Headlines Friday 26th March 2010

=== Todays Toon ===

China sends a message, and we tremble and obey - by ZEG, on Stern Hu

=== Bible Quote ===

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”- 1 John 1:9

=== Headlines ===

San Diego Zoo is coming under fire from critics for creating new polar bear exhibit that shows how climate change is affecting the animal.

'Fix' Bill Headed to Obama
House put its finishing touches on the final health care reform bill, clearing the way for Obama to sign into law

Tea Party Convention Tension
Wealthy donor sues organizer over disagreement about the terms for helping to pay Sarah Palin's speaking fee

Saudis Eye Al Qaeda in Foiled Plot
Several suspects in plot against Saudi oil, security facilities linked to Al Qaeda in Yemen, official says

Teachers Leave Boy, 5, Stranded in Tree Because of School Policy
A 5-year-old British boy was stranded in a tree for 45 minutes while teachers followed school policy requiring them to "observe from a distance" instead of rescue him, the DailyMail.com reported. The student was rescued from the tree when passer-by Kim Barrett saw him and helped him down. But, school officials then reported the 38-year-old Barrett to police because they said she "approached the school in an inappropriate way." "I stopped to ask him if he was OK, and it became clear that he'd been there since the end of playtime, which had been around half an hour earlier," Barrett told the Daily Mail. "I was immediately concerned. I walked over to the school with the boy and was met by the associate head. He didn't appear at all concerned, and was actually very patronizing, patting me on the arm and asking me, 'What do you expect me to do, exactly, dear?'"

President Allegedly Dumps Israeli Prime Minister for Dinner
For a head of state to visit the White House and not pose for photographers is rare. For a key ally to be left to his own devices while the president withdraws to have dinner in private was, until this week, unheard of. Yet that is how Benjamin Netanyahu was treated by President Obama on Tuesday night, according to Israeli reports on a trip seen in Jerusalem tonight as a disastrous humiliation. After failing to extract a written promise of concessions on Jewish settlements, Obama walked out of his meeting with Netanyahu but invited him to stay at the White House, consult with advisers and "let me know if there is anything new," a congressman who spoke to the prime minister said today. "It was awful," the congressman said. One Israeli newspaper called the meeting "a hazing in stages,"poisoned by such mistrust that the Israeli delegation eventually left rather than risk being eavesdropped on a White House phone line. Another said that the prime minister had received "the treatment reserved for the President of Equatorial Guinea."

A boy born with 15 fingers and 16 toes after his mother had a problematic pregnancy will no longer be called a "monster" by his classmates after he had the extra digits removed.

Tourists caught as train derails
HUNDREDS of passengers on board the Kuranda Scenic Railway train derailed by a landslide.

More Hey Dad! abuse claims emerge
A SECOND TV star has accused Hey Dad! actor Robert Hughes of inappropriately touching her.

Tortured woman jumps from balcony
A WOMAN suffered broken bones as she leapt with her baby from a flat to escape her torturer.

Woods' wife 'should have kept on hitting'
SANDRA Bullock gave some ironic advice as a fourth woman claims she slept with Jesse James.

'Piranha frenzy' as $110,000 falls off truck
MAD dash as cash tumbles out the back of an armoured truck without the driver noticing.

Parents lie for child's licence
YOUNG drivers are caught fraudulently claiming their parents were driving instead of them in a bid to avoid demerit points that could cost them their licence.

IF anyone is concerned about the future of NSW, fear not: Premier Kristina Keneally has committed to “incentivising” and “hypothecating” our way out of trouble. Unfortunately this did not impress Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell, who after searching for the right word to describe her Government decided to call it “stupid”.

=== Journalists Corner ===

On June 19, 2010, Aung San Suu Kyi will be spending her 65th birthday under house arrest. She has been locked up for 15 of the past 21 years because of her pivotal role in one of the world's most inspiring freedom struggles.

