Honesty has been a sore point in politics of late. Julia Gillard was caught out lying about what Liberal Party leader Mr Abbott had said in a magazine interview. NSW Premier and former planning minister Kenneally and former minister Sartor are being questioned by the ICAC in relation to the matter of the death of businessman McGurk and allegations of corruption. The Times has recently published how the IPCC chief was aware that elements of the report referred to in Copenhagen were wrong and not corrected until after the conference .. and after Rudd had paid him one million dollars. It is more disturbing when it is realized that Rudd had no known objective in mind when giving the million dollars away. But finally, Rudd in interview with Laurie Oakes who rarely questions what Rudd says, repeatedly said in interview that former Prime Minister Mr Howard agreed with Rudd on the issue of climate change, which he doesn't. Rudd also claimed in the Oakes interview he was a conservative in that area and that he was thinking of 'working families.'
Gillard may claim she didn't know what she was talking about, and hadn't read the article when she lied about Mr Abbott. Mr Abbott had been asked what advice he would give his three daughters on sex before marriage, he told the (Women’s) Weekly: ‘’I would say to my daughters, if they were to ask me this question … it is the greatest gift you can give someone, the ultimate gift of giving and don’t give it to someone lightly.’’ To which Gillard claims TONY Abbott’s advice to young women about not giving away their virginity lightly would confirm ‘’the worst fears of Australian women’’ followed by "Australian women don’t want to be told what to do by Tony Abbott. Australian women want to make their own choices, and they don’t want to be lectured to by Mr Abbott.’’ As Andrew Bolt writes "You see immediately Gillard’s dishonesty. Abbott was not “lecturing” Australian women generally. He was talking only to his own daughters, which is actually his responsibility. Nor was he telling anyone “what to do”. He was suggesting to his daughters, on being asked, what they might consider when making their own decisions." Gillard profits by the deception. She has been told that polling suggests she should attack Mr Abbott on the matter of his Catholic faith. The media seem to accept it.
The ICAC inquiry into Keneally and Sartor is at the beginning. Questions are being asked. Of extreme concern is the habit of ALP Government in NSW to not be transparent, giving them the appearance of corruption even in the distant likelihood that they are actually clean. We know that McGurk was murdered and we know he claimed that senior ALP politicians may desire to silence him. This gets uglier when the case of Hamidur Rahman is looked at. Hamidur was a year eight schoolboy who died when in the care of Hurlstone Agricultural High School in 2002. He had a peanut allergy and had been instructed by a teacher to lick peanut butter from a spoon in front of his peers. The coroner ruled it an accident but assigned some blame to the parents for not informing the school of the allergy. It gets ugly when it is realized that the school had been told of the allergy a year in advance and had neglected to tell the supervising teacher, and then covered up the slip post mortem. Is the NSW Government corrupt, or merely incompetent?
Then we have Rudd mixed up with the IPCC. Rudd is still wishing to inflict a substantial tax on everything, more sweeping than the GST but with no saving grace. A tax which is based on a premise that is now publicly acknowledged as being wrong, that the world is heating from Carbon Dioxide. What Mr Howard has said on the matter is that it is too soon to tell, even acknowledging the result of climate gate. Mr Howard has said that prudent action would suggest a move to nuclear power to limit the reliance of fossil fuels. This is completely at odds with Rudd's plan to raise a tax. But Oakes doesn't seem to recognize it. Then Rudd claims to be a conservative on the issue of the environment. It is worth remembering that in election campaign mode, which Rudd is in, Rudd has previously claimed to be an economic conservative, before he wrote a childish article claiming that he wasn't. The proof is in his poor economic handling of issues. Rudd is not what he once claimed to be. He began using that tired phrase 'Working families' in relation to the environment. We know, now that the IPCC chief knew that the report the IPCC gave and which was used in Copenhagen to support those who believe in global warming, along with a six year old girl Rudd trotted out, was a fraud and that Rudd gave him one million dollars. Was that million dollars to buy the scientists silence? The problem is we don't have accountable government, we have the appearance of corruption. As we move towards an election some time this year, the electorate deserves to know.
===
This article was written for Zaya Toma's site.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Eric Odom on Tea Party Nation Organizers: They Don't Know What's Going On & Haven't From Day One
Eric Odom from Liberty First PAC and the Tea Party Bus Tour told FOX News today that the Tea Party Nation organizers, "Don't know what's going on and haven't from day one." Odom also said the tea party is more unified than ever... except those who are holding the Nashville protest next week.
===
It is a mistake to believe a united group must be conformist. The Democrats or the ALP are conformist, while the divided conservative parties of the Liberals and the Nationals are united in Australia. - ed.
Headlines Sunday 31st January 2010
=== Todays Toon ===
IGNORING THE 800 POUND GORILLAS AT YOUR OWN PERIL
WITHOUT a single sod being turned, $270 million has already been spent on a "metro rail" project the NSW State Government is on the verge of scrapping. See here.
=== Bible Quote ===
“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”- Ephesians 4:2
===
ICAC inquiry probes Keneally, Sartor
THE Independent Commission Against Corruption has questioned Premier Kristina Keneally and Environment Minister Frank Sartor over their connections with business associates of murdered Sydney standover man Michael McGurk.
After NYC balks at hosting trial for 9/11 suspects, Obama administration scrambles for new venues — but where?
'Blind Spot' on Terror War
GOP lawmaker says Obama's handling of attempted Christmas airline bombing exposed intelligence errors
U.S. Defends Arms Sale to Taiwan
State Department backs plans to sell $6.4B worth of arms to Taiwan, despite China's threats to U.S. arms makers
Afghans Mistaken For Enemy, Killed
Tensions between NATO, Afghanistan likely to rise after four Afghan soldiers killed in clash with U.S. troops
Swinger link to Rockefeller death
SECRET girlfriends, swingers parties and a web of lies may of led to millionaire's murder.
ALP Admit They Messed Up Schools Website and Will Fix it if elected again
The website, which has come under attack from teachers and their union, compares the literacy and numeracy results of schools. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said it should also include information on school bullying, classroom innovation and local community participation.
My School launch leads to parent frenzy
PARENTS pull kids out of poorly performing schools following launch of controversial website. - still parents are acting without enough information. -ed.
Aussie's struggle to foot mortgage bill
ALMOST half the first-home buyers lured by government grants are struggling to meet repayments.
Serial killer hero rejects huge reward
THE man who helped put one of our worst serial killers in jail hands back $200,000 reward.
Energy drinks' health risks exposed
JUST one energy drink can cause "serious heart conditions", a world-first study has found.
The man who would be Premier
BARRY O'Farrell loathes going to the gym. He likes Mars Bars. But, because he wants to be Premier, he denies himself the pleasure of that tempting chocolate.
Protests at proposed family law changes
ANGER over new laws could make it harder for fathers to secure 50-50 custody of their children.
Zoo visitors flee after tigers escape
ZOO visitors were evacuated after two Bengal tigers sneaked out of their cage to mingle with the crowd.
Solo sailors dyslexia hell revealed
THE mother of teen sailor Jessica Watson has revealed for the first time the private pain that is driving her daughter's dream of going around the globe.
=== Comments ===
Kevin Rudd feels the heat on global warming
Piers Akerman
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd, the man who said he would never “knowingly” tell a lie, should begin the new Parliamentary session Tuesday with a few admissions of deceit. - The problem is that Rudd has no policy and therefore cannot be held accountable for anything. Any criticism is easily dismissed as being politically motivated. But the criticism remains unassailably valid too.
Rudd promised some things before coming into office. They were motherhood statements of the type expected of ALP politicians who are rarely sincere unless they are collecting pork barrel paypackets. He promised a fair go (late a fair shake of the sauce bottle) for working families by opposing the good legislation of industrial relations termed ‘Workchoices.’ Yet in 2009 I worked and was paid federal money, yet I was denied a full time contract I was entitled to, I was denied holiday pay, sick leave or superannuation. Under workchoices I could have taken my case before IR court and been compensated and had other issues addressed. Instead I was corruptly denied my basic wage. So Rudd even lied about his motherhood statements .. he is that bad.
The next problem is that no one has discussed his successor. But the ALP will need one soon. But there is no danger the successor man or woman (and who knows with Gillard?) will be no different because there is no power in the PM’s position under the ALP .. party people, behind the scenes, run it all .. illegally. - ed.
===
Obama Could Learn Something from Steve Jobs
By Neil Cavuto
I think some things happen for a reason.
Take this week, actually on the same day, both Steve Jobs and Barack Obama made big announcements. Only Steve's was shorter and he had the goods to back up the rhetoric.
I say this with no disrespect to the president, but maybe as a reminder to the president.
Talk less to us. Listen more to Steve.
Here's why.
Steve doesn't talk much, and when he does, it's a big deal — usually to announce a big deal — and usually he brings along the goods to prove it's a big deal.
Not just pie in sky; but product in hand.
The president is big on pie, but lately more sleight of hand.
He needs thousands of pages to explain his products; Steve can do it all in a pamphlet. The president says his stuff could be up and running in years; Steve's stuff is usually up and running in minutes.
Kids understand Steve's stuff. Kids and adults haven't the foggiest about the president's stuff.
Every product Steve announces builds on another's success; every program the president announces seems to compound another program's mess.
To be fair, the president's stuff is big, and Steve's stuff is fun. But why do you have to make something big to be fun?
Steve keeps it simple with gadgets that make life even simpler. It seems all the president can do is come up with stuff that makes life tougher.
No, Steve's products aren't cheap, but they are reliable. The president's programs aren't cheap, but they aren't remotely reliable.
I know, night and day; a president pitching government and Steve pitching gadgets. But the gadgets are life-changers.
The president's government? Just for life; complete with a warranty that won't hold, a battery that won't last, and all underwritten by politicians who won’t, and don’t, give a damn.
===
Palin to Obama: Stop the Fingerpointing
This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," January 28, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Tonight, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin right here, right now! She joins us from Wasilla, Alaska. Good evening, Governor.
SARAH PALIN, FORMER GOVERNOR/FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Good evening, Greta. How are you?
VAN SUSTEREN: I'm very well. And the topic here in Washington was health care for so many weeks, dominated by health care. Now there's a lot of discussion about jobs. What do you think about what the president is saying about job creation? Is that what you would do?
PALIN: Well, you know, listening to his speech last night, I was kind of getting some whiplash there. I'd listen to what he was saying, then I'd whip my head down there and read the text to try to figure out what is he actually saying here? How does what he is saying match up to the actions that he's taken thus far? Because the acts that he's taken thus far will not get the jobs created, as he says he desires. (continue at link)
===
Shock: warming not blamed
Andrew Bolt
Is this another sign of the changing climate - an acknowledgement of a factor that isn’t the previously preferred “global warming”?
Oh, and for the warming worriers:
A perfect example of the most distinctive characteristic of Michelle Grattan’s commentatary - to call politics like it was a football game, without asking whether this particular game even makes any sense:
But if the global warming extremists Grattan has believed for so long are right, there is not the slightest possibility that people in 2050 will worry less about the global warming havoc we’re told they will certainly see by that date. Which should force any commentator to ask: are those predictions actually false?
Or is Grattan’s totured formula actually a confession that she’s become a sceptic, too, and is no longer sure at all the climate will have heated dangerously by 2050?
===
Pachauri lied about Himalayan warning
Andrew Bolt
Rajendra Pachauri, head of the increasingly suspect IPCC, is caught out lying and now must surely go:
===
Kevin Rudd’s latest green scam faces collapse
Andrew Bolt
Another extraordinary green rort, thanks to the Rudd Government’s wild waste of your billions:
===
The IPCC’s latest source: Greenpeace
Andrew Bolt
The IPCC’s 2007 report - praised and relied upon by Kevin Rudd - now turns out to have relied not just on reports by WWF activists, but by ones from Greenpeace, too:
Donna Laframboise reports:
UPDATE
The New Scientist declares the IPCC’s closed world of peer-review, so long abused to freeze out sceptics, ”is no longer possible, let alone desirable”.
UPDATE 2
Professor Hoegh-Guldberg responds in comments below, saying his study was peer-reviewed. He also makes this claim, which is completely false and which regular readers will know to false, too:
UPDATE
Liberal MP and sceptic Dennis Jensen responds below, and various readers offer Hoegh-Guldberg the evidence that will make him eat his hat.
===
Don’t forget Matthews
Andrew Bolt
Chris Matthews may have fogotten that Barack Obama was black, but Jon Stewart can’t forget that Chris Matthews is an idiot.
Hot Air:
As Glenn Beck suggests, this illustrates the essentially patronising racism of many of the Left:
===
SPACIOUS
Tim Blair
Yours for just $225,000:
IGNORING THE 800 POUND GORILLAS AT YOUR OWN PERILWITHOUT a single sod being turned, $270 million has already been spent on a "metro rail" project the NSW State Government is on the verge of scrapping. See here.
=== Bible Quote ===
“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”- Ephesians 4:2
===
ICAC inquiry probes Keneally, Sartor
THE Independent Commission Against Corruption has questioned Premier Kristina Keneally and Environment Minister Frank Sartor over their connections with business associates of murdered Sydney standover man Michael McGurk.
After NYC balks at hosting trial for 9/11 suspects, Obama administration scrambles for new venues — but where?
'Blind Spot' on Terror War
GOP lawmaker says Obama's handling of attempted Christmas airline bombing exposed intelligence errors
U.S. Defends Arms Sale to Taiwan
State Department backs plans to sell $6.4B worth of arms to Taiwan, despite China's threats to U.S. arms makers
Afghans Mistaken For Enemy, Killed
Tensions between NATO, Afghanistan likely to rise after four Afghan soldiers killed in clash with U.S. troops
Swinger link to Rockefeller death
SECRET girlfriends, swingers parties and a web of lies may of led to millionaire's murder.
