Headlines Tuesday 15th July

Bird song will quiet faithless
Piers Akerman
I HOPE Pope Benedict XVI heard the kookaburras’ call before he went to bed at his Kenthurst retreat and awoke yesterday to the sound of magpies warbling.

No two birdsongs better capture the difference between Australia and the rest of the world.

They bring tears to the eyes of Aussie expats when they are heard abroad, and perhaps their familiar choruses will help introduce this Pope to our country and assist him in understanding and empathising with the way we feel and the way we see ourselves as part of the global community.

Like much of our unique fauna and flora, these birds have been shaped by the ever-changing environment they have evolved in.

So, too, have Australians, and the Catholic church has played a huge role in the evolution of our national cultural environment.

If one was a subscriber solely to the Fairfax newspapers or watched and listened only to the ABC, one could come away with the view that every child who received a Catholic education had been subjected to abuse at the hands of the Catholic clergy.

But that is patently not so. While some children undoubtedly suffered miserably - and horribly - it is notable that the ABC chose to prosecute the case of a man who was nearly 30 when he was attacked by a notorious priest some 26 years ago. A man, moreover, who has taken the matter through the civil processes and received court-ordered compensation.

The importance of victimhood is as important to the taxpayer-funded broadcaster and Fairfax as maintaining the Church as the unforgiveable perpetrator.

One might also be led to believe that Australia was a bastion of prejudice against Catholicism, but that, too, would be untrue.

While there have been sadistic and sexually predatory brutes within the Catholic Church and one cannot but feel boundless sympathy for their victims, the good that has been wrought by the tens of thousands of men and women who selflessly gave their lives in service to their fellow humans through the Church’s institutions is incalculable.

The campaign run by these media organisations against the Church in the lead-up to the Papal visit has been reminiscent of the virulent hate sessions organised by the former communist party in the old USSR and its satellite states.

And, if anyone other than the ABC or Fairfax care to count these things any more, the numbers of Catholics elected to public office and holding senior positions in community organisations belies any notion of religious prejudice.
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An icy fact the ABC forgot to mention
Andrew Bolt
From the ABC report, you’d think the Arctic ice was melting faster than ever:

A group of Russian scientists are being rescued from a melting ice-floe in the Arctic.

Our Moscow correspondent, Scott Bevan, reports the 20 scientists have been based on the ice floe since September, conducting a range of experiments, including monitoring the effects of climate change.

The team was meant to be at the drifting station, known as North Pole 35, for a year. But the ice has been melting so quickly, that the floe’s shrunk to a little more than a tenth of its size of last September.

In fact, there is much more ice now at the North Pole than there was last year - a detail the ABC strangely forgot to mention:
(Source: US National Snow and Ice Data Center.)
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Only a hypocrite would now drive a Prius
Andrew Bolt
Global warming fanatics panicked to hear that the Tata corporation was building a cheap car that tens of millions of Indians could at last afford. Save the planet, let Indians walk, was the cry.

Turns out it’s the warming believers of the West who should be walking instead. The new Tata Nano unveiled this week is in fact the only car any green should drive
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Cost no objection to Medicare promise
Andrew Bolt
An astonishing way to introduce something that could cost taxpayers more than a $1 billion:

TREASURY has admitted it does not know how changes to the Medicare levy surcharge will affect private health insurance premiums beyond the next few years.
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You know where the dam should be, Minister
Andrew Bolt
Too easy:

A NEW dam is not the solution to Victoria’s water woes, state Environment Minister Gavin Jennings says. He has challenged his political rivals - and anyone else who believes otherwise - to nominate a dam site.

The Mitchell. It was, in fact, a dam reservation until this same government sneakily turned it into a national park, precisely so that some fool of a minister could later say we had no site left for a dam.
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Emissions trading? Even Sachs says it sucks
Andrew Bolt
Professor Jeffrey Sachs, a global warming believer and UN economic advisor, still thinks the emissions trading scheme pushed by Kevin Rudd will be a flop
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Lateline couldn’t find a Henderson to back Pell
Andrew Bolt
Gerard Henderson on the vilification of Catholicism:

Last week Lateline began a campaign against (Cardinal George) Pell concerning his handling of a complaint of Anthony Jones who, at the age of 29, was sexually assaulted by a Catholic priest, Terence Goodall.

Last Tuesday Pell admitted that he had made a mistake in the manner in which he handled the case. That evening Lateline interviewed a Canberra lawyer, Jason Parkinson, and the American journalist Robert Blair Kaiser. Both were critical of Pell. The former Catholic priest Paul Collins was also heard on Lateline that night. So was the academic Mark Findlay. They were also critical of the cardinal. Apparently Lateline could not find anyone who would put an alternative view.
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Rudd’s sneaky emissions caper
Andrew Bolt
Caution, spin-master at work:

Mr Rudd also revealed a new name for the Emissions Trading Scheme - it’s now called the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
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SBS presents the new climate change cult
Andrew Bolt

SBS is running “askmorenow” commercials warning about global warming, placed by the woman giving the lecture above - conducted like a typical session with Profit of Doom Al Gore.
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Peak oil postponed
Andrew Bolt
Lawrence Solomon isn’t panicking about peak oil just yet:

In the Americas, proven oil reserves have increased from 170 billion barrels to 180 billion barrels over the last two decades, according to the 2008 Statistical World Review from British Petroleum. In Europe and Eurasia, proven oil reserves almost doubled, from 76 billion barrels to 144… And the Middle East, the gas tank of the world, shows no sign of slowing down—its reserves soared by almost 200 billion barrels, from a whopping 567 billion barrels to a super-whopping 756.
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Citizens free to annoy World Youth Day pilgrims: Fed Court

In a victory for activists, police officers won't be allowed to move on people for annoying World Youth Day Pilgrims. Emily Smith is at the Federal Court.
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Why isn't food inflation a frontpage story?
The rate of food inflation in Australia should be frontpage news and declared national crisis. Alan Jones examines why it isn't.
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Cricket's Sheffield Shield returns
Can’t stand one day cricket? Don’t care about the ACB? Want a return to the good old days? Cricket traditionalists fear no more, the Sheffield Shield is back.
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NRL not to blame for Gasnier’s exit: Gallop
NRL chief executive David Gallop is disappointed with Mark Gasnier’s decision to quit Australian rugby league, saying the competition couldn’t compete with $1million-a-season salaries – with or without a salary cap.-sorry G, but the NRL are entirely to blame through mismanagement. They should have gone superleague. -ed.
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More than 100 GPs 'ready to quit'
By Melissa Jenkins
MORE than 100 doctors are thinking of quitting general practice because of reforms that will boost the roles of nurses and allied professionals, a survey reveals.

In a national survey of 359 general practitioners, 39 per cent said they were considering early retirement as a result of "issues currently in the reform spotlight".

Forty per cent were severely stressed by reform plans, while almost three quarters said the Federal Government's 31 Super Clinics would not deliver greater access to GPs or after hours services.