Every year for Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday, we ask our supporters to give up 24 hours in solidarity with her and the people of Burma. We call this event: Arrest Yourself, honoring Aung San Suu Kyi's unparalleled courage and determination.

Now more than ever, Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burma movement need your help putting Burma at the top of the international agenda. The pending sham elections, mounting government tension with cease fire groups, and growing international concerns over human rights violations make this year an especially critical one in Burma's history.

In the international community, there is growing momentum toward ending Burma's war crimes. Earlier this month, the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women in Burma called on the United Nations to hold the military junta accountable for its commission of rape and torture as weapons of war. A few weeks ago, the UN Special Rapporteur to Burma, Mr. Quintana, joined this call by urging the UN to initiate a Commission of Inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma.

In the coming months we must move quickly to capitalize on the energy generated by these recent developments. With this year's Arrest Yourself, we will inspire more people to get involved in this growing movement as well as raise critical funds for advocacy.

Aung San Suu Kyi once said, "Sometimes, 24 hours can bring a total revolutionary change." And that's all it takes to Arrest Yourself and make your mark on Burma's freedom movement.

Waste no time. Sign up now to Arrest Yourself in solidarity with Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma!

Watch our video to learn more about how to Arrest Yourself.

Sincerely,

Nadi Hlaing
Development Assistant, U.S. Campaign for Burma
As the Senate battles the bill, Cavuto is covering every angle and late breaking events!
Neil reports from our nation's capital!
Coulter vs. Canada
Why is Ann under attack from our neighbors to the North? She explains in a 'Factor' exclusive!
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Senators Kyl & Thune
The battle of the bill! The GOP puts their plan in motion! The senators go 'On the Record'!
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Rubio & Crist Square Off!
A special LIVE face-off! With the state's critical U.S. Senate seat on the line, they're in a fierce battle in Florida's hotly contested primary!

=== Comments ===

Your Freedom and President Obama
By Bill O'Reilly
When you cut through all the baloney, the controversy in America today is over freedom.

Those lined up against the Obama administration believe the federal government is becoming too intrusive. That is, it is telling us what to do when it has no constitutional authority to do that.

On the left, the pro-Obama people say there is unfairness in America that needs to be corrected by the feds.

Thus the battle lines are drawn.

"Talking Points" believes the freedom issue is crucial. In The New York Times lead editorial Wednesday, that far-left paper celebrates Obamacare and urges the president to continue spending billions of dollars to protect individual Americans from just about everything.

In addition, The Times wants the feds to take over the education system, the energy industry and control the banking system.

This is what many Americans fear: that the USA will become a top-down society. That is, the government will tell citizens and business what to do and when to do it.

In addition, the IRS will increase its enormous power because it will monitor what kind of health insurance you have, and if you don't have any you will be punished.

Also, your health records will be transferred to the federal government. So if you have an embarrassing condition, people in Washington could know about it.

All of this infringes on personal freedom, and that is very troubling. It's also very simple. Do you want bureaucrats to know about your medical history? Do you want the IRS tracking not only your income but your insurance expenditures? Do you want to be told what kind of energy you can use?

So the fears seem to be justified.

We are now undergoing a radical debate in this country. President Obama wants massive change. He wants to impose his version of social justice, and he wants to consolidate power in Washington — not in your state and not in your hometown.

In the end, I believe the president's vision will be defeated because traditionally Americans value individual freedom above everything else. I understand that the feds have to regulate Wall Street criminals and predatory corporations. It just can't be a free-for-all where powerful entities do what they want at our expense.

But regulation has to be measured against complete control. Right now the left in America wants a nanny state, wants to change the educational system to reflect liberal values and wants to redesign the way Americans use energy. And they don't want to use persuasion; they want to use force.
===
Welcome to the Nanny State
By Sandra Fabry
One of our government’s more recent and lesser known social engineering tools is a grant program under the trillion dollar spending and debt package passed by Congress and the president under the guise of “economic stimulus” in 2009.
While nationally, all eyes are on the government takeover of the health care industry, a proposal to ban the use of salt in restaurant cooking has New York’s chefs and restaurateurs up in arms.