ALP Admit They Messed Up Schools Website and Will Fix it if elected again
The website, which has come under attack from teachers and their union, compares the literacy and numeracy results of schools. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said it should also include information on school bullying, classroom innovation and local community participation.
My School launch leads to parent frenzy
PARENTS pull kids out of poorly performing schools following launch of controversial website. - still parents are acting without enough information. -ed.
Aussie's struggle to foot mortgage bill
ALMOST half the first-home buyers lured by government grants are struggling to meet repayments.
Serial killer hero rejects huge reward
THE man who helped put one of our worst serial killers in jail hands back $200,000 reward.
Energy drinks' health risks exposed
JUST one energy drink can cause "serious heart conditions", a world-first study has found.
The man who would be Premier
BARRY O'Farrell loathes going to the gym. He likes Mars Bars. But, because he wants to be Premier, he denies himself the pleasure of that tempting chocolate.
Protests at proposed family law changes
ANGER over new laws could make it harder for fathers to secure 50-50 custody of their children.
Zoo visitors flee after tigers escape
ZOO visitors were evacuated after two Bengal tigers sneaked out of their cage to mingle with the crowd.
Solo sailors dyslexia hell revealed
THE mother of teen sailor Jessica Watson has revealed for the first time the private pain that is driving her daughter's dream of going around the globe.
=== Comments ===
Kevin Rudd feels the heat on global warming
Piers Akerman
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd, the man who said he would never “knowingly” tell a lie, should begin the new Parliamentary session Tuesday with a few admissions of deceit. - The problem is that Rudd has no policy and therefore cannot be held accountable for anything. Any criticism is easily dismissed as being politically motivated. But the criticism remains unassailably valid too.
Rudd promised some things before coming into office. They were motherhood statements of the type expected of ALP politicians who are rarely sincere unless they are collecting pork barrel paypackets. He promised a fair go (late a fair shake of the sauce bottle) for working families by opposing the good legislation of industrial relations termed ‘Workchoices.’ Yet in 2009 I worked and was paid federal money, yet I was denied a full time contract I was entitled to, I was denied holiday pay, sick leave or superannuation. Under workchoices I could have taken my case before IR court and been compensated and had other issues addressed. Instead I was corruptly denied my basic wage. So Rudd even lied about his motherhood statements .. he is that bad.
The next problem is that no one has discussed his successor. But the ALP will need one soon. But there is no danger the successor man or woman (and who knows with Gillard?) will be no different because there is no power in the PM’s position under the ALP .. party people, behind the scenes, run it all .. illegally. - ed.
===
Obama Could Learn Something from Steve Jobs
By Neil Cavuto
I think some things happen for a reason.
Take this week, actually on the same day, both Steve Jobs and Barack Obama made big announcements. Only Steve's was shorter and he had the goods to back up the rhetoric.
I say this with no disrespect to the president, but maybe as a reminder to the president.
Talk less to us. Listen more to Steve.
Here's why.
Steve doesn't talk much, and when he does, it's a big deal — usually to announce a big deal — and usually he brings along the goods to prove it's a big deal.
Not just pie in sky; but product in hand.
The president is big on pie, but lately more sleight of hand.
He needs thousands of pages to explain his products; Steve can do it all in a pamphlet. The president says his stuff could be up and running in years; Steve's stuff is usually up and running in minutes.
Kids understand Steve's stuff. Kids and adults haven't the foggiest about the president's stuff.
Every product Steve announces builds on another's success; every program the president announces seems to compound another program's mess.
To be fair, the president's stuff is big, and Steve's stuff is fun. But why do you have to make something big to be fun?
Steve keeps it simple with gadgets that make life even simpler. It seems all the president can do is come up with stuff that makes life tougher.
No, Steve's products aren't cheap, but they are reliable. The president's programs aren't cheap, but they aren't remotely reliable.
I know, night and day; a president pitching government and Steve pitching gadgets. But the gadgets are life-changers.
The president's government? Just for life; complete with a warranty that won't hold, a battery that won't last, and all underwritten by politicians who won’t, and don’t, give a damn.
===
Palin to Obama: Stop the Fingerpointing
This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," January 28, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Tonight, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin right here, right now! She joins us from Wasilla, Alaska. Good evening, Governor.
SARAH PALIN, FORMER GOVERNOR/FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Good evening, Greta. How are you?
VAN SUSTEREN: I'm very well. And the topic here in Washington was health care for so many weeks, dominated by health care. Now there's a lot of discussion about jobs. What do you think about what the president is saying about job creation? Is that what you would do?
PALIN: Well, you know, listening to his speech last night, I was kind of getting some whiplash there. I'd listen to what he was saying, then I'd whip my head down there and read the text to try to figure out what is he actually saying here? How does what he is saying match up to the actions that he's taken thus far? Because the acts that he's taken thus far will not get the jobs created, as he says he desires. (continue at link)
===
Shock: warming not blamed
Andrew Bolt
Is this another sign of the changing climate - an acknowledgement of a factor that isn’t the previously preferred “global warming”?
Melbourne recorded its equal warmest overnight temperature, 30.6 degrees, on January 12. The previous time the city was that hot overnight was February 1, 1902.Thank you, Mr Stern.
A meteorologist at the bureau, Harvey Stern, said that Melbourne suffered from a heat island effect, in which a city is warmer than the surrounding countryside.
This was the case especially at night, because of heat stored in bricks and concrete and trapped between close-packed buildings…
The rest of the state was generally cooler and drier than Melbourne.
Oh, and for the warming worriers:
the long-range forecast from the Bureau of Meteorology is tipping that February through to April should be cooler than average...UPDATE
A perfect example of the most distinctive characteristic of Michelle Grattan’s commentatary - to call politics like it was a football game, without asking whether this particular game even makes any sense:
The warming earth and Australia’s ageing and expanding population are forcing the policy-makers to lift their eyes beyond the short term. Admittedly, things change so quickly that trends can alter, and what we think now about some issues could be at odds with how people view them 40 years on. Even so, the time trips provide a few salutary checks on the short-termism for which politicians are notorious.No mention of Climategate or the countless other scandals and unravellings. No heeding of the very caveat Grattan formally offers that - that even a “trend” to panic about climatic doom in 2050 years could “alter” so that “what we now think about some issues could be at odds with how people view them 40 years on” - i.e., in 2050.
But if the global warming extremists Grattan has believed for so long are right, there is not the slightest possibility that people in 2050 will worry less about the global warming havoc we’re told they will certainly see by that date. Which should force any commentator to ask: are those predictions actually false?
Or is Grattan’s totured formula actually a confession that she’s become a sceptic, too, and is no longer sure at all the climate will have heated dangerously by 2050?
===
Pachauri lied about Himalayan warning
Andrew Bolt
Rajendra Pachauri, head of the increasingly suspect IPCC, is caught out lying and now must surely go:
Rajendra Pachauri was told that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment that the glaciers would disappear by 2035 was wrong, but he waited two months to correct it…As I wrote last week, more telling than even the IPCC’s bizarre Himalayan error has been Pachauri’s instinctive reaction to deny and abuse those pointing out such mistakes. That, and his blatant conflicts of interest, as he makes money from the warming scare he whips up, demand his sacking.
Dr Pachauri ... told The Times on January 22 that he had only known about the error for a few days. He said: “I became aware of this when it was reported in the media about ten days ago. Before that, it was really not made known. Nobody brought it to my attention. There were statements, but we never looked at this 2035 number.”
Asked whether he had deliberately kept silent about the error to avoid embarrassment at (his IPCC) Copenhagen (summit last December), he said: “That’s ridiculous. It never came to my attention before the Copenhagen summit...”
However, a prominent science journalist said that he had asked Dr Pachauri about the 2035 error last November. Pallava Bagla, who writes for Science journal, said he had asked Dr Pachauri about the error…
Dr Pachauri had previously dismissed a report by the Indian Government which said that glaciers might not be melting as much as had been feared. He described the report, which did not mention the 2035 error, as “voodoo science”.
Mr Bagla said he had informed Dr Pachauri that Graham Cogley, a professor at Ontario Trent University and a leading glaciologist, had dismissed the 2035 date as being wrong by at least 300 years. Professor Cogley believed the IPCC had misread the date in a 1996 report which said the glaciers could melt significantly by 2350.
Mr Pallava interviewed Dr Pachauri again this week for Science… In the taped interview, Mr Pallava asked: “I pointed it out [the error] to you in several e-mails, several discussions, yet you decided to overlook it. Was that so that you did not want to destabilise what was happening in Copenhagen?”
===
Kevin Rudd’s latest green scam faces collapse
Andrew Bolt
Another extraordinary green rort, thanks to the Rudd Government’s wild waste of your billions:
ONE of the Rudd Government’s key climate change initiatives is close to collapse amid claims of widespread rorting and mismanagement.More:
Just six months after its launch, the $70 million Green Loans scheme to get Australians to install energy-efficient products will be lucky to survive past March without millions more in taxpayer funding....
The much-vaunted Green Loans program was supposed to run for three years but is being bled dry by a flurry of unregistered operators… Instead of using only registered training organisations, unregistered groups were allowed to conduct audit training courses, with one earning $300,000 in one weekend by packing 200 people in a class at $1500 a head.
The Courier-Mail has learned unregistered trainers, insurance companies and a non-profit organisation running key aspects of the program have reaped millions of tax dollars from the six-month program.More evidence that we’re more likely to face ruin from green politicians and carpetbaggers than from global warming. And more evidence that Kevin Rudd may be our most disastrous Prime Minister since even before Whitlam.
Meanwhile, 10,000 people who paid $3000 each to become Green Loans assessors face unemployment soon when the program runs out of money. Some have yet to get credentials to do their first audit.
The Green Loans scheme was set up in July to encourage Australians to get an audit of their energy use and apply for subsidised loans of up to $10,000 to install solar power and water-saving products.
The Association of Building Sustainability Assessors was contracted by the Government to organise training for assessors. But instead of using only registered training organisations, the department allowed people without training experience to become trainers and conduct four-day courses…
The Government suggested the program would run until 2012 with about 1500 assessors. But without standards for trainers, the number of assessors blew out to 10,000 and federal funding dried up.
To keep the program going until 2012, the Commonwealth would have to inject another $600 million into the scheme…
It is the second debacle for the Department of Energy, which mismanaged an insulation scheme, which was rorted by dodgy contractors.
The NSW-based ABSA collected $6 million in mandatory membership dues from would-be assessors in the Green Loans program…
The Government has touted the success of the program because half of the 360,000 budgeted audits have been completed, and the rest will be done within weeks. But the aim of the program is to have homeowners qualify for interest-free bank loans and the take-up rate has been minimal, with 1000 loan approvals so far.
===
The IPCC’s latest source: Greenpeace
Andrew Bolt
The IPCC’s 2007 report - praised and relied upon by Kevin Rudd - now turns out to have relied not just on reports by WWF activists, but by ones from Greenpeace, too:
Donna Laframboise reports:
Considered the climate Bible by governments around the world, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report is meant to be a scientific analysis of the most authoritative research.Hoegh-Guldberg? Good heavens, we well remember this notorious alarmist and his extraordinary record of dud predictions:
Instead, it references literature generated by Greenpeace – an organization known more for headline-grabbing publicity stunts than sober-minded analysis. (Eight IPCC-cited Greenpeace publications are listed at the bottom of this post.)
In one section of this Nobel-winning report, climate change is linked to coral reef degradation. The sole source for this claim? A Greenpeace report titled “Pacific in Peril” (see Hoegh-Guldberg below). Here the report relies on a Greenpeace document to establish the lower-end of an estimate involving solar power plants (Aringhoff).
In 1999, Hoegh-Guldberg warned that the Great Barrier Reef was under pressure from global warming, and much of it had turned white.In fact, I rather suspect researcher Peter Ridd, who says the Reef is actually in ”bloody brilliant shape”, had Hoegh-Gulberg in mind the other day:
In fact, he later admitted the reef had made a “surprising” recovery.
In 2006, he warned high temperatures meant “between 30 and 40 per cent of coral on Queensland’s great Barrier Reef could die within a month”.
In fact, he later admitted this bleaching had “a minimal impact”.
In 2007, he warned that temperature changes of the kind caused by global warming were again bleaching the reef.
In fact, the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network last week said there had been no big damage to the reef caused by climate change in the four years since its last report, and veteran diver Ben Cropp said this week that in 50 years he’d seen none at all.
ONE of North Queensland’s top marine physicists has accused fellow scientists of exaggerating the threat that climate change poses to the Great Barrier Reef…(Via Watts Up With That. And thanks also to several readers.)
James Cook University’s Prof Peter Ridd said global warming could actually be good for the Reef. And he accused scientists of “pushing particular lines” in a bid to save their jobs and keep their funding flowing.
UPDATE
The New Scientist declares the IPCC’s closed world of peer-review, so long abused to freeze out sceptics, ”is no longer possible, let alone desirable”.
UPDATE 2
Professor Hoegh-Guldberg responds in comments below, saying his study was peer-reviewed. He also makes this claim, which is completely false and which regular readers will know to false, too:
pity you never seem to post our responses to your one-sided diatribe...He says he’s offered a response to my criticisms of his false predictions and gives a link. Judge for yourself. Indeed, I’ll give a link to another of his attempts to explain away his predictions, this time in the debate we had in front of ABC cameras (click on “Global warming discussion”.) My account of what the ABC did with that raw footage is here.
