=== Todays Toon ===
"GIVE ME A HARD HAT, MY POLLS ARE DOWN"
=== Bible Quote ===
“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”- 1 Peter 1:18-19=== Headlines ===
Thousands gather for Anzac Day dawn services around the country to remember heroes fallen in war.
Armed gang members ambush two police cars in the volatile Ciudad Juarez, killing seven police officers and a 17-year-old boy who was walking in the area.Border Brawl Unfolds
Advocacy groups vow challenges to Arizona's immigration law as Mexico says diplomacy's at risk
Tornado Kills 2 in Mississippi
The tornado was still making its way across the state destroying homes and injuring at least 5
Reading, Writing and... Revolvers?
New law will require Virginia's education department to roll out gun-safety curriculum for elementary schools
Anzac war memorial vandalised
OUTRAGE as vandals throw rubbish around Anzac memorial and snap a flagpole.
Toddler dies 12 hours after having flu shot
A FAMILY is in mourning after their girl, 2, unexpectedly died less than 12 hours after a seasonal flu jab.
Families set to lose out in the Budget
WORKING families will not get further tax relief or family payment increases in this year's Budget.
Soldier sorry for part in WikiLeaks video
ARMY specialist who saw WikiLeaks Baghdad attack writes open letter of apology to Iraqis.
Modelling is sex, drugs and celery
AUSTRALIAN model says the world business is full of drugs, sex and pressure to starve.
Barry O'Farrel's 12 marginal seat members We Must Win.
THEY are the 12 men and women who hold the key to Barry O'Farrell's hopes of becoming premier, preselected in a dozen marginal seats the Liberals must win.
Porn star helps New York pizza guy escape jail sentence in Puerto Rico
A NEW York City man dodged the threat of a 20-year prison sentence thanks to the kindness of a porn star. Carlos Simon-Timmerman, a pizza delivery man from Brooklyn, was put on trial in Puerto Rico for allegedly transporting child pornography, the New York Post said today. US customs agents found a dirty DVD called Little Lupe the Innocent in his bags as he passed through San Juan Airport security in Puerto Rico on his way back to New York. The agents said the actress in the video, porn star Lupe Fuentes, was underage, and they arrested him. But Mr Simon-Timmerman was sprung earlier this month after Ms Fuentes flew to Puerto Rico and proved in court that she was 19 at the time the film was made.
US woman sentenced to death for killing fortune teller and her daughter
A WOMAN convicted of murdering a fortune teller and her daughter was today sentenced to death by a judge in Orange County, California. Mother-of-four Tanya Nelson, 45, did not react when Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank F Fasel imposed the sentence, the Orange County Register said. She still denies committing the crimes, but in March a jury recommended the death penalty for Nelson, who resided in North Carolina, for the April 23, 2005, stabbing of Ha Smith, 52, and her 23-year-old daughter Anita Vo. Nelson had been a long time client and friend of Mr Smith, who she allegedly murdered because a fortune did not come true.
=== Comments ===
How PM was saved by a perfect StormPiers Akerman
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd should be sending flowers to Carl Williams’ family and pledging his support to the beleaguered Melbourne Storm. - I would like to add that my own issue is related to Julia Gillard, and not directly with Rudd. However, Julia has failed at every single hurdle to adequately deal with what she appropriately should. Rudd is a failure, but he is not in charge of this mess. He is not smart enough to be in charge of this mess. He isn’t capable or knowledgeable enough to produce this. This mess of the current administration is the result of a weak press and a corrupt underbelly of the ALP. The same corrupt underbelly Hawke and Keating were challenged to fix and failed to address. It is the same disease that eats away at NSW ALP .. the pork barrels are more important than the administration. So long as the ALP guarantee a supply of pork to their mates, they will retain the support of the corrupt. In some ways, they don’t even need to do that, because the corrupt are very needy and will not want a clean administration. In this light, the actions of some journalists are suspect. - ed.
===
FORBIDDEN LOVE
Tim Blair
Romance between a motherly Green and chair-sniffing conservative? It happened, and Andrew Landeryou – appearing for the first time today on Melbourne Talk Radio – had the scoop. In other odd couple news, Meat and Livestock Australia community communications manager Samantha Jamieson reveals an unexpected supporter for her latest beef campaign:
“The majority of Australian consumers believe that Australian beef is an essential part of a healthy diet, is of high quality, is safe and trustworthy, is delicious to eat, consumers are willing to pay a little bit more for it and the industry is ethical in its treatment of the animals,” Ms Jamieson said.All true, yet some oppose beefy goodness:
“Organisations like the World Wildlife Fund are creating carbon footprint calculators on their web sites and are encouraging consumers to give up red meat in order to lessen environmental impact.”Step forward, Defender of the Beef:
“Our campaign has been strongly backed by environmental and global warming activist Tim Flannery,” Ms Jamieson said.