Banning a food staple like salt, one of the oldest and most ubiquitous seasonings, may sound like an absurd idea, it is not an isolated idea pushed by a health-obsessed state legislator. Lawmakers and health activists have long been looking for ways to influence consumer choices and to curb our intake of foods, drinks and other substances they deem harmful -- be it through regulatory regimes or through the tax code. For the longest time, the target these health activists loved to hate the most (and, quite frankly the low-hanging fruit) was tobacco, but more recently they have also pushed other “life-style tax hikes” or regulations and have zoomed in on trans-fats, sodium, snack foods and soda.

They have found an ally in the White House in President Obama, who is going much further than joining his wife in advocating healthy food choices from the White House garden. The president’s idea of taxing soda and sugar-sweetened beverages as part of the health care overhaul quickly fizzled, however this hasn’t stopped the advancement of the nanny staters’ agenda.

One of government’s more recent and lesser known social engineering tools is a grant program under the trillion dollar spending and debt package passed by Congress and the president under the guise of “economic stimulus” in 2009.

So far, two rounds of related grants have been announced - a first round of $120 million went to states and territories in early February, and a second round of $372 million has just been awarded to 44 local communities last week. So what are you getting out of it?
===
The Time Is Now to Act Against Iran
By KT McFarland
We're running out of time with Iran. If the administration was serious about undermining the Iranian regime, it would target the country's energy sector -- the lifeblood of the tyrants who rule Iran -- and green light energy sanction.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the United States is considering watering down latest U.N. sanctions proposal in order to get China and Russia on board. We've already had three rounds of sanctions without teeth that accomplished little, it's the definition of insanity to keep doing the same thing again and again and expect a different outcome. Watered down UN sanctions will be ineffective.

However, the mere threat of Congressional energy sanctions has persuaded major European, Indian and Russian companies including BP, Lukoil, Shell, Reliance, Allianz and several others to terminate or sharply reduce their Iranian business ties.

If the administration was serious about undermining the regime, it would target the Iranian energy sector -- the lifeblood of the tyrants who rule Iran -- and green light the passage of the energy sanctions legislation passed overwhelmingly by Congress. It would also enforce -- for the first time -- the energy sanctions legislation that's been on the books since 1996. Even slapping one energy company doing business with Iran in violation of the 1996 Iran Sanctions Act would send shockwaves through the energy industry and persuade other companies to leave Iran.

The crucial thing is we're running out of time. Gen. Petraeus said last week he didn't think Iran would have nukes in this calendar year -- but left open the possibility they could happen next calendar year. Sanctions might be a long shot to encourage regime change in Iran, or at least changing their nukes program, but it's better than being faced, in just a few months time with bombing Iran or letting Iran have the bomb.

And here's another point to consider. If Israel concludes we can't stop Iran, they will feel they have no alternative but to bomb Iran on their own.
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Lip gloss versus reality in NSW
Piers Akerman
Behind NSW Premier Kristina Keneally’s lip gloss, there lurks a formidable politician. - Barry won and Kenneally failed, but don’t expect the mainstream media to report that. It will be said that Barry was too negative. How negative can one be about this abysmal government which Keneally has not got the talent to fix? Keneally has not looked into the issue of Hamidur Rahman which may lead me to run for the legislative council in next year’s election as an independent.
Even if Keneally had the courage to attempt to change course for NSW, she would get caught in those strings she is tied up in. At what stage is someone so inept that they may be considered to be corrupt? The government had no problem smearing me to the legislative council, but they still spoke the truth on the issue too. They admitted they hid the testimony that the parents of Hamidur Rahman were blameless for his death from the coroner because they didn’t feel it was important. If you think about it, they failed to sell electricity for $120 billion in the early 90’s because that wasn’t important either. Now we must pay some $10 billion to keep electricity active .. standing still. Voters don’t seem to be important to Keneally either, although it is good to know she loves her mother. - ed.
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HEATERS ARE BEATERS
Tim Blair
First comes the warmening … and then comes the bloodening:

