SEA BITTEN
Tim Blair
“Those sea kittens play pretty rough,” emails Paco. Indeed they do:
An Australian man fought off a [sea kitten] as he snorkeled near Sydney Monday, freeing his leg from its jaws with a punch.
“I just turned and started swinging. I think I got one on [the sea kitten],” Steven Foggarty, 24, told local media as he stood on crutches outside hospital …
Foggarty was bitten on his right leg by the [sea kitten] as he snorkeled in the mouth of Lake Illawarra, south of Sydney. He suffered 40 puncture wounds to his calf.
It was the third [sea kitten] attack in Australia in two days.
They must be running low on sea mice.
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LOOK AGAIN, BILL
Tim Blair
PBS pantybuncher Bill Moyers, just seven months ago:
Bush and Cheney invaded Iraq. We still don’t know what they were about. What we know is that this is the very oil industry enjoying swollen profits these days. It would be laughable if it weren’t so painful to remember that their erstwhile cheerleader for invading Iraq - the press mogul Rupert Murdoch - once said that a successful war there would bring us $20 a barrel oil. The last time I looked, it was more than $140 a barrel. Where are you, Rupert, when we need the facts?
Here’s a fact, Bill:
Oil prices fell below $37 a barrel Tuesday …
Success is less than $17 away on current prices. Not bad, considering coalition forces have already removed Saddam, established conditions suitable for democratic elections and made Iraq so boringly safe that TV networks are pulling their staff.
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EXAMPLE SET
Tim Blair
Hey, planet! Australia’s east coast is taking you down:
Last year the east coast released 19 per cent more carbon dioxide - which traps heat in the atmosphere and contributes to climate change - than in 2000. NSW released just over 98 million tonnes of greenhouse gases.
We do our best. But check Queensland’s mighty contribution:
Compared with 1990, the year usually used to calculate emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, emissions from NSW have risen 30 per cent. Since 1990 Queensland is up 116 per cent and Victoria 32 per cent, according to The Climate Group …
We’re often told that Australia’s high per-capita carbon output requires us to set an example by cutting emissions. Well, how about Queenland setting an example for Australia? Until those per-capita carbon pigmonsters up north get a handle on things, I’m going to replace all my energy-efficient light bulbs with plasma TVs and surround my house with a moat of burning coal.
The figures mean households, industry and governments have a huge job ahead of them just to stabilise greenhouse gas emissions over the next few years, before meeting even the modest 5 per cent cuts now proposed for 2020.
Not a chance in hell. And what about the sacred protocol?
According to the Kyoto Protocol, Australia is able increase its emissions by only 8% above 1990 levels. Based on the eastern state data, Australia will unlikely reach that goal at the end of the reporting period, which is 2012.
I blame Queensland bloggers and their earth-wrecking Google searches. (On that, incidentally, Google denies the science.)
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ONE HAPPY CUSTOMER
Tim Blair
A note arrives from someone using the name “KillJews”:
You jewish scum, you have been the goats being f**ked for centuries. You will die like the rest of the 6 million scumbags.
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MAKE THEM PAY
Tim Blair
Australian soldier Gregory Sher was killed in Afghanistan earlier this month by Taliban lunatics
Subsequently, revenge:
Australian special forces in Afghanistan have avenged the death of commando Gregory Sher by killing the Taliban leader who orchestrated the fatal rocket attack of a week ago.
As Private Sher was buried in Melbourne yesterday at a service attended by Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, Defence chief Angus Houston was in Afghanistan to console and congratulate the troops that moved against Taliban insurgents last week.
“It is quite clear you made them pay for the death of a comrade,” Air Chief Marshal Houston told the special forces soldiers at their Tarin Kowt base in southern Afghanistan.
Good.
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RED HOT
Tim Blair
Barack Obama’s warmy lady is a secret socialist:
Until last week, Carol M. Browner, President-elect Barack Obama’s pick as global warming czar, was listed as one of 14 leaders of a socialist group’s Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which calls for “global governance” and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change.
By Thursday, Mrs. Browner’s name and biography had been removed from Socialist International’s Web page, though a photo of her speaking June 30 to the group’s congress in Greece was still available.
Also available is Browner’s earlier appearance at the Socialist International site, through the miracle of site retrieval.
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GREAT KUWAIT DEBATE
Tim Blair
An Australian woman is jailed in Kuwait following airport antics:
Nasrah Alshamery, 43, is facing the archaic charge of insulting the nation’s ruling Emir after rowing with airport security officers over Saddam Hussein versus John Howard and George W. Bush.