UPDATE
Liberal MP and sceptic Dennis Jensen responds below, and various readers offer Hoegh-Guldberg the evidence that will make him eat his hat.
===
Don’t forget Matthews
Andrew Bolt
Chris Matthews may have fogotten that Barack Obama was black, but Jon Stewart can’t forget that Chris Matthews is an idiot.
Hot Air:
Stewart seems to have cornered the market on ridiculing the Left in the American comedy world, mainly by default.UPDATE
As Glenn Beck suggests, this illustrates the essentially patronising racism of many of the Left:
===
SPACIOUS
Tim Blair
Yours for just $225,000:
Men fight croc for shark
Fishing for sharks with Ian's famous noodle, (a seemingly unbreakable rod) when out of the water runs a mad crocodile that tries to eat our captured shark. The guide without hesitation cracks the crocodile on top of the head and the rest you can watch for yourself...
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Headlines Saturday 30th January 2010
=== Todays Toon ===
=== Bible Quote ===
“Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”- Mark 9:35
===
'Terrorist' Twitter Threatens Hugo Chavez's Stranglehold on Media
The greatest threat to Hugo Chavez's future just might be the World Wide Web. Fierce and growing protests over media freedom have left at least two students dead in Venezuela, and graphic images depicting violent tactics employed by the police there have started to flood the Internet. Police armed with tear gas and rubber bullets have left students bloodied and battered in Caracas and other cities during a week of protests over President Hugo Chavez's tightening gag on the opposition press.
Russia's stealth fighter claiming to match U.S. design reportedly makes first successful flight, seen here in image made from a TV screen — months after U.S. decides to quit buying the F-22 Raptor jet
Obama: Can We Play Nice?
In face-to-face meeting with GOP lawmakers, Obama declares 'I am not an ideologue,' and urges them to work with Dems to pass economic, health care reform
Debate over right to decide life or death for critically injured loved ones lands one mother in prison for life, locks young couple in battle with doctors to keep their infant alive. - I wouldn't put the decision in Obama's hands -ed.
Pressure's On for Military Tribunal
Critics pounce on Obama's refusal to consider military tribunal to bring confessed 9/11 mastermind to justice
Mel Gibson: Obama Doesn't Have What It Takes to 'Fix' America
Never one to shy away from voicing his opinion, actor Mel Gibson has declared that he doesn't believe President Obama has the means necessary to "fix" the United States. “[Obama] is a man with an impossible task on his hands," Gibson told Pop Tarts at the Hollywood premiere of his latest drama thriller "Edge of Darkness" on Tuesday night. "He got left a mess and I wish him all the best but I don’t think he’s going to fix it in five minutes and probably not in his entire tenure." Gibson's thoughts come as no surprise, as his new film explores the dark side of politics. He stars as homicide detective Thomas Craven, who is embroiled in an investigation into the murder of his activist daughter. In the process, Craven uncovers a corporate cover-up and government collusion that attracts an agent tasked with cleaning up the evidence.
Filmmaker Defends Undercover Op
Conservative who targeted ACORN fights accusations of trying to tamper with Dem senator's phones
Hamas Claims Israel Assassinated Top Commander
Hamas accused Israeli agents of assassinating one of the Palestinian militant group's veteran operatives, and vowed to retaliate. The militant group identified its slain figure as Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing. Al-Mabhouh, 50, was responsible for hundreds of deadly attacks and suicide bombings targeting Israelis since the 1980s. - I think it was Osama Bin Laden - Weasel.
Obama to End NASA Constellation Program
On the eve of the fullest moon of the year, NASA scientists were told they won't be able to visit any longer. In his new budget, President Obama plans to eliminate the space program's manned moon missions. - Obama is an epic failure in the vision thing. -ed.
NSW Premier Kristina Keneally quizzed for McGurk corruption inquiry
NSW Premier Kristina Keneally has been quizzed over corruption allegations linked to murdered Sydney businessman Michael McGurk. Ms Keneally has submitted written answers to questions from the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), which is due on Monday to begin an inquiry into the businessman's dealings. Mr McGurk, 45, was shot dead outside his home at Cremorne in Sydney on September 4 last year. While no one has been charged over the killing, a NSW parliamentary inquiry was established after it was revealed the businessman possessed a recording with alleged claims of corruption involving Labor MPs and officials. - Keneally has no power, and is helpless in the face of this inquiry, which even so appears fixed so as to make no adverse findings. The problem is with the upcoming change of government those who behave corruptly will be more answerable than they have been since the ALP were elected in '95, and maybe some are worried what will happen when they eventually face justice. - ed.
A TV company has come under fire for using strippers, including one dressed in a skimpy police uniform, at a charity function for sick children
Herman Rockefeller is dead
TWO people have been charged with the murder of Melbourne millionaire Herman Rockefeller.
Gates pledges $11.1 billion for vaccines
MICROSOFT'S Bill Gates has pledged $11.1 billion for vaccines to save millions of children's lives.
'Incest dad fathered four children''
A MAN fathered four children with his daughter over three decades of sexual abuse, a court hears.
Sailor denies kicking asylum-seeker
A navy sailor denies kicking an Afghan asylum-seeker to prevent him boarding a rescue boat.
Tiger Woods' weird and wild sex drive
RANDY Tiger Woods likes to watch and play weird sex games, a call girl claimed yesterday.
Cigarette and booze price hike
BEER and cigarette taxes are quietly going up on Monday in a tax grab that will reap the Federal Government millions of dollars.
Misleading lists lauded
NSW public schools have emerged as beacons of academic success, with the release of literacy and numeracy data showing some are out-performing private colleges. - some, predictably, are not. -ed.
China recruits volunteers for giant pandas
FOR anyone wanting to get up close and personal with a giant endangered panda, here is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Hypocrisy: A Love Story
Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story' may receive Mich. tax credit despite filmmaker opposing such credits
Blair: No regrets for ousting "monster"
FORMER British PM Tony Blair tells Iraq Inquiry he has no regrets about ousting Saddam Hussein. - The incumbent PM, Brown, seems to have lots of regrets. Blair did the right thing, Brown wouldn't. -ed.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Smart, Tough, Trusted...
Megyn Kelly covers every story, every event ...
Digging deeper, debating key issues and discussing the topics impacting you!
Only one show delivers both fair & balanced!
===
Obama's Tax Plan
Some get a break, but would a cut for ALL help get America back on the job?
===
The 9/11 Trials
Will New York convince President Obama to move the 9/11 trials out of the city?
===
Starting Monday
From Politics to Pop Culture ... Bill & Martha cover the stories you care about on "America's Newsroom"
=== Comments ===
Shades of Hitler in Mahathir’s call for a ‘final victory;’over Jews
Piers Akerman
MALAYSIA’S former premier Mahathir Mohamad has joined those in the tinfoil-hat brigade who believe the US faked the September 11 terrorist attacks as an excuse to wage war on Muslims. His proof? Hollywood’s ability to make films such as the box-office record smasher Avatar. - Today the Australian government will release a small amount of information to parents regarding their children’s progress in schools. The Education departments know lots more information they are not releasing to parents. For example, they can profile the performance of classroom teachers to see what they have failed to teach kids. That is quite a useful tool which Gillard won’t let parents have. Even so the education unions do not seem to want even this small amount of information to dribble out. They would prefer it that parents operated solely on rumor.
There is a good reason why Gillard is working to prevent parents from working with schools to improve their children’s education. The reason is related to Mahathir’s ravings. Teachers in NSW teach students that such ravings are true. Some students don’t accept these beliefs, but many are of the disposition of feeling that the issue is too complicated for them.
I raised this issue on several occasions with several officers of the Education Department and have consistently received the same advice. It is valid for students to argue this way and wrong for a teachers to contradict it. So that students may proselytize on the issue and students who don’t share these beliefs are not allowed to say so, or put of competing theory. Some militant teachers agree with the students, and as with Fort Hood, those who know better are helpless.
Soon, the issue of Hamidur Rahman will explode, but that is one issue, and it is related to this issue, and many others. The ALP make for bad teacher supervisors.
While teachers can tell students in NSW that Jews demolished the world trade centre on 9/11, and that they provoked Hitler in WW2, teachers do not have to tell students that why such beliefs are insane. But there is more. In order to justify their existence each year, some teacher support units in the poorest schools work very hard to make sure that year 7 results are poor in literacy and numeracy so as to register higher results down the track. The bonus being they can justify the work achievement of the support unit by showing the support unit’s work has effected positive change in the results of the students, and so justify the continued existence of the unit. Gillard’s school watch will not reveal this, but will celebrate it.
But it gets better. In some of the poorest schools in the state, English teachers do not have to teach English. Anything part of the literacy program is not taught so as to avoid the perception that teachers teach to a test. The result being that matching the results of high achieving numeracy students shows little correlation with their literacy scores. Gillard’s watch hides this from parents, but the education authorities can clearly see this.
Mahathir is not just a Malaysian tragedy, he is a tragedy of the NSW Education Department. - ed.
Cynical, the data collected is not mere statistics. Everything I wrote I know to be true as I’m involved with that kind of work. Students at Hurlstone do not collectively have superior IQ to Ingleburn, a person with IQ 130 at Hurlstone and a student with IQ 130 at Ingleburne have similar IQ. The Hurlstone student will have to negotiate different issues in their learning, but also face common prejudice. The curriculum is the same, as is access to drugs and alcohol. Parental neglect is similar. The staff at Hurlstone are no smarter, but they are probably better conditioned at having extra work prepared.
It is easy to infer what has and has not been taught when kids get things right or wrong. At one school I worked at recently I correlated the numeracy with the literacy and found a low correlation, which is outrageous when it is considered that the English faculty took pride in not teaching for the NAPLAN test. Their best students in Math struggled with reading, and that was going to limit their achievement in later years .. even in Math. They did not have a mature reading and writing age and the English faculty wasn’t interested in increasing that age. The alleged aim being to teach higher order thinking skills, not basic skills. But basic skills allow the higher order ones. Seriosuly, the idea of teaching critical thinking is absurd when separated from basic skills. It is like teaching flying aircraft without showing the controls. You clearly do not understand the issues you are wishing to comment on. Keep voting National, Hurlstone needs the help. The ALP will probably use Hamidur Rahman’s issue to close the school after the issue escapes their enclosure.
Cynical, I know who you are. You may hide behind various masks and hope that I won’t succeed. It will also cost you, eventually, when I am successful. I am sorry. I didn’t mean to put you in this position, but you must know that you chose it, and that child’s life and the injustice endured by his parents demands justice. I am not attacking you personally, but I recognize that you feel threatened because you are so close to this. I have sacrificed my job, my career and my unit so that I might see this to the end. You aren’t going to scare me into backing off by approaching me on youtube and claiming to speak for regular members of the public, yet being anonymous. I never wanted to enter politics, I want to be a writer. However, I will run for the legislative council and I will get this issue before the public and you can choose to explain, now or later, why you made the choices you made.
I feel that parents want to know their children are safe in school, and your bungling and the subsequent cover up mean that they don’t know that. That is concerning for the public and needs to be addressed.
===
Is President Obama's Speech Over Yet?
By Bill O'Reilly
That was a long deal Wednesday night, was it not? But I have to say the president delivered the speech very well. He seemed relaxed and in charge.
Now because I am a simple man, I'm going to break the State of the Union down in a very basic way. And I'll do it in three minutes, not 70.
The big theme of the night was job creation. The president believes the government should spend a ton of money providing jobs for the folks who don't have them.
OK, I get that, but with the deficit so huge, my simple question is: Why not try private incentives first? Mr. Obama is proposing tax breaks for American businesses to create jobs. That's good. Tax cuts will stimulate spending, so we need more of those. And let's bend over backwards to help small companies hire people.
Private business is the backbone of our economy and always has been, so "Talking Points" opposes massive federal spending on the job front unless tax breaks don't work. Keep the federal money in reserve, Mr. President, because America's debt is as big a problem as unemployment.
No. 2, health care. Here's what the president said on that:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: If anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors and stop insurance company abuses, let me know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OK, I am up for the challenge. Rather than spending still more government money creating an enormous bureaucracy, why don't we allow all health insurance companies to compete in all 50 states and allow judges to punish people who sue doctors and other medical personnel for stupid reasons? That's what they do in Great Britain. If you file a nuisance lawsuit, a judge can order you to pay all the costs. That is known as tort reform.
I agree with President Obama. The government should regulate health insurance companies. They can't be throwing people off the rolls when they get sick. They can't be fighting legitimate reimbursement.
Right now, some insurance companies try to wear you down when you file a claim. That's infuriating and unfair. I'm with President Obama on that.
But again, we don't need trillions of federal dollars to solve the health care problem. We already have Medicaid that gives poor people money to pay their medical bills.
So increased insurance competition, stopping crazy lawsuits and mandating strict rules for insurance companies to follow might be a partial solution to the health care debacle. That's not going to solve everything, but it's a heck of a lot more efficient than what Mr. Obama wants, which is a fiscal nightmare.
Finally, the president did not speak about the War on Terror very much, but he must – must — stop the nonsense about giving Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other Al Qaeda thugs civilian trials.
On Wednesday, New York Mayor Bloomberg said he wants the Khalid trial out of New York City because it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. But the president doesn't seem to get it:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I know that all of us love this country. All of us are committed to its defense. So let's put aside the school yard taunts about who's tough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
No taunts here, Mr. President. Just common sense. Let the military handle these Al Qaeda killers. Attorney General Holder is not equipped to do it. I'm not taunting. I'm just reporting.
