=== Todays Toon ===
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution in the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s.One of the most remarkable female opera singers of the 20th century, she was dubbed La Stupenda by a La Fenice audience in 1960 after a performance as Alcina. She possessed a voice of beauty and power, combining extraordinary agility, accurate intonation, pin point staccatos, a splendid trill and a tremendous upper register, although music critics often complained about the imprecision of her diction. Her friend Luciano Pavarotti once called Sutherland the "Voice of the Century", while Montserrat Caballé described the Australian's voice as being like "heaven". Her highest note was a high F-sharp in altissimo.
=== Bible Quote ===
“My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.”- Psalm 62:1=== Headlines ===
Obama Highway Plan Fuels Talk of Gas Tax Hike
In an election year, President Obama isn't talking about a gas tax, but industry experts — including two ex-transportation secretaries — say federal gas tax, unchanged since 1993, will have to be increased to pay for the president's $50 billion planned investment in roads, rails and runways.Military Ballots Still Not in the Mail
NYC mayor rips Board of Elections for failing to send absentee ballots to more than 50,000 city residents serving overseas — among 320,000 statewide — a violation of the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act first reported by FoxNews.com, and still unrectified.
Scientist: Alien Planet Possibly Sent Signal
Scientist claims to have detected a suspicious pulse of light from the same area of the galaxy as the location of the alien planet Gliese 581g — nearly two years before it was offically discovered
Papers Take Heat For Yanking Cartoon
Award-winning cartoonist Wiley Miller is seeing red after editors at the Washington Post and other newspapers pull what he calls a 'very tame' cartoon that alludes to the Prophet Muhammad
Breaking News
Cox, Arquette split after 11 yearsFRIENDS actress Courteney Cox and David Arquette have separated after 11 years of marriage.
Lloyd Webber praises Sutherland
COMPOSER Andrew Lloyd Webber has praised Dame Joan Sutherland as an "extraordinary voice" and an "extraordinary actress".
Police detonate pipe bomb in newspaper
POLICE today safely detonated a pipe bomb discovered wrapped up with a newspaper in the driveway of a home.
Motorists stranded north of Brisbane
MORE than 150 tourists and motorists are stranded by floodwaters in a township north of Brisbane.
Stem cell treatment tested on patient
GERON Corporation has begun testing an embryonic stem-cell treatment on a patient with spinal cord injuries.
NSW/ACT
Michelle's desperate fight for lifeIN the moments before her death, nurse Michelle Beets promised to stop screaming, a court heard.
Pass the 90 mark and collect $20,000
HUNDREDS of Year 12 students yet to sit the HSC have been offered lucrative scholarships to stop a brain drain from the west.
Historical treasure on Harbour's floor
SYDNEY Harbour may be the city's centrepiece but its sandy bottom reveals its dark side, with 140 ships lost since the First Fleet came.
Blitz planned on rail graffiti
TRANSPORT Minister John Robertson has declared war on graffiti with a million new "tags" found on trains and stations every year.
Please pay for my trip, David Jones
KRISTY Fraser-Kirk sent a bill for her airfare to NYC to David Jones as part of her claim.
Elijah was minutes from death
THE opening day of an inquest into the death of mentally ill Elijah Holcombe saw footage of his last moments played in court. He was "approached with caution".
New trains to strain rail network
CITYRAIL won't have enough power for the new trains promised for the Western Express.
P-plater: 140km/h in 70km/h zone
A P-PLATE driver has lost his licence after being clocked at twice the speed limit overnight.
Queensland
Worse weather still to comeCLEAN-UP begins after teeming rain and strong winds hit the southeast leaving one town cut-off and residents have been warned to expect more.
Excess water pumped to Toowoomba
TOOWOOMBA is rejoicing today after the State Government allowed the city access to millions of megalitres of water that was thought wasted at the weekend.
Crash delays on motorway
A CRASH that caused delays on the Pacific Motorway earlier has cleared.
Roads still affected by heavy rain
ROADS across Brisbane are starting to reopen as floodwaters recede. Check the list before your journey.
Monkey sighting sparks search
A POSSIBLE sighting of a rare monkey missing after a break-in at Alma Park Zoo will be followed up this morning at Dakabin north of Brisbane.
Controversial abortion trial begins
PRO-choice activists have started a vigil in Cairns as a young couple prepare to face Queensland's first abortion trial in almost 25 years.
Soaring Aussie can be a downer
THE rising Australian dollar has put Queensland in a no-win situation with tourism, farming and struggling homebuyers all in the firing line.
Wobbly start to bike-hire scheme
BRISBANE'S bike-hire scheme has had teething problems, with some riders unable to use their subscriptions and others incorrectly locking bikes into stations.
Water supplies to last until 2021
THE latest spring deluge, along with rainfall from the past two years, have guaranteed southeast Queensland drinking water supplies until 2021.
Give Matt the Bat his cap back
THE Courier-Mail is launching a campaign to recover batting great Matt Hayden's battered baggy green which was stolen three years ago.
Victoria
Police investigate 'roo deathPOLICE and animal welfare experts are investigating the death of a kangaroo found bludgeoned in a park near Werribee.