“My mother didn’t even name the Emir. She doesn’t know who he is,” her distraught daughter Wasa Alshamery, 21, said yesterday. “One of the police said something like, ‘Saddam Hussein, he made you (look) human’. My mother said ‘Thanks to George Bush and John Howard, they gave you the freedom’.”
Emir-insulting, even if the Emir isn’t insulted directly, carries a possible five-year term. Our diplomat-in-chief will get this sorted.
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REGULAR COLUMNIST OF GUARDIAN
Tim Blair
Our favourite Ant receives a Tehran Times tongue bath:
Antony Loewenstein is a world-renowned anti-Zionist advocate, the co-founder of Independent Australian Jewish Voices and the regular columnist of Guardian, Washington Post and Sydney Morning Herald.
That’ll be news to the Guardian, Washington Post and Sydney Morning Herald.
In his 2006 book “My Israel Question”, he questioned the existence of Israeli regime in the Middle East fundamentally and won several international awards for his courageous and innovative way of criticizing Israel afterwards.
I wonder what those international awards were for (longest-delayed answer?). Antony has courageously declined to mention them.
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GREAT EFFORTS MADE
Tim Blair
December:
Former US Vice President Al Gore on Friday lauded the great efforts made by China to fight climate change in recent years …
January:
China is aiming to increase its coal production by about 30 percent by 2015 to meet its energy needs, the government has announced, in a move likely to fuel concerns over global warming.
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SHE PROBABLY GOT THE IDEA FROM TEENAGE HELEN THOMAS
Tim Blair
Maureen Dowd reports from deep within her fantasy world:
In the past week, I’ve twice been close enough to Dick Cheney to kick him in the shins.
I didn’t. It’s probably a federal crime of some sort. But a girl can fantasize.
A “girl” sure can. Miss Dowd turns 57 on Wednesday.
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President Bush awards medal to his Man of Steel
Former prime minister John Howard has been presented with the United States' highest civilian award in a ceremony in the US capitol.
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Mystery: Man found dead and bloodied on bathroom floor
Homicide detectives are questioning seven people over the death of a man found bloodied on the bathroom floor of a northern Sydney home. Laura Tunstall is there.
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Hundreds flee as Israel pounds Gaza town
Hundreds of terrified Palestinians living in Rafah fled for their lives on Tuesday after a wave of ferocious Israeli airstrikes along Gaza's border with Egypt.
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Three-year-old pulled from bottom of pool
A three-year-old has been pulled from the bottom of a backyard pool in the NSW’s Riverina and brought back to life.
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Fiji hit with more heavy rain
Nancy Bird-Walton to get state funeral
Govt announces $48m for pioneering medical research
Push and shove as Ajay Rochester leaves court
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Another day, another royal race row
JUST days after Prince Harry's "little Paki friend" comment, it's been revealed that Prince Charles calls an Indian friend "Sooty".
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Palestinian teen shot dead by settler
A 15-year-old Palestinian boy has been shot dead by a Jewish settler in the northern West Bank, Palestinian emergency services and Israeli police say.
Nasser Awdi was killed near the town of Qalqilya when the settler opened fire at him from a passing car.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the gunman from the nearby settlement of Emmanuel was believed to have opened fire after his car was stoned.
"The police are currently questioning him to determine the exact circumstances behind this incident," he said.
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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rules out talks with Hamas
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has ruled out negotiations with the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas unless it drops its extremist stance, saying her position is "absolute".
"On Israel, you cannot negotiate with Hamas until it renounces violence, recognises Israel and agrees to abide by past agreements. That is just for me an absolute," Mrs Clinton told a Senate confirmation hearing.
"That is the United States government's position. That is the president-elect's position," she said after a senator suggested it is "naive and illogical" to pursue diplomacy with governments opposed to Israel.
She echoed the stance of the outgoing administration of President George W. Bush which is supporting Egyptian efforts to mediate a ceasefire following an 18-day Israeli war to stop Hamas rocket attacks.
The Bush administration has opposed negotiations with what it calls a terrorist organisation.
Mr Obama has proposed reaching out to the leaders of anti-US countries like Iran, North Korea and Cuba, but analysts doubted he would engage with Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah, which the US denounces as terrorist groups.
During her confirmation hearing, Mrs Clinton said the new administration will try a "new approach" toward Iran by engaging it diplomatically.
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