===
The IPCC’s latest source: Greenpeace
Andrew Bolt
The IPCC’s 2007 report - praised and relied upon by Kevin Rudd - now turns out to have relied not just on reports by WWF activists, but by ones from Greenpeace, too:
Donna Laframboise reports:
===
The death of the “stolen generations” myth
Andrew Bolt
Another myth crumbles - this time the “stolen generations” claim that racist Australia committed genocide by stealing up to 100,000 children from their Aboriginal parents just to wipe out their race.
Keith Windschuttle today shows how few children were actually removed from their Aboriginal parents, and that many of those in the few homes that in fact existed were actually sent there for good reasons. For instance:
Windschuttle concludes:
Manne has tried three times to answer my challenge and failed. Hundreds of thousands of Australians who were taught the “stolen generations” myth as fact in their schools must now ask what it says about our education system that it can be so hijacked and corrupted by ideologues. And what does it say about our academics that they, more than anyone else, are responsible for the manufacturing of a grotesque and completely unsubstantiated myth?
===
Bin Laden makes common cause with the warmists
Andrew Bolt
Osama bin Laden is naturally a global warming worrier, too, being an enemy of modernity and its freedoms:
And indeed:
===
Monckton takes Brisbane
Andrew Bolt
Bruce McMahon of the Courier Mail shows no mercy to green colleague Graham Readfearn, who foolishly agreed to join a debate in Brisbane with climate sceptics:
Our alarmist friend Professor Barry Brook also took part in the debate, but he seems to have lost some of his old certainty.
In 2007 Brook claimed that while, yes, nature had been holding climate change at bay, ”all hell is about to break loose” from 2009, and he last month claimed ”2010 (is) looking likely to be the hottest ever”.
But in debate with Monckton and Plimer he conceded “we don’t know how much it (global temperature) is going to change in the future” (first audio clip), and urged instead that we cut our gases just in case.
Monckton’s retort to this citing of the “precautionary principle” is magisterial - that it is nonsense to consider only the risk of not Doing Something, without also considering the risks that Doing that Something involves.
If you wish to hear Monckton speak in Melbourne, here are the details:
===
But Obama’s trial continues
Andrew Bolt
A stupid idea reportedly reversed by a president now scrambling to put out fires:
===
Simon Crean: the green tax is a fraud
Andrew Bolt
The Rudd Government admits the great green tax is actually just another grab for cash.
Oh, a clarification. It means the British green tax, of course, not Kevin Rudd’s great green own:
===
RESTRICTIONS OPPOSED
Tim Blair
Inner-city Melbourne types protest about changes to their lives brought about by excessive regulation and bureaucracy. At the next election, of course, they’ll all vote Green …
===
AL QAEDA’S AL GORE
Tim Blair
Community leader Osama bin Laden gets his Gaia on:
===
TILTER DOWN
Tim Blair
A shock report on tonight’s global warming debate in Brisbane:
UPDATE Further climate change comedy from Barack Obama:
=== Bible Quote ===
“Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”- Mark 9:35
===
'Terrorist' Twitter Threatens Hugo Chavez's Stranglehold on Media
The greatest threat to Hugo Chavez's future just might be the World Wide Web. Fierce and growing protests over media freedom have left at least two students dead in Venezuela, and graphic images depicting violent tactics employed by the police there have started to flood the Internet. Police armed with tear gas and rubber bullets have left students bloodied and battered in Caracas and other cities during a week of protests over President Hugo Chavez's tightening gag on the opposition press.
Russia's stealth fighter claiming to match U.S. design reportedly makes first successful flight, seen here in image made from a TV screen — months after U.S. decides to quit buying the F-22 Raptor jet
Obama: Can We Play Nice?
In face-to-face meeting with GOP lawmakers, Obama declares 'I am not an ideologue,' and urges them to work with Dems to pass economic, health care reform
Debate over right to decide life or death for critically injured loved ones lands one mother in prison for life, locks young couple in battle with doctors to keep their infant alive. - I wouldn't put the decision in Obama's hands -ed.
Pressure's On for Military Tribunal
Critics pounce on Obama's refusal to consider military tribunal to bring confessed 9/11 mastermind to justice
Mel Gibson: Obama Doesn't Have What It Takes to 'Fix' America
Never one to shy away from voicing his opinion, actor Mel Gibson has declared that he doesn't believe President Obama has the means necessary to "fix" the United States. “[Obama] is a man with an impossible task on his hands," Gibson told Pop Tarts at the Hollywood premiere of his latest drama thriller "Edge of Darkness" on Tuesday night. "He got left a mess and I wish him all the best but I don’t think he’s going to fix it in five minutes and probably not in his entire tenure." Gibson's thoughts come as no surprise, as his new film explores the dark side of politics. He stars as homicide detective Thomas Craven, who is embroiled in an investigation into the murder of his activist daughter. In the process, Craven uncovers a corporate cover-up and government collusion that attracts an agent tasked with cleaning up the evidence.
Filmmaker Defends Undercover Op
Conservative who targeted ACORN fights accusations of trying to tamper with Dem senator's phones
Hamas Claims Israel Assassinated Top Commander
Hamas accused Israeli agents of assassinating one of the Palestinian militant group's veteran operatives, and vowed to retaliate. The militant group identified its slain figure as Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing. Al-Mabhouh, 50, was responsible for hundreds of deadly attacks and suicide bombings targeting Israelis since the 1980s. - I think it was Osama Bin Laden - Weasel.
Obama to End NASA Constellation Program
On the eve of the fullest moon of the year, NASA scientists were told they won't be able to visit any longer. In his new budget, President Obama plans to eliminate the space program's manned moon missions. - Obama is an epic failure in the vision thing. -ed.
NSW Premier Kristina Keneally quizzed for McGurk corruption inquiry
NSW Premier Kristina Keneally has been quizzed over corruption allegations linked to murdered Sydney businessman Michael McGurk. Ms Keneally has submitted written answers to questions from the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), which is due on Monday to begin an inquiry into the businessman's dealings. Mr McGurk, 45, was shot dead outside his home at Cremorne in Sydney on September 4 last year. While no one has been charged over the killing, a NSW parliamentary inquiry was established after it was revealed the businessman possessed a recording with alleged claims of corruption involving Labor MPs and officials. - Keneally has no power, and is helpless in the face of this inquiry, which even so appears fixed so as to make no adverse findings. The problem is with the upcoming change of government those who behave corruptly will be more answerable than they have been since the ALP were elected in '95, and maybe some are worried what will happen when they eventually face justice. - ed.
A TV company has come under fire for using strippers, including one dressed in a skimpy police uniform, at a charity function for sick children
Herman Rockefeller is dead
TWO people have been charged with the murder of Melbourne millionaire Herman Rockefeller.
Gates pledges $11.1 billion for vaccines
MICROSOFT'S Bill Gates has pledged $11.1 billion for vaccines to save millions of children's lives.
'Incest dad fathered four children''
A MAN fathered four children with his daughter over three decades of sexual abuse, a court hears.
Sailor denies kicking asylum-seeker
A navy sailor denies kicking an Afghan asylum-seeker to prevent him boarding a rescue boat.
Tiger Woods' weird and wild sex drive
RANDY Tiger Woods likes to watch and play weird sex games, a call girl claimed yesterday.
Cigarette and booze price hike
BEER and cigarette taxes are quietly going up on Monday in a tax grab that will reap the Federal Government millions of dollars.
Misleading lists lauded
NSW public schools have emerged as beacons of academic success, with the release of literacy and numeracy data showing some are out-performing private colleges. - some, predictably, are not. -ed.
China recruits volunteers for giant pandas
FOR anyone wanting to get up close and personal with a giant endangered panda, here is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Hypocrisy: A Love Story
Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story' may receive Mich. tax credit despite filmmaker opposing such credits
Blair: No regrets for ousting "monster"
FORMER British PM Tony Blair tells Iraq Inquiry he has no regrets about ousting Saddam Hussein. - The incumbent PM, Brown, seems to have lots of regrets. Blair did the right thing, Brown wouldn't. -ed.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Smart, Tough, Trusted...
Megyn Kelly covers every story, every event ...
Digging deeper, debating key issues and discussing the topics impacting you!
Only one show delivers both fair & balanced!
===
Obama's Tax Plan
Some get a break, but would a cut for ALL help get America back on the job?
===
The 9/11 Trials
Will New York convince President Obama to move the 9/11 trials out of the city?
===
Starting Monday
From Politics to Pop Culture ... Bill & Martha cover the stories you care about on "America's Newsroom"
=== Comments ===
Shades of Hitler in Mahathir’s call for a ‘final victory;’over Jews
Piers Akerman
MALAYSIA’S former premier Mahathir Mohamad has joined those in the tinfoil-hat brigade who believe the US faked the September 11 terrorist attacks as an excuse to wage war on Muslims. His proof? Hollywood’s ability to make films such as the box-office record smasher Avatar. - Today the Australian government will release a small amount of information to parents regarding their children’s progress in schools. The Education departments know lots more information they are not releasing to parents. For example, they can profile the performance of classroom teachers to see what they have failed to teach kids. That is quite a useful tool which Gillard won’t let parents have. Even so the education unions do not seem to want even this small amount of information to dribble out. They would prefer it that parents operated solely on rumor.
There is a good reason why Gillard is working to prevent parents from working with schools to improve their children’s education. The reason is related to Mahathir’s ravings. Teachers in NSW teach students that such ravings are true. Some students don’t accept these beliefs, but many are of the disposition of feeling that the issue is too complicated for them.
I raised this issue on several occasions with several officers of the Education Department and have consistently received the same advice. It is valid for students to argue this way and wrong for a teachers to contradict it. So that students may proselytize on the issue and students who don’t share these beliefs are not allowed to say so, or put of competing theory. Some militant teachers agree with the students, and as with Fort Hood, those who know better are helpless.
Soon, the issue of Hamidur Rahman will explode, but that is one issue, and it is related to this issue, and many others. The ALP make for bad teacher supervisors.
While teachers can tell students in NSW that Jews demolished the world trade centre on 9/11, and that they provoked Hitler in WW2, teachers do not have to tell students that why such beliefs are insane. But there is more. In order to justify their existence each year, some teacher support units in the poorest schools work very hard to make sure that year 7 results are poor in literacy and numeracy so as to register higher results down the track. The bonus being they can justify the work achievement of the support unit by showing the support unit’s work has effected positive change in the results of the students, and so justify the continued existence of the unit. Gillard’s school watch will not reveal this, but will celebrate it.
But it gets better. In some of the poorest schools in the state, English teachers do not have to teach English. Anything part of the literacy program is not taught so as to avoid the perception that teachers teach to a test. The result being that matching the results of high achieving numeracy students shows little correlation with their literacy scores. Gillard’s watch hides this from parents, but the education authorities can clearly see this.
Mahathir is not just a Malaysian tragedy, he is a tragedy of the NSW Education Department. - ed.
Cynical repliedDD Ball replied
You’re clutching at straws today. This whole school comparison thing is ludicrous and unnecessary. It fails to take into account the IQ levels of students which are the biggest factor. Comparing Hurlstone Agricultural to Ingleburn is daft yet you will be able to do it Statistics can make anything seem good.
Oh and I’m a nationals supporter.
Cynical, the data collected is not mere statistics. Everything I wrote I know to be true as I’m involved with that kind of work. Students at Hurlstone do not collectively have superior IQ to Ingleburn, a person with IQ 130 at Hurlstone and a student with IQ 130 at Ingleburne have similar IQ. The Hurlstone student will have to negotiate different issues in their learning, but also face common prejudice. The curriculum is the same, as is access to drugs and alcohol. Parental neglect is similar. The staff at Hurlstone are no smarter, but they are probably better conditioned at having extra work prepared.
It is easy to infer what has and has not been taught when kids get things right or wrong. At one school I worked at recently I correlated the numeracy with the literacy and found a low correlation, which is outrageous when it is considered that the English faculty took pride in not teaching for the NAPLAN test. Their best students in Math struggled with reading, and that was going to limit their achievement in later years .. even in Math. They did not have a mature reading and writing age and the English faculty wasn’t interested in increasing that age. The alleged aim being to teach higher order thinking skills, not basic skills. But basic skills allow the higher order ones. Seriosuly, the idea of teaching critical thinking is absurd when separated from basic skills. It is like teaching flying aircraft without showing the controls. You clearly do not understand the issues you are wishing to comment on. Keep voting National, Hurlstone needs the help. The ALP will probably use Hamidur Rahman’s issue to close the school after the issue escapes their enclosure.
Carl repliedDD Ball replied
Gillard’s strategy is to put State Education under Leftard Federal Control so they can screw with it to effect the policy, that State Labor messed up already. No Credibility for the ALP either State or Federal.
Do we need any more Federal Labor nonsense controlled by the ALP drafting the national curriculum?
Cynical replied
DD Ball. You are clutching at straws and your CONSTANT politicisation of that poor kids death is not only tiresome, it is offensive too!
Cynical, I know who you are. You may hide behind various masks and hope that I won’t succeed. It will also cost you, eventually, when I am successful. I am sorry. I didn’t mean to put you in this position, but you must know that you chose it, and that child’s life and the injustice endured by his parents demands justice. I am not attacking you personally, but I recognize that you feel threatened because you are so close to this. I have sacrificed my job, my career and my unit so that I might see this to the end. You aren’t going to scare me into backing off by approaching me on youtube and claiming to speak for regular members of the public, yet being anonymous. I never wanted to enter politics, I want to be a writer. However, I will run for the legislative council and I will get this issue before the public and you can choose to explain, now or later, why you made the choices you made.
I feel that parents want to know their children are safe in school, and your bungling and the subsequent cover up mean that they don’t know that. That is concerning for the public and needs to be addressed.
===
Is President Obama's Speech Over Yet?
