Former Premier Morris Iemma succumbs to a potentially lethal brain virus.... - while I rarely ever agreed with any of his policies, and I also felt his office threatened my life, I wouldn't wish NSW hospital care on anyone. - ed
Party's over: banks to lift rates
BANKS ready to jack up mortgage rates as they punt that the interest rate cycle has bottomed out.
All NSW cops to get Tasers
Taser stun guns are to be issued to all front-line police across NSW.
Energy drinks outlawed at school
There are calls for energy drinks to be banned in all NSW schools.
NAB to launch Muslim-friendly loans
Muslims will soon have access to special interest free loans from the National Australian Bank. - Nothing wrong with the product. It probably costs more than a regular interest loan, in money terms, but the fringe benefits are out of this world. Also, it is important to realize that the old testament forbids usury too, but the technical definition of today doesn't match the practice of the past. - ed.
$1.8 billion boom if no stamp duty
Abolishing stamp duty could mean a $1.8 billion construction boom for NSW.
NSW education to receive $14.7 billion
The NSW government will allocate $14.7 billion in its 2009-10 budget for education and vocational training.
Socceroos glamour boy in nightclub fracas
IN an embarrassment for Football Federation Australia, a Socceroos star has allegedly been thrown out of a nightclub after a fight.
=== Comments ===
PM denies flood victims a fair shake
Piers Akerman
KEVIN Rudd may be able to quote Confucius in Mandarin and speak bureaucratese with Canberra’s finest, but he can’t do ocker to save himself. - While I am sure many are willing to smear Turnbull, none of the smears will be true. The facts one can present regarding Rudd’s faults are many and varied. Regarding flood mitigation and damage I can attest that in my local flood prone area nothing has been done under an ALP government. Greens have actively opposed worthwhile contributions to flood mitigation. Dams are effective in flood mitigation, yet although water is desperately needed new dams are not being built. Further, other steps can be taken to help flood prone areas. However, my local council (ALP run) will not invest in such projects because of Global Warming hysteria .. claiming flooding is not an issue at this time. One project that was discussed locally was to hook sewage to a bypass so as to prevent the effects of a mains back up .. a problem in the floods of ‘01. I understand this has not happened in the seven years since it was suggested by an adviser in ‘02.
Rudd is an appallingly bad leader and his faults have not been written of very much by many journalists. I would question their balance before I would question Piers. - ed.
===
EARTH FAITH
Tim Blair
Every so often, environmentalists say something that inclines one to view their mission as more religious than ecological:
Observe an eco-sabbath. For one day or afternoon or even hour a week, don’t buy anything, don’t use any machines, don’t switch on anything electric, don’t cook, don’t answer your phone, and, in general, don’t use any resources. In other words, for this regular period, give yourself and the planet a break. Keep your regular eco-sabbath for a month.
The same post proposes a “tithe”, urges environmentalists to “sing together”, asks that they dedicate themselves to “eco-service” and finally preaches:
Believe with all your heart …
Testify!
===
PEACE IN OUR TIME
Tim Blair
Obama-hu akbar! The Prez has some new admirers:
“This infidel, he is not frightening like the last one.” “Whatever. Turn it over to Conan.”
From the JPost story:
For some Palestinians, Obama may even turn out to be better than most of the Arab and Muslim leaders. As one woman in Ramallah put it, “When I heard Obama speaking [from Cairo], I felt as if I were listening to the head of an Arab or Islamic state. He’s really a great man.”
UPDATE. Hamas has another Presidential pal:
Noam Schalit, father of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit who has been held in Hamas captivity for almost three years, met former US president Jimmy Carter in Jerusalem on Friday afternoon and gave him a letter meant for his son …
Schalit was quoted by Israel Radio as saying he hoped Carter’s lobbying on behalf of the Schalit family would bear fruit, as “he is the only American in contact with Hamas.”
===
IOW ’09
Tim Blair
We should hold International Outrage Week every year. It’s the best fun ever.
This year’s inaugural IOW kicked off early, with a certain Chaser sketch. The outrage was so massive that the ABC gave the boys a two-week holiday. Tough deal. To get the same break at my job, I have to be diagnosed with the swine flu. Following a post-mortem.