===
JUST 16 YEARS LEFT
Tim Blair
A chimpanzee launched into space returns to earth in 2026 to discover that the whole place is uninhabitable due to global warming:
This is even worse than that time we had all the poley bear rain. Or when English cartoon puppies drowned. Or even when the animals went all suicidal. It might be the worst warming video ever:
Leo Burnett Sydney and director Steve Rogers have created a moving new film for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which tells the story of an original space monkey who returns to Earth after being lost in space for decades. The film features a new music track by musician Ben Lee called ‘Song for the Divine Mother of the Universe’, and ‘Space Monkey’ will air as both a music video to launch the single, and a long format cinema spot.They don’t know their critters. As Andrew Bolt points out, a chimp ain’t a monkey. Chimps eat monkeys.
===
Good luck with that stimulating
Andrew Bolt
Reader bushbabe, driving along the New England Highway, sees across the road from the Borneo Barracks a sign that Kevin Rudd is trying the most ambitious kind of stimulating of all.===
Anzac Day
Andrew Bolt
Readers Incitatus and Swinishcapitalist suggest two very different tributes on this day:
At Ashburton this morning, as around the nation, too:
UPDATE
Reader Pira writes from Thailand, having returned from the site where my uncle barely survived as a prisoner of war:
I just got home from my annual pilgrimage to the ANZAC day dawn service at Hellfire Pass in Kanchanaburi province in Thailand. There was a remarkably large turn out of Aussies there this year in view of the troubles in Thailand right now.
As usual, museum curator Bill Slaype and his Thai team did a magnificent job of organising the event.
I arrived at 4.30 am and the cutting was already crowded with Australians of all ages. 5 POW’s were present this year, including the indomitable West Australian Bill Haskell. The forest steps and paths leading down from the magnificent museum in to the pass, was lit by bamboo oil lamps in the trees. Every one present was given a candle in a bamboo candle holder which adds to the poignancy of the occasion.
The Australian military as usual, carried out their ceremonial duties with dignity and polish. In that setting and in the exact place where so many of our men were foully worked to death under inhuman and atrocious conditions, Pipe Major Keith Walker and Piper Angus McKernan’s “Flowers of the Forest” would have brought tears to a glass eye.
Weary Dunlop’s ashes are spread in one part of the pass. I’m sure he would approve of the tribute paid to the men he did so much to help and comfort.
Altogether a magic morning.
Back in Kanchanaburi town I, as I always do, visited the main war cemetery which these days is almost in the centre of town. The cemetery is immaculately maintained by the tireless Queenslander Rod Beattie and his dedicated Thai team.
So many young men lie there, so many of them only in their 20’s felled by cholera, typhoid and such diseases. The proud claim is that none of them ever died alone, As their lives ebbed away, they were attended to by their mates who were also in an emaciated and weakened state.
We have much to be grateful for for their sacrifice.
===
Buswell far too friendly with a Greens MP
Andrew Bolt
My confidence in Buswell is now destroyed:
The political career of Troy Buswell hangs in the balance after Fremantle MP Adele Carles admitted to an affair with the state Treasurer.I mean, a Liberal having an affair with a Greens politician? Boundaries have been crossed: - if this is even true - ed.
Ms Carles, 41, who is married with three children, confessed to the “brief” affair in an interview published in a News Limited newspaper. Mr Buswell, 43, is also married, with two sons.
===Anzac Day: those who jeer while others weep
Andrew Bolt
You know it’s Anzac Day, because so many of the Left are jeering.
Example 1:
FURIOUS ex-servicemen, the Australian War Memorial and NSW Premier Kristina Keneally have accused TV presenter Ray Martin of insensitivity and disrespect for re-igniting debate about the Australian flag on Anzac Day. Martin has angered defenders of the current flag, including many soldiers who will march behind it today, by hosting a television debate on why it should be changed on 60 Minutes tonight.Example 2:
This afternoon, between 3.01 pm and 5.16 pm, Catherine Deveny (@CatherineDeveny), a columnist for The Age newspaper in Melbourne, posted 14 interesting tweets about ANZAC Day. One she deleted before I could save it. Here are the rest (warning: strong language):…Example 3:
Anzac Day. Men only enlisted to fight for the money, for the adventure or because they were racist.
Anyone who lived through war not a [f....] says no parades, no medals, everyone who suffered and struggled remembered. Anzac Day Shits Me.
Anzac Day. Men only enlisted to fight for the money, for the adventure or because they were racist…
Anzac Day. [F...] repect. Respect is just code for ‘support our selective narrative used to prop up our power that we use to oppress.’