By Bill O'Reilly
That was a long deal Wednesday night, was it not? But I have to say the president delivered the speech very well. He seemed relaxed and in charge.
Now because I am a simple man, I'm going to break the State of the Union down in a very basic way. And I'll do it in three minutes, not 70.
The big theme of the night was job creation. The president believes the government should spend a ton of money providing jobs for the folks who don't have them.
OK, I get that, but with the deficit so huge, my simple question is: Why not try private incentives first? Mr. Obama is proposing tax breaks for American businesses to create jobs. That's good. Tax cuts will stimulate spending, so we need more of those. And let's bend over backwards to help small companies hire people.
Private business is the backbone of our economy and always has been, so "Talking Points" opposes massive federal spending on the job front unless tax breaks don't work. Keep the federal money in reserve, Mr. President, because America's debt is as big a problem as unemployment.
No. 2, health care. Here's what the president said on that:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: If anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors and stop insurance company abuses, let me know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OK, I am up for the challenge. Rather than spending still more government money creating an enormous bureaucracy, why don't we allow all health insurance companies to compete in all 50 states and allow judges to punish people who sue doctors and other medical personnel for stupid reasons? That's what they do in Great Britain. If you file a nuisance lawsuit, a judge can order you to pay all the costs. That is known as tort reform.
I agree with President Obama. The government should regulate health insurance companies. They can't be throwing people off the rolls when they get sick. They can't be fighting legitimate reimbursement.
Right now, some insurance companies try to wear you down when you file a claim. That's infuriating and unfair. I'm with President Obama on that.
But again, we don't need trillions of federal dollars to solve the health care problem. We already have Medicaid that gives poor people money to pay their medical bills.
So increased insurance competition, stopping crazy lawsuits and mandating strict rules for insurance companies to follow might be a partial solution to the health care debacle. That's not going to solve everything, but it's a heck of a lot more efficient than what Mr. Obama wants, which is a fiscal nightmare.
Finally, the president did not speak about the War on Terror very much, but he must – must — stop the nonsense about giving Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other Al Qaeda thugs civilian trials.
On Wednesday, New York Mayor Bloomberg said he wants the Khalid trial out of New York City because it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. But the president doesn't seem to get it:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I know that all of us love this country. All of us are committed to its defense. So let's put aside the school yard taunts about who's tough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
No taunts here, Mr. President. Just common sense. Let the military handle these Al Qaeda killers. Attorney General Holder is not equipped to do it. I'm not taunting. I'm just reporting.
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The IPCC’s latest source: Greenpeace
Andrew Bolt
The IPCC’s 2007 report - praised and relied upon by Kevin Rudd - now turns out to have relied not just on reports by WWF activists, but by ones from Greenpeace, too:
Donna Laframboise reports:
Considered the climate Bible by governments around the world, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report is meant to be a scientific analysis of the most authoritative research.Hoegh-Guldberg? Good heavens, we remember this notorious alarmist well, and his extraordinary record of dud predictions:
Instead, it references literature generated by Greenpeace – an organization known more for headline-grabbing publicity stunts than sober-minded analysis. (Eight IPCC-cited Greenpeace publications are listed at the bottom of this post.)
In one section of this Nobel-winning report, climate change is linked to coral reef degradation. The sole source for this claim? A Greenpeace report titled “Pacific in Peril” (see Hoegh-Guldberg below). Here the report relies on a Greenpeace document to establish the lower-end of an estimate involving solar power plants (Aringhoff).
In 1999, Hoegh-Guldberg warned that the Great Barrier Reef was under pressure from global warming, and much of it had turned white.In fact, I rather suspect researcher Peter Ridd, who says the Reef is actually in ”bloody brilliant shape”, had Hoegh-Gulberg in mind the other day:
In fact, he later admitted the reef had made a “surprising” recovery.
In 2006, he warned high temperatures meant “between 30 and 40 per cent of coral on Queensland’s great Barrier Reef could die within a month”.
In fact, he later admitted this bleaching had “a minimal impact”.
In 2007, he warned that temperature changes of the kind caused by global warming were again bleaching the reef.
In fact, the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network last week said there had been no big damage to the reef caused by climate change in the four years since its last report, and veteran diver Ben Cropp said this week that in 50 years he’d seen none at all.
ONE of North Queensland’s top marine physicists has accused fellow scientists of exaggerating the threat that climate change poses to the Great Barrier Reef…(Via Watts Up With That.)
James Cook University’s Prof Peter Ridd said global warming could actually be good for the Reef. And he accused scientists of “pushing particular lines” in a bid to save their jobs and keep their funding flowing.
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The death of the “stolen generations” myth
Andrew Bolt
Another myth crumbles - this time the “stolen generations” claim that racist Australia committed genocide by stealing up to 100,000 children from their Aboriginal parents just to wipe out their race.
Keith Windschuttle today shows how few children were actually removed from their Aboriginal parents, and that many of those in the few homes that in fact existed were actually sent there for good reasons. For instance:
In the post-war Northern Territory, 80 per cent of children in the Retta Dixon Home in Darwin and almost all those at the St Mary’s hostel in Alice Springs (the Territory’s sole institutions for part-Aboriginal children) were of school age, between five and 15. This was not surprising since the main reason for these homes’ existence was to provide board for children sent by their parents to go to school.Windschuttle also demonstrates the brazen falsity of Professor Robert Manne’s claim that a keep proof of the “stolen generations” was that the Australian government in the 1930s had endorsed a genocidal policy to “breed out the colour”. First, says Windschuttle, Manne is talking about some proposal to discourage part-Aboriginal women from marrying Aborigines, and not about a plan to steal their children. Second:
(Manne) stopped short of revealing that the events concluded with cabinet throwing out the proposal and the minister denouncing it in parliament. To have told it all would have publicly disproved his case about the Stolen Generations and the allegedly racist and genocidal objectives of government policies in the 1930s.The historian who invented the “stolen generations” label, Professor Peter Read, is also found out (again):
Read claimed the files of individuals removed by the (NSW) Aborigines Protection Board revealed the motives of those in charge. “The racial intention was obvious enough for all prepared to see, and some managers cut a long story short when they came to that part of the committal notice, `reason for board taking control of the child’. They simply wrote `for being Aboriginal’.”Read the whole piece, or, better still, Windschuttle’s new book on the creation of the “stolen generations” myth and the role of academics in this great fraud.
My examination of the 800 files in the same archive found only one official ever wrote a phrase like that. His actual words were “being an Aboriginal”. But even this sole example did not confirm Read’s thesis. The girl concerned was not a baby but 15 years old. Nor was she sent to an institution. She was placed in employment as a domestic servant in Moree, the closest town to the Euraba Aboriginal Station she came from. Three years later, in 1929, she married an Aboriginal man in Moree.
In short, she was not removed as young as possible, she was not removed permanently, and she retained enough contact with the local Aboriginal community to marry into it. The idea that she was the victim of some vast conspiracy to destroy Aboriginality is fanciful.
Windschuttle concludes:
Rather than acting for racist or genocidal reasons, government officers and missionaries wanted to rescue children and teenagers from welfare settlements and makeshift camps riddled with alcoholism, domestic violence and sexual abuse. In NSW, WA and the Territory, public servants, doctors, teachers and missionaries were appalled to find Aboriginal girls between five and eight years of age suffering from sexual abuse and venereal disease. On the Kimberley coast from the 1900s to the 1920s they were dismayed to find girls of nine and 10 years old hired out by their own parents as prostitutes to Asian pearling crews. That was why the great majority of children removed by authorities were female…And should you doubt Windschuttle’s evidence that the “stolen generations” is a myth, I repeat the challenge I’ve put for years to Manne and others. You have said that between 25,000 and 100,000 children were stolen from their parents in a racist scheme to destroy the Aboriginal race. Name just 10 such children.
Government officials had a duty to rescue children from such settings, as much then as they do now.
Manne has tried three times to answer my challenge and failed. Hundreds of thousands of Australians who were taught the “stolen generations” myth as fact in their schools must now ask what it says about our education system that it can be so hijacked and corrupted by ideologues. And what does it say about our academics that they, more than anyone else, are responsible for the manufacturing of a grotesque and completely unsubstantiated myth?
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Bin Laden makes common cause with the warmists
Andrew Bolt
Osama bin Laden is naturally a global warming worrier, too, being an enemy of modernity and its freedoms:
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has called for the world to boycott American goods and the U.S. dollar, blaming the United States and other industrialized countries for global warming, according to a new audiotape released Friday.Of course, bin Laden may just be appealling for allies in his crusade to bring back the Stone Age. Interesting that he feels they may be found among global warming extremists.
In the tape, broadcast in part on Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden warned of the dangers of climate change and says that the way to stop it is to bring “the wheels of the American economy” to a halt.
He blamed Western industrialized nations for hunger, desertification and floods across the globe, and called for “drastic solutions” to global warming, and “not solutions that partially reduce the effect of climate change.”
And indeed:
The speech, which included almost no religious rhetoric, could be an attempt by the terror leader to give his message an appeal beyond Islamic militants.Is bin Laden’s endorsement of global warming science what they mean by “peer review”? And what will be this joint movement’s slogan: Save the planet! Destroy America.
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Monckton takes Brisbane
Andrew Bolt
Bruce McMahon of the Courier Mail shows no mercy to green colleague Graham Readfearn, who foolishly agreed to join a debate in Brisbane with climate sceptics:
Lord Christopher Monckton, imperious and articulate, won yesterday’s climate change debate in straight sets…Readfearn has not commented on his ordeal, merely posting this audio extract and this.
Aided by Adelaide’s Professor Ian Plimer, Lord Monckton cruised to victory before a partisan crowd of suits and ties, movers and shakers.
Hundreds of them were there for the sell-out, $130-a-head Brisbane Institute lunch – and scepticism was applauded.
Climate change scientist Professor Barry Brook and teammate Graham Readfearn, The Courier-Mail’s environment blogger, were stoic in argument (even if Mr Readfearn may have foot-faulted once or twice and had to be pulled into line by moderator Ray Weeks).
Our alarmist friend Professor Barry Brook also took part in the debate, but he seems to have lost some of his old certainty.
In 2007 Brook claimed that while, yes, nature had been holding climate change at bay, ”all hell is about to break loose” from 2009, and he last month claimed ”2010 (is) looking likely to be the hottest ever”.
But in debate with Monckton and Plimer he conceded “we don’t know how much it (global temperature) is going to change in the future” (first audio clip), and urged instead that we cut our gases just in case.
Monckton’s retort to this citing of the “precautionary principle” is magisterial - that it is nonsense to consider only the risk of not Doing Something, without also considering the risks that Doing that Something involves.
If you wish to hear Monckton speak in Melbourne, here are the details:
Ballroom of the Sofitel Hotel (25 Collins St.)Pay $20 at the door. I’ve been asked to say something at the end.
At: 5:30 pm
On: Monday February 1st.
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But Obama’s trial continues
Andrew Bolt
A stupid idea reportedly reversed by a president now scrambling to put out fires:
The White House ordered the Justice Department Thursday night to consider other places to try the 9/11 terror suspects after a wave of opposition to holding the trial in lower ManhattanThat still doesn’t end the real controversy - the granting of a civilian trial, with all the attendant rights, to alleged terrorists at war with the US. Given Obama’s all-round strife as well, no wonder these rumors are building:
The chatter has increased in recent days about (Hillary) Clinton leaving the cabinet sometime in the first term, likely over some matter of principle, so that she can position herself to challenge Obama in 2012.Clinton never really wanted to serve under the man she loathes, but was ambushed when Barack Obama announced he’d offered her the post of Secretary of State before she had a chance to refuse it. And I’m betting her mood has not been improved as the perception grew that Obama then sidelined her in the job she felt obliged to take for fear of seeming a spoiler.
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Simon Crean: the green tax is a fraud
Andrew Bolt
The Rudd Government admits the great green tax is actually just another grab for cash.
Oh, a clarification. It means the British green tax, of course, not Kevin Rudd’s great green own:
Trade Minister Simon Crean has urged Britain to scrap its latest “green tax” rise on airfares, arguing it discriminates against people travelling to Australia…(Thanks to reader Brett.)
“We’ve indicated to the Government that whilst this was originally said to be a duty for environmental purposes it’s now accepted that it’s just for revenue raising purposes,” Mr Crean said
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RESTRICTIONS OPPOSED
Tim Blair
Inner-city Melbourne types protest about changes to their lives brought about by excessive regulation and bureaucracy. At the next election, of course, they’ll all vote Green …
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AL QAEDA’S AL GORE
Tim Blair
Community leader Osama bin Laden gets his Gaia on:
Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, has condemned the US and other industrial economies, holding them responsible for the phenomenon of climate change.Argument by assertion, speaking to “the world”, blaming the west, a demand for unspecified “action” … this guy has read every page of his greenoid tactics manual, including the chapter on drastic solutions:
In an audio tape obtained by Al Jazeera, bin Laden criticised George Bush, the former US president, for rejecting the Kyoto pact and condemned global corporations.
“This is a message to the whole world about those responsible for climate change and its repercussions - whether intentionally or unintentionally - and about the action we must take,” bin Laden said.
“Speaking about climate change is not a matter of intellectual luxury - the phenomenon is an actual fact.”
He blamed Western industrialized nations for hunger, desertification and floods across the globe, and called for “drastic solutions” to global warming, and “not solutions that partially reduce the effect of climate change” …Among your deeper Greens, recycling bin Laden already holds a certain appeal. Now he’s just aiming for a formal Blair’s Law alignment.
The speech, which included almost no religious rhetoric, could be an attempt by the terror leader to give his message an appeal beyond Islamic militants.
