
And yet meeting a teenage conservative is still kind of spooky. I can’t help but think that conservatism is something that you think yourself to, having watched long enough to see how people really are. I’m not sure there is a convincing short cut.

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

Don't perceptions say so much about the viewer?

According to Henderson's fine analysis, I'm not really a Christian, but the atheist my parents raised. I'm not really a Conservative, but still that radical desiring of Bob Hawke to summon Keating, or Wran to fiddle with economy figures.

Let me add to Henderson's fine analysis. Great comedy (and art) is born when lefties are in opposition .. possibly because of freedom of speech being strengthend. Adults never achieve the creativity of youth.

Here's a test to Henderson's theory. Get your kids to get the plumber or electrician on Sunday evening.

DaoDDBall said...

Who’s listening in on the telephone? The latest figures on federal telephone bugging warrants show that 8969 have been issued in the three years to June 2005, with 2889 being granted in 2004-05. With some warrants covering more than 10 different telephone services and being in force for an average of more than seven weeks, that’s a lot of calls being monitored. And with 11 law enforcement agencies able to apply for interception warrants and a further five agencies able to access intercepted material, there’s also a lot of people listening.
http://blogs.news.com.au/news/crime/index.php/news/comments/listening_in/

I average seven phone calls a month. Six are from telemarketers. One is a wrong number.

I would like to abrogate my right to phone privacy. They can bug me. I similarly don't mind if they remotely monitor my internet usage.

It frightens me to think that criminals go free because the law has been hamstrung. But then, I'm not a parent. Maybe I would sleep better, as a parent, kbnowing I can shield my child from some ill considered activity of theirs.

A few years ago, I endorsed anti racketeering laws in a conversation with friends (parents). They were convinced their children would go to jail for political activity, for criminal activity or for sheer stupidity.

DaoDDBall said...

Stem Cell Debate Needs Dignity, Not Acrimony

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/piersakerman/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/stem_cells_debate_needs_dignity_not_degradation/#commentsmore

My take on this is that the research will take place, but maybe not in Australia. If the research takes place in Australia, it will be regulated by the government, which is a good thing.

I think it wrong if Australia abrogates responsibility to the global community and fails to research stem cells.

DaoDDBall said...

Julian Burnside says more than he means - or remembers

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/julian_burnside_says_more_than_he_means_or_remembers/#commentsmore

I am irritated that 'pro Palestinian' has come to mean pro terrorism. I recognise that Palestinians cannot, and have not, voted for any non terrorist grouping in election, but that is not the fault of individual Palestinians so much as their representatives, including the UN.

I feel I am pro Palestinian, and I applaud the Israelis for there care and diligence with which they have handled so many crises over the years. I am ashamed of the UN's support for the terrorists who not only assault Israel, but kill Palestinians who are moderate (or just innocent bystanders) and absorb community funding for health, education and housing.

DaoDDBall said...

The big hole in that ambulance story
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/the_big_hole_in_that_ambulance_story/
I know there is no alternative to Hezbollah, for Lebanese, because they kill those who are alternatives. But I object to the statement, made by one poster, that all islamists lie. I think the UN, media and Islamist communities have committed the mistake of endorsing a leadership committed to terrorism.

What we see on this posting is that the western media have acted comp0licitly with terrorists to advantage terrorists. The result of the campaign against Israel is that Israel have voted out their conservatives to please the UN, who will not respond proportionately. Israel has shown great restraint when it should have been more aggressive and daring.

It isn't rocket science. We know who the terrorists (and their supporters) are. There are those who think it difficult to distinguish between right and wrong. It isn't.

DaoDDBall said...

Einfeld the comedy just got funnier
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/einfeld_the_comedy_just_got_funnier/#commentsmore

I have no time or respect for this judge, he is from the other side of the political fence. However, I don't approve of this campaing against him, feeling it to be disproportionate. I've heard no suggestion of some underlying corruption, of which this apparent 'lie to avoid being fined' is said to overlay. However, if people wish to go all out, they have my blessing to charge every driver in Australia $77 to gain the resources to pin this apparent criminal to the wall.

DaoDDBall said...

Countdown to an explosion
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/countdown_to_an_explosion/
I think Iranians civilised peoples, but then I feel the Germans and Japanese also civilised. It is not the fault of Iranians that terrorists hold their leadership, but it is up to Iranians to toss their terrorist leaders out, and if they don't, we need to force them to.

It is not brinksmanship, as one poster suggests, if one of the parties invites the catastrophe.

There is no benefit for Iranians that their leaders get atomic weapons. There is a political benefit for European Left for Iran to be destabilising. The reason why terrorists run Iran is because European leaders want them to.