The ABC also slightly reduced the workload of Amanda Duthie, formerly the head of ABC TV’s Arts, Entertainment & Comedy, who approved the outrageous sketch. She’s now merely the head of Arts & Entertainment. Unless Michael Veitch sneaks a gag about crippled Aborigines into tomorrow’s Sunday Arts broadcast, Duthie’s remaining jobs should be safe.
===
STERILISE THE BRIDE SO SHE CAN’T BREED
Tim Blair
Patti Lew needs your help. She has nine tips on how to be a green wedding guest, but can’t think of a tenth. Do offer assistance in comments.
===
Acting tip
Andrew Bolt
Actually, girls, we really just want to see your lines, not hear them:
IT may be a double standard, but actress and film-maker Rachel Ward says young starlets just have to accept that audiences have a right to see them - but not men - naked…
“If you’re going to be an actress in film, you can’t be coy,” Ward told The Sunday Telegraph. ”Breasts are sexy. I want to see them and audiences want to see them ...” - of course another tip goes along the lines of 'Less is more.' Many better actresses than Ms Ward followed that line - ed.
===
Muammar and the mammas
Andrew Bolt
You can tell - from both unctious, hypocritical and celebrity-obsessed sides - that this is an early 21st century farce:
(Libyan leader) Colonel Gaddafi’s request to meet 1000 prominent Italian women during his trip to Italy last week generated scepticism and amusement in equal measure.An exotic assemblage filed in. There were leading figures from politics, culture and industry; ministers posed for cameras, lawyers talked earnestly in their seats and reality TV personalities blew kisses across the aisles....
Mara Cafagna, a former topless model turned Minister of Equal Opportunities (above, with the Libyan autocrat and former terrorist), started proceedings by describing the event as an “important day for relations between Italy and Libya”.
Ms Cafagna, who once described her experiences as Miss Italy as “a competition that makes you as a woman”, admirably espoused her new role as a figurehead of women’s rights… Colonel Gaddafi drummed his fingers on the table, lounged back in his large leather chair and perused his little green book, occasionally beckoning one of his female bodyguards (of the kind below), who shuffled back and forth with drinks and boxes of tissues....
Then it all went a bit wrong. Using a peculiar example of a steam train driver, Colonel Gaddafi called for two systems in the professional forum — “one suitable for men, the other for women”.
With growing murmurs in the auditorium and a few noisy exits, Colonel Gaddafi tried to regain some credibility by denouncing the treatment of women in Arabic and Islamic societies.
“Why should these women have to apply to the head of state for the right to drive a car?” he asked. The audience applauded politely, but were soon laughing incredulously as he went on to add that this was a matter that “their husbands or brothers should decide”.
It finished as it began:
He did not mingle but sat behind an imposing desk up on the stage, with Ms Carfagna next to him on a chair, blowing kisses to the women as he left.
===
Luckily he’s just an Anglo
Andrew Bolt
Their victim wasn’t Indian, so there will be no police blitz. On the positive side, at least this time we won’t be accused of racism.
UPDATE
Don’t even report the races involved. Just accept yet another assurance from the police:
A BOY, 15, was stabbed several times during a brawl between two groups of youths outside a Springvale bar early yesterday before a woman drove a car into the middle of the melee… ”It (the brawl) doesn’t appear to be racially motivated,” Senior Sergeant Martin said.
===
All that money on buildings, not brains
Andrew Bolt
You couldn’t disagree, which makes it such a tragedy:
THE federal government’s $14.7 billion school infrastructure program has been attacked as a ”fake education revolution” that delivers funds without assessing whether they are being used to help students’ learning…
Ken Wiltshire, a former Labor policy adviser and Australian representative to the UN education body UNESCO, said the Building the Education Revolution program, designed to stimulate the economy, was poorly planned, with schools not even asked how their project would improve the education of their students… And education associate professor at Canberra University, Louise Watson, a policy adviser to former Labor education minister John Dawkins, said the overwhelming driver of economic goals in the Building the Education Revolution program was unfortunate and had resulted in a “squandered opportunity”.
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