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TILTER DOWN
Tim Blair
A shock report on tonight’s global warming debate in Brisbane:
No offence to Readfearn, but he’s struggling.Nobody saw that coming.
UPDATE Further climate change comedy from Barack Obama:
Friday, January 29, 2010
AT SOTU Obama Gives Congress Good Laugh on Climate Change Junk Science
Barack Obama gave Congress a good laugh when he talked about climate change at SOTU address.
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The evidence is conclusive, Global Warming is a fraud perpetrated for political reasons by many wishing power and money. They don't care who is hurt, who dies, as they try to achieve their aims.
Headlines Friday 29th January 2010
=== Todays Toon ===
The sad truth is Obama doesn't have the character of President Bush.
=== Bible Quote ===
“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”- John 4:24
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A United Nations report on climate change that has been lambasted for its faulty research is under new attack for rainforest claims that critics say is sloppy science.
Senate Lifts Debt Ceiling
Dem-controlled Senate muscles through plan to allow government to go whopping $1.9 trillion deeper in debt
Report Details Afghan Sex Crisis
Study details rampant homosexual behavior in large Afghan ethnic group — though they seem to be in denial
'Catcher' Author J.D. Salinger Dead
J.D. Salinger dies at 91 in his New Hampshire home, where he lived in self-imposed isolation for decades
Archaeologists Find 1,100-Year-Old Maya Tomb
Mexican archaeologists have found an 1,100-year-old tomb from the twilight of the Maya civilization that they hope may shed light on what happened to the once-glorious culture. Archaeologist Juan Yadeun said the tomb, and ceramics from another culture found in it, may reveal who occupied the Maya site of Tonina in southern Chiapas state after the culture's Classic period began fading. Many experts have pointed to internal warfare between Mayan city states, or environmental degradation, as possible causes of the Maya's downfall starting around A.D. 820.
America's First Spaceport Grows in the Desert
New Mexico's Spaceport America is no longer the stuff of fancy graphics. The scene is now one of bulldozers and other heavy equipment. Loads of asphalt and concrete are being spread. The initial phase of building the rambling complex within remote desert scenery is quickening. One could easily call it "hard hat heaven" for those that have pushed for Spaceport America's development over many years. Spaceport America, billed as the world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport, is taking shape some 30 miles east of Truth or Consequences and 45 miles north of Las Cruces, New Mexico. A critical centerpiece of Spaceport America is putting in place a runway to space. Measuring 10,000 feet long by 200 feet wide that stretch of tarmac is designed to handle horizontal launch space and air operations at the spaceport.
Protesters march to the Australian High Commission in New Delhi chanting anti-Australian slogans and wanting UN help
Missing man now likely homicide
POLICE have just revealed Herman Rockefeller's case is being treated as a homicide.
Pre-teens targeted on new sexy website
A GAME where girls wear lingerie, take the pill and buy orphans has horrified children's groups.
My School website comparisons don't add up
DARGO Primary School is less a school than an abandoned building. Last year it had one student. This year it has none. Yet according to My School, it is statistically similar to privately operated Camberwell Grammar, with 12,055 enrolments in Melbourne's inner east.
Doherty filmmaker dies of overdose
ONE of UK's richest dynasty members has died after being close to rock star Pete Doherty.
Boy, 13, causes retirement home terror
A YOUTH who scared and robbed retirement home residents in a crime spree has been locked up.
Australians are world's worst sinners
AUSTRALIANS are the worst sinners in the world, British researchers have decided.
Hunger-striking man arrested at shops
A HUNGER-striking citizen battling immigration authorities to stay in Australia has been arrested at a local shopping centre.
Man doing dishes struck by lightning
A MAN has been spectacularly struck by a bolt of lightning that came through a kitchen window to hit him as he washed dishes.
Tourists bribe their way out of floods
ABOUT 1500 tourists have fled Peru's Ancient Inca site of Machu Picchu, cut off by floods and landslides since the weekend.
The waste accelerates with Desalinated Water
The controversial Kurnell desalination plant was officially opened yesterday, with Premier Kristina Keneally taking the first sip after pressing the go button. "It's beautiful," Ms Keneally said. "They won't taste the difference. A very refreshing drop." - the difference is in the cost, with a dam less than 1 cent a litre and the desalination plant more than 100 times more expensive .. more than an equivalent bottle of Coke Cola -ed.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Education, Taxes, & Jobs
What Obama's agenda really means for America!
First, Rudy Giuliani reacts to the president's plan on "Hannity"!
Then, powerful insight from Sarah Palin "On the Record"!
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Guest: Mitt Romney
Obama calls for a new jobs bill, but will his strategy to spend billions really pay off?
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Commercial Controversy
Should Tim Tebow's anti-abortion ad be tossed from the Super Bowl? The culture warriors respond!
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Tonight on FBN: Food Police
New restrictions, strict regulations ... even removing your food! John uncovers why they're after what we eat ... and why you should worry!
=== Comments ===
Shades of Hitler in Mahathir’s call for a ‘final victory;’over Jews
Piers Akerman
MALAYSIA’S former premier Mahathir Mohamad has joined those in the tinfoil-hat brigade who believe the US faked the September 11 terrorist attacks as an excuse to wage war on Muslims. His proof? Hollywood’s ability to make films such as the box-office record smasher Avatar. - Yesterday the Australian government released a small amount of information to parents regarding their children’s progress in schools. The Education departments know lots more information they are not releasing to parents. For example, they can profile the performance of classroom teachers to see what they have failed to teach kids. That is quite a useful tool which Gillard won’t let parents have. Even so the education unions do not seem to want even this small amount of information to dribble out. They would prefer it that parents operated solely on rumor.
There is a good reason why Gillard is working to prevent parents from working with schools to improve their children’s education. The reason is related to Mahathir’s ravings. Teachers in NSW teach students that such ravings are true. Some students don’t accept these beliefs, but many are of the disposition of feeling that the issue is too complicated for them.
I raised this issue on several occasions with several officers of the Education Department and have consistently received the same advice. It is valid for students to argue this way and wrong for a teachers to contradict it. So that students may proselytize on the issue and students who don’t share these beliefs are not allowed to say so, or put of competing theory. Some militant teachers agree with the students, and as with Fort Hood, those who know better are helpless.
Soon, the issue of Hamidur Rahman will explode, but that is one issue, and it is related to this issue, and many others. The ALP make for bad teacher supervisors.
While teachers can tell students in NSW that Jews demolished the world trade centre on 9/11, and that they provoked Hitler in WW2, teachers do not have to tell students that why such beliefs are insane. But there is more. In order to justify their existence each year, some teacher support units in the poorest schools work very hard to make sure that year 7 results are poor in literacy and numeracy so as to register higher results down the track. The bonus being they can justify the work achievement of the support unit by showing the support unit’s work has effected positive change in the results of the students, and so justify the continued existence of the unit. Gillard’s school watch will not reveal this, but will celebrate it.
But it gets better. In some of the poorest schools in the state, English teachers do not have to teach English. Anything part of the literacy program is not taught so as to avoid the perception that teachers teach to a test. The result being that matching the results of high achieving numeracy students shows little correlation with their literacy scores. Gillard’s watch hides this from parents, but the education authorities can clearly see this.
Mahathir is not just a Malaysian tragedy, he is a tragedy of the NSW Education Department.
Cynical, the data collected is not mere statistics. Everything I wrote I know to be true as I’m involved with that kind of work. Students at Hurlstone do not collectively have superior IQ to Ingleburn, a person with IQ 130 at Hurlstone and a student with IQ 130 at Ingleburne have similar IQ. The Hurlstone student will have to negotiate different issues in their learning, but also face common prejudice. The curriculum is the same, as is access to drugs and alcohol. Parental neglect is similar. The staff at Hurlstone are no smarter, but they are probably better conditioned at having extra work prepared.
It is easy to infer what has and has not been taught when kids get things right or wrong. At one school I worked at recently I correlated the numeracy with the literacy and found a low correlation, which is outrageous when it is considered that the English faculty took pride in not teaching for the NAPLAN test. Their best students in Math struggled with reading, and that was going to limit their achievement in later years .. even in Math. They did not have a mature reading and writing age and the English faculty wasn’t interested in increasing that age. The alleged aim being to teach higher order thinking skills, not basic skills. But basic skills allow the higher order ones. Seriosuly, the idea of teaching critical thinking is absurd when separated from basic skills. It is like teaching flying aircraft without showing the controls. You clearly do not understand the issues you are wishing to comment on. Keep voting National, Hurlstone needs the help. The ALP will probably use Hamidur Rahman’s issue to close the school after the issue escapes their enclosure.
Obama's Sorry State of the Union Speech
By Kevin McCullough
President Obama's State of the Union address was an incoherent, disorganized, and most regrettably defiant, mess of a speech.
At roughly 9:48pm EST, in the midst of President Obama's first State of the Union address he begged us to "let him know!"
The president was defending his push for his vision of universal health care when he threw down the challenge in a speech that seemed strangely and wholly disconnected from the experience of the average American family.
As far as expectations for the State of the Union the president's speech was a sizable failure.
By my count President Obama made several significant policy pivots -- for the first time he advocated the use of nuclear power, domestic drilling, clean coal, capital gains tax cuts, spending freezes, and called on Congress to "tighten their belts" just as American families are being forced to do.
Acting on previously published advice from Democratic strategist James Carville, President Obama took the opportunity, by my count at least eight times, to mention Bush administration. He did this not to give President Bush and his team credit for the low unemployment we enjoyed during his eight years in office, or the national security they provided. Instead, he brought up the Bush administration to place blame for the problems that have only grown since President Obama entered the White House.
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The Media Revolution in America
By Bill O'Reilly
Things are changing quickly in the USA. The country is moving to the right, and President Obama may reflect that in his State of the Union address.
Simply put: The president's liberal policies have hurt him.
As "Talking Points" predicted, there will be no public option in any health care reform bill. There will be no cap-and-trade legislation, and the president's War on Terror strategy is now under fire by big-time Democrats.
Senators Jim Webb from Virginia and Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas have sent scorching letters to Attorney General Holder telling him to move Khalid Sheikh Mohammed back to military supervision.
If you still don't believe the country is moving away from liberalism, listen to this.
Last week, the Fox News Channel was the highest-rated cable network in America, beating all the entertainment channels. Sorry SpongeBob; sorry Hannah Montana.
For a news channel to beat entertainment channels is extraordinary. Millions of Americans turned to our Haitian coverage and relied on us to provide an accurate picture of the Massachusetts vote count because they know we will report honestly without titling to the left.
In addition, the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling is out with a brand-new study that asked Americans which TV news organizations they trust.
Ready?
Forty-nine percent of Americans, half the country, trust the Fox News Channel. Just 31 percent of Americans trust ABC News, 35 percent trust NBC News and 32 percent trust CBS News.
That's a rout. By a huge majority, Americans now believe the Fox News Channel is the most honest purveyor of information in the country.
Want more?
The Gallup people say 64 percent of Americans believe the press is doing a fair or poor job of watching the Obama administration. Again, that goes to liberal bias.
It's not that FNC's hard news coverage is unfair to President Obama. It isn't. We report accurately what the president says and does.
On this opinion program, we try to give the president a fair shake and back up our criticisms with facts, but we are in the tank for no one.
Last week while CNN and MSNBC cut short Senator-elect Scott Brown's remarks in Massachusetts, we ran the speeches by Brown and Martha Coakley in their entirety, another example of fairness.
So it is all over. Fox News is the most trusted TV news brand in America by far.
On the political front, the folks gave President Obama and his liberal policies a chance, but now some frustration has set in with the huge spending, a confusing health care bill and chaotic terror policies.
There are big changes going on in the USA, and as the country moves to the right, the president should take notice.
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Lying about Abbott
Andrew Bolt
THE first thing to be said about Tony Abbott’s critics this week is that they are liars.
Take Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Gillard’s eager ears pricked up when she learnt that Women’s Weekly, in a long profile this week on Abbott, asked the Opposition Leader what he thought of sex before marriage.
Hello, hello, hello.
You see, the Rudd Government has been desperate to exploit anti-Catholic bigotry in this country and paint Abbott as a papist who’d ban abortions if he could and force children to study Bibles. Yes, really - that’s how dishonest and vile its attacks have been.
But Gillard must have been disappointed by what Abbott actually told Women’s Weekly, because I doubt there’s a good father who’d have said much different to his own daughters.
Check for yourself. Here is every last word that Abbott, himself the father of three girls, said: “It (sex before marriage) happens ... I think I would say to my daughters if they were to ask me this question ... it is the greatest gift that you can give someone, the ultimate gift of giving, and don’t give it to someone lightly, that is what I would say.”
Full stop. Read anything to object to?
No. And that’s precisely why Gillard had to lie. (I am of course presuming she actually checked what Abbott said.)
Here now is what Gillard said: “These comments will confirm the worst fears of Australian women about Tony Abbott. Australian women don’t want to be told what to do by Tony Abbott.
“Australian women want to make their own choices and they don’t want to be lectured to by Mr Abbott.”
You see immediately Gillard’s big lie - albeit one of deliberate inference, rather than bald statement.
Abbott had not lectured Australian women generally. As he’d made clear, his was advice he would give only to his own daughters, and only if they asked.
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McGorry praises Rudd for what he deplores
Andrew Bolt
THEY should name an Australian of the Year every month, for all the fun Prof Patrick McGorry is giving.
And not just fun. There’s plenty to learn from his playing of politics this week - not least of which is that an expert isn’t an expert the second he talks about things he’s not expert in.
And here’s another lesson: judge politicians by what they do, not how they seem.
But let’s go back to Australia Day, when McGorry, a Victorian who has undoubtedly done great work in mental health, was named top Australian.