If global warming is a scientific fact, then you better be prepared for the earth to become a more violent place. That’s because new Iowa State University research shows that as the earth’s average temperature rises, so too does human “heat” in the form of violent tendencies …

Using U.S. government data on average yearly temperatures and the number of violent crimes between 1950 and 2008, the researchers estimate that if the annual average temperature in the U.S. increases by 8°F (4.4°C), the yearly murder and assault rate will increase by 34 per 100,000 people – or 100,000 more per year in a population of 305 million.

This is why elderly Americans retire to sunny Florida, by the way. They enjoy the street brawls. Still, warmies are always telling us to take every precaution we can, so it must make sense to avoid electing politicians from warm or subtropical areas. These people could at any time lash out viciously due to childhood heat trauma. Best to play it safe and elect candidates from cooler, more peaceful regions, like … I don’t know … Alaska.

UPDATE. Cowgate.
===
OUR HOUR
Tim Blair
UK Daily Telegraph reader emmiem outlines his Earth Hour plans:

I shall do what I always do. All the lights are on including extra spot lights and outdoor floodlights installed recently. The heating is on full blast so I can walk around comfortably in T shirt and shorts and my car is idling on the driveway in case I should feel the need to go anywhere.

In addition I have just tossed all my used teabags and coffee dregs into the paper recycling bin together with leftovers from yesterday’s roast beef lunch. The cats are still eating some chicken in jelly but the remains will follow.

I’m sick of being lied to and treated like an idiot while the slimeballs take virtually half my income away from me. I’ve decided to enjoy the rest of my time here in the physical 3D and offer a stiff middle finger to all the dictatorial moralistic self loathing simpletons that seem to infest every bureaucracy on this planet. Up Yours Cretinos.

I’m going to borrow the New Hampshire motto for a sign over my front door…

Live Free Or Die

The man has an excellent plan. It sure beats the plan outlined in this email to all Reserve Bank of Australia staff:

EARTH HOUR – SATURDAY 27 MARCH 2010 8:30PM TO 9:30PM

The Bank will again be participating in “Earth Hour” on Saturday 27 March 2010 between 8:30pm and 9:30pm. The initiative aims to raise awareness of environmental issues and is widely supported by the community, companies and governments.

As part of the Bank’s participation in Earth Hour, we ask staff to ensure all non critical office equipment, including PC’s and desktop monitors are switched off before leaving the office on Friday 26 March.

As we do not anticipate staff attending the building on a Saturday evening between 8pm and 10pm, it will effectively be closed during that period, subject of course, to any overriding business needs that might arise.

Via reader D., who notes that this RBA directive comes from “the same people who make vital decisions about Australia’s economic health.” Yes. Quite. Victoria’s rail lines are into it, too (they request that passengers commence making worm farms) and the University of Queensland, torch-lit Fairfax journalists and Monash University will also be in thrall to primitivism.
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RACE CARD PLAYED
Tim Blair
Illegal boat arrivals seemed to have the edge early on, but now torched homes have closed the gap and threaten for the lead. Who will win the Great Rudd Race of 2010? Note: illegal vessels that are also on fire may be considered as an each-way bet.

(By Alan R.M. Jones)
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EARNERS PUNISHED
Tim Blair
Forget health. It was all about wealth, according to the New York Times:

The bill that President Obama signed on Tuesday is the federal government’s biggest attack on economic inequality since inequality began rising more than three decades ago …

A big chunk of the money to pay for the bill comes from lifting payroll taxes on households making more than $250,000. On average, the annual tax bill for households making more than $1 million a year will rise by $46,000 in 2013 …

(Via Reliapundit)

UPDATE. Earlier from the NYT:

In a rare bipartisan vote, the Senate approved and sent to President Obama on Wednesday a bill intended to spur employment by providing businesses with incentives to hire new workers — an approach that Congressional Democrats hope to repeat.

