Christmas Eve
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The guilt-free Christmas
Andrew Bolt
THE school chaplain was one of the many: ``Remember the people who aren’t as fortunate as you this Christmas.’’
And the following week a boy stuck up his earnest hand at a talk I was giving to a school at Melbourne University and pleaded: ``But what about the people of Sudan?’’
Then there’s the newspaper lectures you always get at this time of year denouncing consumerism and the giving of too many presents.
So I look at the great pile of gift-wrapped goodies under our tree—still not enough, cries my wife—and think, how is it that I don’t feel the slightest bit guilty?
I do indeed think of the poor and loveless this Christmas, I swear, and World Vision knows I do my little bit for the poor of Africa.
What’s more, I even worry that I spoil rotten my three children with each present that I can’t resist buying.
Yet at Christmas I put all that aside for the day and refuse to feel a skerrick of guilt for giving my children the kind of presents I know many children tomorrow will never enjoy, given with the love too many will never share.
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Rudd drives us broke
Andrew Bolt
SOMEONE please stop him. If Kevin Rudd saves any more jobs, we’ll all be out of work.
The Prime Minister’s $149 million ``rescue’’ of Holden this week revealed Rudd at his farcical worst.
First, he announced Holden would get $149 million from his ``green car’’ fund—and another $30 million from the South Australian Government—to build a new ``green’’ car in Elizabeth.
Except it’s not green. Holden promised only a diesel model and another using twice the petrol and emitting twice the greenhouse gas of a Toyota Prius.
But the jobs! Rudd boasts he is saving 600 jobs at Holden and 600 more in component manufacturing. Except he’s not creating jobs, he’s subsidising them.
Do the sums. The Government’s handouts to Holden work out at $50,000 a year for three years for every single one of those 1200 workers. But they’ll build more cars, right?
Except we’re not in a mood to buy. New car sales last month were the lowest in five years.
But the jobs! The jobs!
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How would you like your carols?
Andrew Bolt
I KNOW it’s Christmas because the billboards go up outside the churches.
Want carols? With candles or without? A nativity play? Or something for the more serious worshipper?
How about a Mass, with incense and the lot? At midnight, perhaps? Or something more civilised and casual?
And behind it all is this appeal, as written on a real estate board outside a lovely Uniting Church near my own home: ``If you only come to church once a year, make it this day.’’
This year, despite my agnosticism, I may answer that call because, like many Melburnians, I’ve been robbed.
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Santas of our time and other sadnesses
Andrew Bolt
Rodd Liddle reviews how we live now with our Santas. For instance:
The Santa Claus in a department store in Louisville, Kentucky was sacked because the children kept pointing out that he had extremely large breasts. This is because he was a she, one formidable lady called Marta Brown. But the breasts were not what the kids expected on Santa Claus, not when viewed in tandem with the traditional beard and stuff - so they took the piss. Marta was consequently sacked by the department store - but good news, she is suing the firm for $67,000 through the state commission on human rights, for injured feelings and sexual discrimination. This is where we are now.
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Don’t mention Hicks’ war
Andrew Bolt
You mean David Hicks didn’t train with al-Qaeda, enlist with the Taliban and shoot into Kashmir with Lashkar-e-Toiba, all of which he boasted of in a diary and in letters to his family?
So the Sydney Morning Herald seems to suggest:
A FREE man seven years after his arrest in Afghanistan, David Hicks has signalled his wish to clear his name and remove his terrorism conviction from his record.
Hicks has even found God, the New Age way:
Mr Hicks had undertaken volunteer work at a nursery and environmental agencies...
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Green means black
Andrew Bolt
Global warming hysterics and their political dupes have scared off investment in power stations:
In an interview with The Times, Steve Holliday, chief executive of the company that operates the power and gas transmission network, said that Britain was facing an acute shortage of generating capacity because a string of ageing nuclear and coal-fired plants were due to be retired from service....
“What is happening that people are not wanting to build enough power stations… The Government has an obligation to make sure that the markets are delivering,” Mr Holliday said. “You can’t afford for it to fail.”
Australia will soon face exactly the same problem - blackouts thanks to green scares.
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Rudd’s cars run on grants
Andrew Bolt
The figures for Kevin Rudd’s latest bail-out to Holden - ostensibly to make a new “green” car - are even worse than were first reported:
Holden said the new model would “support” 600 workers, but this may not translate into 600 new jobs because it could include some existing employees.
The federal Government will give Holden $149 million over three years from its $1.3 billion green-car fund, after the company meets certain milestones. The South Australian Government has promised $30 million over four years.
That works out to taxpayers giving $100,000 a year for three years to every worker involved in this project, including even those working only part-time on it.
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Vic MP Theo Theophanous denies rape charge
Victorian MP Theo Theophanous has denied a rape allegation made against him by a former friend and has slammed police over their investigation of the 10-year-old claim.
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Why shouldn't Rudd pay for Haneef stuff-up?
The release of judicial findings into the arrest of Mohamed Haneef requires some thinking.
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