It’s an honour that usually goes to one of four choices: a sportsman, a medical specialist, an Aboriginal or some other hero of the Left, such as climate alarmist Tim Flannery.
McGorry, director of Headspace, Australia’s National Youth Mental Health Foundation, was meant to be this year’s non-controversial medico, but no sooner had he been crowned than he started to play at politics, too, of the fashionable kind.
Our immigration detention centres had to be closed, he declared, because “you could almost describe them as factories for producing mental illness and mental disorders”.
Boat people should live in the community instead, and not - he reportedly added - be kept in detention on Christmas Island.
Left unexamined was just how many thousands more boat people we’d get the second we announced we’d never lock them up. Details, details.
But then came the entertainment. Within 24 hours McGorry rushed back in front of the cameras to offer a grovelling apology.
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Save the planet! Store your garbage in your fridge
Andrew Bolt
Penrith’s green fascists are slashing bin collections to force residents to go green, and suggest a solution to complaints they’ll just stink up houses and spread gastro:
It’s racist to explain we’re not racist
Andrew Bolt
KEVIN Rudd’s nephew proved my point when he stood outside the Rod Laver Area on Australia Day in his badly sewn Ku Klux Klan outfit.
I mean, if we weren’t so desperate not to seem racist, we might not seem so very ... racist.
That’s not the point Van Thanh Rudd was actually trying to make, of course.
He’s an artist and Marxist activist, and went to the tennis in his KKK outfit - with a “No racist attacks on Indians” sign - to announce that what was really behind all these bashings and killings of Indians was white redneck racism. The legendary Australian sort.
But here’s where he made my point instead. The very day before, two more Indians were bashed in Swanston St.
Their attackers? Once more it was - allegedly - an ethnic gang. An Asian one, in fact, or so police allege.
For Thanh Rudd to protest that such a bashing, of Indians by Asians, is proof of white racism shows exactly the dangerous dishonesty there has been here in discussing race and crime.
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Another Rudd conviction killed off by the polls
Andrew Bolt
Has there been a more poll-driven prime minister? Watch Kevin Rudd’s latest enthusiasm suddenly vanish:
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Bothered Obama
Andrew Bolt
So how was the State of the Union speech of the embattled Barack Obama received?
Well, one of the Supreme Court justices there, Samuel Alito, shook his head and mouthed “not true”:
Senate majority leader Harry Reid yawns:
Charles Krauthammer scoffs:
And Leftist Chris Matthews says he for once stopped obsessing about Obama’s color, proving, of course, that he didn’t:
So I really don’t think this was a hit.
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Will Rudd bribe the Taliban, too?
Andrew Bolt
Excuse me, but is Kevin Rudd also bribing the Taliban to stop shooting at us? And if so, how much is he promising:
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Meteorologists agree: man-made warming isn’t real
Andrew Bolt
What would 121 meteorologists know about the weather, anyway?
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Save the planet! Stink out the homes and spread the gastro
Andrew Bolt
The extremists who now infest local government would rather give you the trots if that’s what it takes to turn you green:
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Monckton feels warmth
Andrew Bolt
Reader Ken reports:
MAGGOTS FOR GAIA
Tim Blair
Our clean, green future:
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HONEST KEV’S 35,000,000 QUESTION
Tim Blair
October 2009:
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LAW BROKEN
Tim Blair
Warmies applaud the breaking of laws for the purpose of highlighting their doomed mission, but suddenly became obsessed over legality following Climategate. They may be interested in the following:
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HE’LL NEVER GO HUNGRY
Tim Blair
“As Islamists love death and Americans love Coca Cola,” writes James Delingpole, “so I thrive on the hatred of Guardian readers.”
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SILKY PONY UNSPANKED
Tim Blair
While the mother of the boyfriend of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s daughter is subject to mainstream media scrutiny, a certain other former vice presidential candidate’s far more intriguing activities remain largely unexamined.
===
SCHTATE OF THE UNION
Tim Blair
Is anyone in the US sober following Obama’s State of the Union speech? Not if Stephen Green and Jim Treacher had anything to do with it.
UPDATE. President Obama is awesome.
UPDATE II. The silent judgment of Samuel Alito: “Not true.”
The sad truth is Obama doesn't have the character of President Bush.
=== Bible Quote ===
“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”- John 4:24
===
A United Nations report on climate change that has been lambasted for its faulty research is under new attack for rainforest claims that critics say is sloppy science.
Senate Lifts Debt Ceiling
Dem-controlled Senate muscles through plan to allow government to go whopping $1.9 trillion deeper in debt
Report Details Afghan Sex Crisis
Study details rampant homosexual behavior in large Afghan ethnic group — though they seem to be in denial
'Catcher' Author J.D. Salinger Dead
J.D. Salinger dies at 91 in his New Hampshire home, where he lived in self-imposed isolation for decades
Archaeologists Find 1,100-Year-Old Maya Tomb
Mexican archaeologists have found an 1,100-year-old tomb from the twilight of the Maya civilization that they hope may shed light on what happened to the once-glorious culture. Archaeologist Juan Yadeun said the tomb, and ceramics from another culture found in it, may reveal who occupied the Maya site of Tonina in southern Chiapas state after the culture's Classic period began fading. Many experts have pointed to internal warfare between Mayan city states, or environmental degradation, as possible causes of the Maya's downfall starting around A.D. 820.
America's First Spaceport Grows in the Desert
New Mexico's Spaceport America is no longer the stuff of fancy graphics. The scene is now one of bulldozers and other heavy equipment. Loads of asphalt and concrete are being spread. The initial phase of building the rambling complex within remote desert scenery is quickening. One could easily call it "hard hat heaven" for those that have pushed for Spaceport America's development over many years. Spaceport America, billed as the world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport, is taking shape some 30 miles east of Truth or Consequences and 45 miles north of Las Cruces, New Mexico. A critical centerpiece of Spaceport America is putting in place a runway to space. Measuring 10,000 feet long by 200 feet wide that stretch of tarmac is designed to handle horizontal launch space and air operations at the spaceport.
Protesters march to the Australian High Commission in New Delhi chanting anti-Australian slogans and wanting UN help
Missing man now likely homicide
POLICE have just revealed Herman Rockefeller's case is being treated as a homicide.
Pre-teens targeted on new sexy website
A GAME where girls wear lingerie, take the pill and buy orphans has horrified children's groups.
My School website comparisons don't add up
DARGO Primary School is less a school than an abandoned building. Last year it had one student. This year it has none. Yet according to My School, it is statistically similar to privately operated Camberwell Grammar, with 12,055 enrolments in Melbourne's inner east.
Doherty filmmaker dies of overdose
ONE of UK's richest dynasty members has died after being close to rock star Pete Doherty.
Boy, 13, causes retirement home terror
A YOUTH who scared and robbed retirement home residents in a crime spree has been locked up.
Australians are world's worst sinners
AUSTRALIANS are the worst sinners in the world, British researchers have decided.
Hunger-striking man arrested at shops
A HUNGER-striking citizen battling immigration authorities to stay in Australia has been arrested at a local shopping centre.
Man doing dishes struck by lightning
A MAN has been spectacularly struck by a bolt of lightning that came through a kitchen window to hit him as he washed dishes.
Tourists bribe their way out of floods
ABOUT 1500 tourists have fled Peru's Ancient Inca site of Machu Picchu, cut off by floods and landslides since the weekend.
The waste accelerates with Desalinated Water
The controversial Kurnell desalination plant was officially opened yesterday, with Premier Kristina Keneally taking the first sip after pressing the go button. "It's beautiful," Ms Keneally said. "They won't taste the difference. A very refreshing drop." - the difference is in the cost, with a dam less than 1 cent a litre and the desalination plant more than 100 times more expensive .. more than an equivalent bottle of Coke Cola -ed.
=== Journalists Corner ===
Education, Taxes, & Jobs
What Obama's agenda really means for America!
First, Rudy Giuliani reacts to the president's plan on "Hannity"!
Then, powerful insight from Sarah Palin "On the Record"!
===
Guest: Mitt Romney
Obama calls for a new jobs bill, but will his strategy to spend billions really pay off?
===
Commercial Controversy
Should Tim Tebow's anti-abortion ad be tossed from the Super Bowl? The culture warriors respond!
===
Tonight on FBN: Food Police
New restrictions, strict regulations ... even removing your food! John uncovers why they're after what we eat ... and why you should worry!
=== Comments ===
Shades of Hitler in Mahathir’s call for a ‘final victory;’over Jews
Piers Akerman
MALAYSIA’S former premier Mahathir Mohamad has joined those in the tinfoil-hat brigade who believe the US faked the September 11 terrorist attacks as an excuse to wage war on Muslims. His proof? Hollywood’s ability to make films such as the box-office record smasher Avatar. - Yesterday the Australian government released a small amount of information to parents regarding their children’s progress in schools. The Education departments know lots more information they are not releasing to parents. For example, they can profile the performance of classroom teachers to see what they have failed to teach kids. That is quite a useful tool which Gillard won’t let parents have. Even so the education unions do not seem to want even this small amount of information to dribble out. They would prefer it that parents operated solely on rumor.
There is a good reason why Gillard is working to prevent parents from working with schools to improve their children’s education. The reason is related to Mahathir’s ravings. Teachers in NSW teach students that such ravings are true. Some students don’t accept these beliefs, but many are of the disposition of feeling that the issue is too complicated for them.
I raised this issue on several occasions with several officers of the Education Department and have consistently received the same advice. It is valid for students to argue this way and wrong for a teachers to contradict it. So that students may proselytize on the issue and students who don’t share these beliefs are not allowed to say so, or put of competing theory. Some militant teachers agree with the students, and as with Fort Hood, those who know better are helpless.
Soon, the issue of Hamidur Rahman will explode, but that is one issue, and it is related to this issue, and many others. The ALP make for bad teacher supervisors.
While teachers can tell students in NSW that Jews demolished the world trade centre on 9/11, and that they provoked Hitler in WW2, teachers do not have to tell students that why such beliefs are insane. But there is more. In order to justify their existence each year, some teacher support units in the poorest schools work very hard to make sure that year 7 results are poor in literacy and numeracy so as to register higher results down the track. The bonus being they can justify the work achievement of the support unit by showing the support unit’s work has effected positive change in the results of the students, and so justify the continued existence of the unit. Gillard’s school watch will not reveal this, but will celebrate it.
But it gets better. In some of the poorest schools in the state, English teachers do not have to teach English. Anything part of the literacy program is not taught so as to avoid the perception that teachers teach to a test. The result being that matching the results of high achieving numeracy students shows little correlation with their literacy scores. Gillard’s watch hides this from parents, but the education authorities can clearly see this.
Mahathir is not just a Malaysian tragedy, he is a tragedy of the NSW Education Department.
Cynical repliedDD Ball replied
You’re clutching at straws today. This whole school comparison thing is ludicrous and unnecessary. It fails to take into account the IQ levels of students which are the biggest factor. Comparing Hurlstone Agricultural to Ingleburn is daft yet you will be able to do it Statistics can make anything seem good.
Oh and I’m a nationals supporter.
Cynical, the data collected is not mere statistics. Everything I wrote I know to be true as I’m involved with that kind of work. Students at Hurlstone do not collectively have superior IQ to Ingleburn, a person with IQ 130 at Hurlstone and a student with IQ 130 at Ingleburne have similar IQ. The Hurlstone student will have to negotiate different issues in their learning, but also face common prejudice. The curriculum is the same, as is access to drugs and alcohol. Parental neglect is similar. The staff at Hurlstone are no smarter, but they are probably better conditioned at having extra work prepared.
It is easy to infer what has and has not been taught when kids get things right or wrong. At one school I worked at recently I correlated the numeracy with the literacy and found a low correlation, which is outrageous when it is considered that the English faculty took pride in not teaching for the NAPLAN test. Their best students in Math struggled with reading, and that was going to limit their achievement in later years .. even in Math. They did not have a mature reading and writing age and the English faculty wasn’t interested in increasing that age. The alleged aim being to teach higher order thinking skills, not basic skills. But basic skills allow the higher order ones. Seriosuly, the idea of teaching critical thinking is absurd when separated from basic skills. It is like teaching flying aircraft without showing the controls. You clearly do not understand the issues you are wishing to comment on. Keep voting National, Hurlstone needs the help. The ALP will probably use Hamidur Rahman’s issue to close the school after the issue escapes their enclosure.
Carl replied===
Gillard’s strategy is to put State Education under Leftard Federal Control so they can screw with it to effect the policy, that State Labor messed up already. No Credibility for the ALP either State or Federal.
Do we need any more Federal Labor nonsense controlled by the ALP drafting the national curriculum?
Obama's Sorry State of the Union Speech
By Kevin McCullough
President Obama's State of the Union address was an incoherent, disorganized, and most regrettably defiant, mess of a speech.
At roughly 9:48pm EST, in the midst of President Obama's first State of the Union address he begged us to "let him know!"
The president was defending his push for his vision of universal health care when he threw down the challenge in a speech that seemed strangely and wholly disconnected from the experience of the average American family.
As far as expectations for the State of the Union the president's speech was a sizable failure.
By my count President Obama made several significant policy pivots -- for the first time he advocated the use of nuclear power, domestic drilling, clean coal, capital gains tax cuts, spending freezes, and called on Congress to "tighten their belts" just as American families are being forced to do.
Acting on previously published advice from Democratic strategist James Carville, President Obama took the opportunity, by my count at least eight times, to mention Bush administration. He did this not to give President Bush and his team credit for the low unemployment we enjoyed during his eight years in office, or the national security they provided. Instead, he brought up the Bush administration to place blame for the problems that have only grown since President Obama entered the White House.