And they did – in opposition to Obama’s wealth share bill.
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ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
Tim Blair
The Sydney Morning Herald‘s Paul McGeough – who witnessed a non-existent clean-shaven Saddam Hussein, foresaw a civil war that never happened, and fell for a murder story nobody else believed – now sees crucial video evidence unseen by the rest of the world. He’s chatting with Amy Goodman:

Well, the closed-circuit television is the key to understanding the story. And it’s quite remarkable that the Mossad seemed not to give the network of cameras around Dubai a second thought. But the team were filmed arriving individually at Dubai International Airport. The Hamas arms dealer was seen arriving. They followed him to his hotel …

But then it also becomes very chilling, because Mabhouh was in room 230, and the cameras on that level of the hotel pick up the killers going into the room, spending as long as forty-five minutes in the room. And you have to wonder why it took four would-be killers forty-five minutes to dispose of one person. And then they’re seen emerging from the room and waiting for the elevator, with two of them carrying a very—what looks like a very heavy hold-all bag.

No such video has ever been broadcast. Maurice Ostroff:

One of the most striking aspects was the utter failure of the much vaunted Dubai security. Strangely, all of the video clips available on the internet, show random persons at the airport, in the hotel lobby and outside the elevators. But none show incriminating shots of the culprits entering and leaving room 230, although the hotel CCTV system obviously covers the corridor and the door to his room as is patently evident from short video clips of suspects walking in the corridor past entrances to the rooms.

McGeough explains: “In referring to what the cameras ‘pick up,’ I was alluding to the movements of the killers and those of Mabhouh to and from the hotel and/or its second floor, rather than actually into and out of Mabhouh’s room.”

(Via operative Dan Lewis, hidden deep inside room 230)
===
All sense of proportion pulped
Andrew Bolt
Sydney’s Geoffrey Cousins, the former adman, tells the gullible 7.30 Report why Tasmanian cannot have Gunn’s planned pulp mill:

It isn’t world’s best technology at all. It doesn’t use totally chlorine-free technology - that’s world’s best practice. It is going to use native forests, not plantation timber, certainly in the first period. And it is going to put significant amounts of dioxins into Bass Strait. Now, if all of those things were cleared away, fine.

Let’s look at just one of those claims for starters - the one I’ve highlighted. Here’s the real amount of dioxin that Gunn’s says the mill will release:

The mill will therefore discharge a combined total of only 0.111 grams of dioxins and furans in liquid and gaseous emissions each year… The total yearly emissions of dioxins and furans to air and water from the mill will therefore be approximately equal to the volume of a single grain of rice…

The likely concentration of dioxins and furans in the pulp mill liquid effluent is estimated to be 3.4 pg dioxin equivalents per litre… The 3.4 pg per litre expected concentration in effluent is the equivalent to the concentration of salt after one salt grain has been put in a volume of water occupying 70 Olympic sized swimming pools…

As another example, the average concentration of dioxins and furans in human breast milk in Australia is approximately 340 pg TEQ of dioxins and
furans per litre.

I think the adman tried to panic us about nothing.

(From reader Bill.)
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How La Trobe preaches its wild green faith
Andrew Bolt
La Trobe University last year announced a lovely litte indoctrination course:

Leading scientist and climate change authority, Dr Barrie Pittock will be in Bendigo on Tuesday 4 August to present the first in a series of three public lectures entitled Climate, Sustainability and Society.

The lectures are an integral part of the Climate, Sustainability and Society cross-disciplinary, cross-campus subject that is offered for the first time this semester at the Bendigo and Albury-Wodonga campuses of La Trobe University.