Example 4 (a):Zombie Myths of Australian Military History: The 10 Myths That Will Not DieIn Zombie Myths, 10 academics boldly set forth to slaughter myths about Australia’s military past that, in their view, won’t lie down and die… But before elaborating, I have two qualifications: first, some myths won’t die possibly because they contain some truth; second, some writers spend so much time hacking away at their pet zombie—and with so little effect—that perhaps it is they and not the poor, fly-blown creature who resemble the walking dead…
Edited by Craig Stockings
UNSW Press, 288pp, $34.95
Elizabeth Greenhalgh savages the undead notion that Australians broke the Hindenburg Line and won World War I (they did break the line; but it was not a crucial act)…
Craig Stockings gleefully rips the arms off the myth that we’re a nation of born Diggers ready to jump into a trench at the drop of a slouch hat. Surely few believe this except drunken two-up players down at the local? ...
David Stevens writes with great dollops of hindsight and a sort of wishful thinking when he claims the Japanese never really endangered us.
In [the newly published] What’s Wrong with Anzac?, five historians lament what they say is a relentless, official campaign to elevate war and the Anzac spirit as the seminal forces that have shaped the nation.Example 4 (b):
They go further, arguing the resurgent interest in military history and the popular embrace of the Anzac myth are officially contrived, with John Howard the chief villain, enshrining militaristic values that prime us to rush off to other people’s wars.
They argue this militarisation of national values ‘’has naturalised our condition of always being at war and thus silenced debate about our current and future wars’’.
Whats Wrong With Anzac?: The Militarisation of Australian History (New South, 2010) is a polemical work that argues that the Anzac legend has an exaggerated and unhealthy predominance in Australian identity, and especially in Australian schools…UPDATE
The argument goes:Australian national identity is too much focused on the Anzac legendProfessor Marilyn Lake[’s] assertion is that a veritable tidal wave, a torrent, a bombardment of DVA education resources (four of which I have written over the last five years) are militaristic propaganda created by the evil John Howard to promote his vision of a reactionary nationalism and disarm progressive thought and social action. Her claim is that, through the DVA materials, History has been appropriated in Australia for militarist purposes and comprehensively re-written in the process ...
It excludes other key elements such as the development of democratic traditions, Indigenous peoples rights, and womens equal rights
What is learned about the Anzac legend is terribly distorted, militaristic and romanticising the idea of war
This distortion is caused by the teaching materials sent to schools by the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA)
These materials are promoted by a conservative government plot to foster a conservative nationalism rather than a more socially critical one…
How does she support this? She lists DVA resources and other government programs (many of them from Labor Governments, by the way)…
Does Lake describe these resources to the reader? No…
Does Lake show how the resources present a militaristic or romantic view of war? She does not.
Does she offer any critical analysis of the resources? Not a word. She does not say one specific thing about the educational nature of the contents of any of the materials she condemns except, very strangely, to quote their description by the DVA as being written by professional history educators ...
Does she show how the resources stifle debate? No.
Does she discuss the inquiry-based approach of the resources, and show how they in fact only pretend to encourage student inquiry, but in fact are subtle and effective propaganda? Not done.
Meanwhile:
VANDALS attacked a war memorial on the eve of Anzac Day, throwing rubbish around the site and snapping a flagpole. Up to a dozen teenagers are believed to have been involved in last night’s incident at the Anzac Cenotaph outside the Arncliffe RSL Club…(Thanks to readers Amy and Matthew,)
Police say they are keen to speak to up to a dozen teenage males, described as Mediterranean/Middle Eastern in appearance, seen in the area before the incident.
UPDATE 2
Age columnist Catherine Deveny damns violence:
Anzac Day IS a glorification of war. They didn’t die for us but because they were risktaking testosterone fuelled men with a pack mentalityAge columnist Catherine Deveny advocates violence:
I’m in a FILTHY F[...] MOOD today. If you need me to punch someone’s head in, let me know.
===
A word to the New York jihadists who threatened South Park
Andrew Bolt
No Right-wing shock jock could have put it better, which is also to say that Jon Stewart should speak for everyone here.
(Thanks to reader Loz.)
===
What goes into Obama’s (Goldman) Sachs stays there
Andrew Bolt
Scandal-ridden Goldman Sachs put its money into Obama’s campaign - and its grateful recipient isn’t giving it back:
President Barack Obama doesn’t plan to give back almost $1 million in campaign contributions from employees of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.Indeed:
“We make these decisions on a case-by-case basis, and in this case we have not accepted contributions from specific individuals accused of wrongdoing, nor have we advocated for positions that big Wall Street banks generally favor,” Hari Sevugan, a Democratic National Committee spokesman, said in a statement.
Donations from the bank’s employees have become an issue for political candidates from both parties after the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a fraud lawsuit April 16 against Goldman Sachs....
Goldman Sachs (was) second only to the University of California as his biggest source for donors in 2007 and 2008, according to the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics…
Goldman Sachs and its employees and family members gave $5.9 million to candidates in the 2007-2008 election cycle, the Center for Responsive Politics data shows. Three-quarters of that went to Democrats, the non-partisan group said.
Campaign contributions from Goldman Sachs employees to President Obama are nearly seven times as much as President Bush received from Enron workers, according to numbers on OpenSecrets.org.
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