===
The Media Revolution in America
By Bill O'Reilly
Things are changing quickly in the USA. The country is moving to the right, and President Obama may reflect that in his State of the Union address.
Simply put: The president's liberal policies have hurt him.
As "Talking Points" predicted, there will be no public option in any health care reform bill. There will be no cap-and-trade legislation, and the president's War on Terror strategy is now under fire by big-time Democrats.
Senators Jim Webb from Virginia and Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas have sent scorching letters to Attorney General Holder telling him to move Khalid Sheikh Mohammed back to military supervision.
If you still don't believe the country is moving away from liberalism, listen to this.
Last week, the Fox News Channel was the highest-rated cable network in America, beating all the entertainment channels. Sorry SpongeBob; sorry Hannah Montana.
For a news channel to beat entertainment channels is extraordinary. Millions of Americans turned to our Haitian coverage and relied on us to provide an accurate picture of the Massachusetts vote count because they know we will report honestly without titling to the left.
In addition, the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling is out with a brand-new study that asked Americans which TV news organizations they trust.
Ready?
Forty-nine percent of Americans, half the country, trust the Fox News Channel. Just 31 percent of Americans trust ABC News, 35 percent trust NBC News and 32 percent trust CBS News.
That's a rout. By a huge majority, Americans now believe the Fox News Channel is the most honest purveyor of information in the country.
Want more?
The Gallup people say 64 percent of Americans believe the press is doing a fair or poor job of watching the Obama administration. Again, that goes to liberal bias.
It's not that FNC's hard news coverage is unfair to President Obama. It isn't. We report accurately what the president says and does.
On this opinion program, we try to give the president a fair shake and back up our criticisms with facts, but we are in the tank for no one.
Last week while CNN and MSNBC cut short Senator-elect Scott Brown's remarks in Massachusetts, we ran the speeches by Brown and Martha Coakley in their entirety, another example of fairness.
So it is all over. Fox News is the most trusted TV news brand in America by far.
On the political front, the folks gave President Obama and his liberal policies a chance, but now some frustration has set in with the huge spending, a confusing health care bill and chaotic terror policies.
There are big changes going on in the USA, and as the country moves to the right, the president should take notice.
===
Lying about Abbott
Andrew Bolt
THE first thing to be said about Tony Abbott’s critics this week is that they are liars.
Take Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Gillard’s eager ears pricked up when she learnt that Women’s Weekly, in a long profile this week on Abbott, asked the Opposition Leader what he thought of sex before marriage.
Hello, hello, hello.
You see, the Rudd Government has been desperate to exploit anti-Catholic bigotry in this country and paint Abbott as a papist who’d ban abortions if he could and force children to study Bibles. Yes, really - that’s how dishonest and vile its attacks have been.
But Gillard must have been disappointed by what Abbott actually told Women’s Weekly, because I doubt there’s a good father who’d have said much different to his own daughters.
Check for yourself. Here is every last word that Abbott, himself the father of three girls, said: “It (sex before marriage) happens ... I think I would say to my daughters if they were to ask me this question ... it is the greatest gift that you can give someone, the ultimate gift of giving, and don’t give it to someone lightly, that is what I would say.”
Full stop. Read anything to object to?
No. And that’s precisely why Gillard had to lie. (I am of course presuming she actually checked what Abbott said.)
Here now is what Gillard said: “These comments will confirm the worst fears of Australian women about Tony Abbott. Australian women don’t want to be told what to do by Tony Abbott.
“Australian women want to make their own choices and they don’t want to be lectured to by Mr Abbott.”
You see immediately Gillard’s big lie - albeit one of deliberate inference, rather than bald statement.
Abbott had not lectured Australian women generally. As he’d made clear, his was advice he would give only to his own daughters, and only if they asked.
===
McGorry praises Rudd for what he deplores
Andrew Bolt
THEY should name an Australian of the Year every month, for all the fun Prof Patrick McGorry is giving.
And not just fun. There’s plenty to learn from his playing of politics this week - not least of which is that an expert isn’t an expert the second he talks about things he’s not expert in.
And here’s another lesson: judge politicians by what they do, not how they seem.
But let’s go back to Australia Day, when McGorry, a Victorian who has undoubtedly done great work in mental health, was named top Australian.
It’s an honour that usually goes to one of four choices: a sportsman, a medical specialist, an Aboriginal or some other hero of the Left, such as climate alarmist Tim Flannery.
McGorry, director of Headspace, Australia’s National Youth Mental Health Foundation, was meant to be this year’s non-controversial medico, but no sooner had he been crowned than he started to play at politics, too, of the fashionable kind.
Our immigration detention centres had to be closed, he declared, because “you could almost describe them as factories for producing mental illness and mental disorders”.
Boat people should live in the community instead, and not - he reportedly added - be kept in detention on Christmas Island.
Left unexamined was just how many thousands more boat people we’d get the second we announced we’d never lock them up. Details, details.
But then came the entertainment. Within 24 hours McGorry rushed back in front of the cameras to offer a grovelling apology.
===
Save the planet! Store your garbage in your fridge
Andrew Bolt
Penrith’s green fascists are slashing bin collections to force residents to go green, and suggest a solution to complaints they’ll just stink up houses and spread gastro:
Residents outraged at Penrith Council’s change from weekly to fortnightly collections have been told they can fix the stench, rat and maggot infestations by filling their fridges and freezers with garbage until collection day.===
It’s racist to explain we’re not racist
Andrew Bolt
KEVIN Rudd’s nephew proved my point when he stood outside the Rod Laver Area on Australia Day in his badly sewn Ku Klux Klan outfit.
I mean, if we weren’t so desperate not to seem racist, we might not seem so very ... racist.
That’s not the point Van Thanh Rudd was actually trying to make, of course.
He’s an artist and Marxist activist, and went to the tennis in his KKK outfit - with a “No racist attacks on Indians” sign - to announce that what was really behind all these bashings and killings of Indians was white redneck racism. The legendary Australian sort.
But here’s where he made my point instead. The very day before, two more Indians were bashed in Swanston St.
Their attackers? Once more it was - allegedly - an ethnic gang. An Asian one, in fact, or so police allege.
For Thanh Rudd to protest that such a bashing, of Indians by Asians, is proof of white racism shows exactly the dangerous dishonesty there has been here in discussing race and crime.
===
Another Rudd conviction killed off by the polls
Andrew Bolt
Has there been a more poll-driven prime minister? Watch Kevin Rudd’s latest enthusiasm suddenly vanish:
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s enthusiasm for a “big Australia’’ of 35 million people appears to have cooled somewhat …But only three months agao he most certainly did have a view
When asked whether he supported the 35 million forecast, he said: ”I don’t have a view on that to be quite honest‘’.
===
Bothered Obama
Andrew Bolt
So how was the State of the Union speech of the embattled Barack Obama received?
Well, one of the Supreme Court justices there, Samuel Alito, shook his head and mouthed “not true”:
Senate majority leader Harry Reid yawns:
Charles Krauthammer scoffs:
And Leftist Chris Matthews says he for once stopped obsessing about Obama’s color, proving, of course, that he didn’t:
So I really don’t think this was a hit.
===
Will Rudd bribe the Taliban, too?
Andrew Bolt
Excuse me, but is Kevin Rudd also bribing the Taliban to stop shooting at us? And if so, how much is he promising:
Britain is ready to contribute millions of pounds to a fund to buy off Taleban gunmen who are fighting British troops in southern Afghanistan.Rudyard Kipling described the folly of Danegeld beautifully.
More than 60 delegations, from Colombia to Australia, will gather in Lancaster House this morning to draw up an exit strategy from Afghanistan. Much of it is based on reintegrating the Taleban rank and file, wooing the Taleban leadership and gradually handing security to the Afghan Army and police.
The conference is expected to agree a $500 million (£310 million), five-year fund for President Karzai to “buy off” insurgents who are not ideologically committed to destroying the West.
It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation,(Thanks to reader Paul.)
To puff and look important and to say:
“Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away.”
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray,
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say:
“We never pay any one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost,
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that plays it is lost!”
===
Meteorologists agree: man-made warming isn’t real
Andrew Bolt
What would 121 meteorologists know about the weather, anyway?
Only one in four American Meteorological Society broadcast meteorologists agrees with United Nations claims that humans are primarily responsible for recent global warming, a survey published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society reports.(Thanks to reader Owen.)
The survey results contradict the oft-repeated assertion that a consensus of scientists believes humans are causing a global warming crisis…
The American Meteorological Society (AMS) survey was limited to television weather forecasters who are also meteorologists. A prior survey of all television weather forecasters--including ones without meteorological training--produced a heavy percentage of skeptics. The new survey was designed to determine whether the meteorologists held the same opinion as the broader group of all television weather forecasters.
The survey was conducted by the congressionally funded National Environmental Education Foundation and vetted by an advisory board of climate experts from groups such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Weather Service, and Pew Center for Global Climate Change.
The AMS study found:Only 24 percent of the survey respondents agree with United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assertion, Most of the warming since 1950 is very likely human-induced.
Only 19 percent agree with the claim, Global climate models are reliable in their projection for a warming of the planet.
Only 19 percent agree with the assertion, Global climate models are reliable in their projections for precipitation and drought.
Only 45 percent disagree with Weather Channel cofounder John Colemans strongly worded statement, Global warming is a scam.
===
Save the planet! Stink out the homes and spread the gastro
Andrew Bolt
The extremists who now infest local government would rather give you the trots if that’s what it takes to turn you green:
Residents in Penrith are furious after their council cut rubbish collections to once a fortnight. And to make matters worse they have cut the size of their bins at the same time.Why are our green fuhrers so happy to hurt humans to “save” an inanimate planet? Or is it just the power to bully that gives them their kicks? Cutting the sizes of people’s bins is just the kind of vindictiveness that appeals to the inner totalitarian.
Mothers with babies have been forced to store 14 days worth of dirty nappies, while residents have found maggots and some have complained to the local health service…
Penrith took action after the NSW Department of Environment began supporting the cut from weekly to fortnightly services two years ago in a bid to force more people to recycle. So far four councils across NSW have reduced collections and others are set to follow.
But a leading public health expert said thousands of residents were at risk of salmonella and gastro.
===
Monckton feels warmth
Andrew Bolt
Reader Ken reports:
Thought you might like to know how Lord Monckton‘s event went in Sydney last night.===
I had a meeting at 3.30pm yesterday, but fortunately my two staffers arrived at the Sheraton on the Park just after 4.00 and bought me a ticket and saved a seat.When I arrived at the hotel about 5.20 there were about 200-300 people outside the hotel. Staff had locked the doors. I was able to get in because my ticket had been left with the concierge.
Another 100 or so people were lined up to buy tickets outside the Grand Ballroom. Inside, the room was full (800 seat capacity) and another 200-300 were standing at the back.
Ian Plimer was the warm up speaker and Alan Jones chaired the event. Lord Monckton was erudite, witty and charismatic. He got a standing ovation.
Odd the media didn’t cover the event.
MAGGOTS FOR GAIA
Tim Blair
Our clean, green future:
Western Sydney residents are being ordered to freeze their garbage for two weeks and store meat and vegetable scraps in “slop buckets” in homes …All of this is due to environmentalist demands that we increase recycling. Meanwhile:
Residents outraged at Penrith Council’s change from weekly to fortnightly collections have been told they can fix the stench, rat and maggot infestations by filling their fridges and freezers with garbage until collection day.
The council is now also threatening that if wrong items are placed in organic and recycling bins three times then people’s bins will be left in the gutter uncollected.
The council which imposed the squalid conditions on residents is having its rubbish collected twice a week from the council chambersSomeone who doesn’t live in the blighted area thinks that reduced rubbish collection is a great idea.
===
HONEST KEV’S 35,000,000 QUESTION
Tim Blair
October 2009:
The Federal Government is under pressure to spell out how it plans for Australia to sustain more than 35 million people by 2050 …January 2010:
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says he believes in a “big Australia” and that the population forecast is good news for the country … “I actually believe in a big Australia. I make no apology for that. I actually think it’s good news that our population is growing,” he said.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s enthusiasm for a “big Australia’’ of 35 million people appears to have cooled somewhat …(Via CL, who emails: “Looks like that one didn’t play well in the focus groups.")
When asked whether he supported the 35 million forecast, he said: “I don’t have a view on that to be quite honest‘’.
===
LAW BROKEN
Tim Blair
Warmies applaud the breaking of laws for the purpose of highlighting their doomed mission, but suddenly became obsessed over legality following Climategate. They may be interested in the following:
The university at the centre of the climate change row over stolen e-mails broke the law by refusing to hand over its raw data for public scrutiny.They’ll dodge prosecution due to expiry of a six-month time limit. Dodging broader issues isn’t proving so easy.
The University of East Anglia breached the Freedom of Information Act by refusing to comply with requests for data concerning claims by its scientists that man-made emissions were causing global warming.
===
HE’LL NEVER GO HUNGRY
Tim Blair
“As Islamists love death and Americans love Coca Cola,” writes James Delingpole, “so I thrive on the hatred of Guardian readers.”
===
SILKY PONY UNSPANKED
Tim Blair
While the mother of the boyfriend of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s daughter is subject to mainstream media scrutiny, a certain other former vice presidential candidate’s far more intriguing activities remain largely unexamined.
===
SCHTATE OF THE UNION
Tim Blair
Is anyone in the US sober following Obama’s State of the Union speech? Not if Stephen Green and Jim Treacher had anything to do with it.
UPDATE. President Obama is awesome.
UPDATE II. The silent judgment of Samuel Alito: “Not true.”