And, of course, not a single speaker last year was a sceptic - indeed, most seemed from the loopiest end of the alarmist spectrum:

The final speaker will be author and social commentator Professor Clive Hamilton … Other speakers have been former CSIRO atmospheric researcher Dr Barrie Pittock…
Dr Andrew Glikson, also featured on the main Melbourne campus at Bundoora, in the public ‘Ideas and Society Program’ hosted by Professor Robert Manne. The second in this year’s series, it was titled ‘The politics and the science of climate change denialism’.

Naturally, the university’s library recommends for this course not a single book by a sceptic - not even the biggest seller on the subject last year.

And this year? Just as preposterously one-sided, and academically suspect. From an email this week to all La Trobe students:

ENV1CSS: Climate, Sustainability, and Society

FIRST MULTI-FACULTY INTERDISCIPLINARY SUBJECT
OFFERED IN SEMESTER 2, 15CP
OPEN TO ALL STUDENTS, NO PRE-REQUISITES
INTERACTIVE TEACHING
NO FINAL EXAM

MAIN GOALS: TO GIVE YOU AN UNDERSTANDING OF WHERE WE ARE, WHERE WE ARE GOING, AND HOW TO MAKE INFORMATIVE DECISIONS

OUR GUEST SPEAKERS IN 2010:
DAVID KAROLY, TIM FLANNERY, ROSS GARNAUT

Readers J and Z, “La Trobe’s token conservatives”, explain:

It seems that the unit is being offered to all students (interdisciplinary), regardless of their area of study, on the basis of no pre-requisites or final exam. Effectively, a student could take the unit, (which from the outline seems virtually impossible to fail) in order to avoid an properly tested and examined unit within their discipline. Seems like Mao-esque brainwashing to us.

No kidding.
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Abbott embraces gays
Andrew Bolt
Tony Abbott handles himself well in an interview with determinedly hostile Joy FM, the gay radio station.

Transcript follows: - Bolt had to post this because of his earlier smears of Abbott. In fact, Abbott has always been generous in his dealings with all such groups - ed.
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Boats, boats and bigger boats
Andrew Bolt
Rudd is breaking all records with this rate of arrival:

A BOAT containing 94 asylum-seekers, the largest shipload since February 1, has been intercepted by Border Protection Command off Ashmore Reef.

The news comes after two further boats were intercepted on Tuesday…

News of today’s boat comes hours after Kevin Rudd refused to acknowledge that border protection was an election issue on a radio interview despite the findings of the UN refugee agency revealing asylum claims last year bucked world trends by increasing 29 per cent in Australia.

UPDATE
How does Kevin Rudd excuse the explosion in the number of boat people since he relaxed our laws (date marked by red dot)? Here’s how he explains it to mate Kochie:

No one predicted a civil war in Sri Lanka.

Pardon? No one predicted a war that on Rudd’s election had been raging for 24 years already? That actually ended last year?:

Many Sri Lankan children have known little but war, which raged for 25 years before ending with a final push by government forces last May.

(Thanks to reader Michael.)

UPDATE

Rudd blames Sri Lanka’s (finished) civil war for the flood of boat people, but the Parliamentary Library says the vast majority of them actually come from the Middle East:
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Brumby names 10 Problems with Rudd's health plan
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd demands Tony Abbott back his health plan, but not even Australia’s best (Labor) premier likes it:

VICTORIAN Premier, John Brumby has delivered a devastating critique of Kevin Rudd’s hospital take-over plan, saying it will not achieve the Prime Minister’s key goal of ending the blame game between Canberra and the states.

‘’How will people know who is managing the system and where the buck stops?’’ the Premier asked of Mr Rudd’s proposal to take responsibility for 60 per cent of hospital funding.

Making it clear Mr Rudd faces a monumental task in winning over the premiers on health policy before this year’s federal election, Mr Brumby’s office last night released a list of Victoria’s top 10 problems with the PM’s plan.

The Premier reiterated his demand for an immediate $1.2-billion-a-year boost in federal funds for Victoria’s hospitals, while calling on Mr Rudd to release comprehensive plans for preventative healthcare and to tackle what Mr Brumby calls Australia’s aged-care crisis.

The Premier’s 10 questions ... are among 40 issues raised during a telephone hook-up this week between state and territory leaders.
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120 homes now torched by the government
Andrew Bolt
One day one of these fires may well be deadly - and how will the Government then justify both the program and its refusal to do urgent safety checks now on every installation?

AN explosive report into the federal government’s $2.45 billion insulation scheme was expected to be handed to Kevin Rudd last night, as it emerged that the number of house fires linked to the bungled program had jumped to 120.

The report, by former senior public servant Allan Hawke, is understood to contain tough recommendations that will provoke further political furore over the scheme....

Climate change officials also told the hearing they were not convinced the government’s solution to fixing potentially deadly safety issues with foil insulation would work.
Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency deputy secretary Martin Bowles said experts were divided over whether installing electrical safety switches into homes with foil insulation was a good solution.

As many as 1000 roofs are feared to have been electrified by inexperienced installers.

(Thanks to reader Encyclopedia Brown.)
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And one Mossad agent looked just like Allawi
Andrew Bolt
Former Journalist of the Year Paul McGeough really does have an awful habit of seeing things that fit his ideological disposition - but not necessarily the facts. Not surprisingly, this time it’s a disposition to damn Israel,
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Furious women torch fire brigade’s anti-sexists
Andrew Bolt
THE Metropolitan Fire Brigade has set fire to its own trousers by telling its ladies they’re oppressed.

Worse, it told the poor dears that what they really needed to make it as firefighters was a “gender inclusion action plan”.

Ouch! The only person in the MFB now feeling oppressed is its “diversity development officer”, who’s been monstered by the female firefighters she tried to turn into victims.

Take this scathing email sent last week by an enraged leading firefighter: “I joined the fire brigade to be a firefighter, that’s it, now let me be one ... and a professional one at that, irrelevant of gender, race and cultural background.”

Need an example of how anti-discrimination laws actually create more division than they end? How they institutionalise the very sexism and racism they’re supposed to remove?

Then read the furious exchange of letters below, between the MFB’s top brass and the female firies who are refusing to be treated differently from their male colleagues.

This tale starts with a newspaper report two weeks ago, which noted the MFB had become infected by the gender politics that’s already weakened and embittered our police.

The symptoms were unmistakable. The MFB was now raving that only 56 of its more than 1700 firefighters were women - a figure that a healthy person would probably find unremarkable, since firefighting can be a very physical game, involving the kind of derring-do that tends to appeal more to the testosteroned.
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Never mind the abuse, see the ratings
Andrew Bolt

Utterly disgraceful, if true. Why the coverup? Where were the parents? Did fame and money protect a child molester?

POPULAR Hey Dad! actor Simone Buchanan says she was touched “inappropriately” by the Aussie sitcom’s star, Robert Hughes.

And police are preparing to investigate molestation allegations made against Hughes by another of the cast, Sarah Monahan.

Buchanan, who went on to roles in McLeod’s Daughters and Neighbours, claimed on A Current Affair she was threatened by the show’s producer if she aired allegations of Hughes’s behaviour towards Monahan...

Hughes, who played father Martin Kelly on the hit series, vehemently denied Monahan’s claims that he felt her up and flashed her on the set.

Buchanan said when she was 18, Hughes tried to “have a go”. Sitting alongside Monahan, she told ACA: “He was driving me home and started to touch me inappropriately in the car....”

She said cast members tried to ensure Monahan was never alone with Hughes.

She claimed that when she approached executive producer Gary Reilly, she was told he would talk to Hughes but she should keep quiet.

On ACA last week, Reilly denied knowledge of Monahan’s mistreatment, saying he’d only heard rumours about another young actor.

Note the denials, though. Nothing is proved, all is denied. No comments for legal reasons.