Machetes used in milk bar robbery
MASKED bandits wielding machetes attacked a shopkeeper during a frightening milk bar robbery in Melbourne’s west overnight.
Free photos for speeding drivers
DRIVERS caught by speed cameras will be given free photos in a government move to shore up confidence in our camera system.
Top cop questions force
UPDATE 10:12am: OUTSPOKEN officer Gary Jamieson has reaffirmed his call for a return to "back to basics’’ policing in Victoria.
Official advice: laugh with bullies
BULLIED students are being advised to joke with their tormentors, or ask them politely to stop, under new guidelines.
Jade bounces back to health
JADE Kinghorn is jumping for joy at the prospect of starting prep next year having already battled a major health crisis.
Shooting death rocks Horsham
A FARMER killed in front of his youngest sons in a gun accident was due to take his wife on a dream holiday.
Trustees theft fears examined
HUNDREDS of families are having their financial records examined after a State Trustees employee was allegedly caught stealing.
Dob in ailing drivers
DOCTORS could be forced to dob in patients who are unfit to drive under a proposed national scheme.
Mary's flock gathers for canonisation
THE 8000 Aussies expected to pack St Peter's Square in Rome for Mary MacKillop's canonisation come from all walks of life.
Northern Territory
Kids trash home of one-legged womanCHILDREN broke into the home of a one-legged woman, damaged her scooter, trashed the home and garden and set a fuel tin on fire.
South Australia
Car rammed into airportA MAN has driven a car into safety barriers at Adelaide Airport and run on to the tarmac in a major security incident.
I'm here to stay - Rann
PREMIER Mike Rann is standing firm against Labor party warlords and rejected calls to stand down from the leadership and make way for new blood.
Truckie's desperate effort can't avoid tragedy
REPORTS are emerging that a truckie tried desperately to get his runaway semi off the freeway before it smashed into cars, killing at least one person.
New plea for missing mum
THE daughter of a missing person has put out a desperate plea to the community to help find her mum.
Ice cream firm scoops gold
ONE of South Australia's favourite frozen treats will melt hearts across the country in an ambitious expansion that started with a near disaster two years ago.
Markets crying out for a makeover
CENTRAL Market traders have called on the next city council to make updating the markets a priority because they are struggling to compete with the big supermarkets.
Crackdown as vandal bill soars
GRAFFITI and vandalism are costing Adelaide almost $12 million a year, according to a survey commissioned by independent MP Bob Such.
Tips from the top - try this for size
MAKING Adelaide women see the funny side of their fashion faux pas, Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine have had the last laugh.
Pokies ban scheme fails
POKIES venues are failing to ban problem gamblers, with only 142 of an estimated 20,000 being evicted by licensees over seven years and only for brief periods.
State on earthquake alert
EARTHQUAKES in the state's mid-north have prompted the State Government to issue an earthquake safety warning.
Western Australia
Hospital workers to walk outPUBLIC hospitals could be thrown into chaos today as thousands of hospital workers stage a four-hour strike for better pay.
Former cricketer on rape trial
A WOMAN who says she was raped by a former cricketer has told a Perth court the attack left her feeling like she had been "ripped in two".
Ernie Dingo fights child-slap charge
ERNIE Dingo will stand trial in Carnarvon over the alleged slapping of an 11-year-old boy, the ABC says.
Toodyay fire victims share $10m
RESIDENTS affected by last summer's devastating Toodyay bushfire will share in a $10 million aid package to help them rebuild their lives.
Navy intercepts another refugee boat
THE navy has intercepted a boat carrying asylum seekers in waters off Australia's northwest coast.
Kimberley gas hub growing
LAND owners have been dealt another blow, with the State Government taking almost three times the area of land originally proposed for the Kimberley gas hub.
WA rocked by record explosions
EXPLOSIONS, fires and toxic spills are among a record number of mishaps and near-misses in WA last year, a government report reveals.
Taser victim wants officers charged
THE man tasered 24 times in a week at a Perth watchhouse wants two police officers to be charged with assault.
Bouncer glassed by drinker
POLICE have charged a man over an incident at a Cottesloe hotel last night where a crowd controller was wounded with a glass by a hotel patron.
WA bosses look outside state for workers
ALMOST one quarter of WA employers are will look interstate and overseas to boost staffing numbers as competition for experienced workers heats up.
Tasmania
Nothing new=== Journalists Corner ===
Greta's Live From AlaskaThe push for the state's Senate seat intensifies. Greta's exclusive interviews with candidates Joe Miller and Scott McAdams. Don't miss when she goes 'On the Campaign Trail'.
===
Will It Work?
With disastrous job numbers, Democratic candidates focus voters on health care reform. Is this a critical error or will it get the job done come election day? Neil has insight.
===
Full Disclosure?
What the press failed to tell you about Obama and the BP oil spill. Bernie Goldberg weighs in! Plus, election insight from Juan Williams, Brit Hume, Ann Coulter and Mary Katharine Ham!
On Fox News Insider:
Organized Pot: California Marijuana Growers UnionizingLIVE from N. Korea: Greg Palkot Reports on New Leader Kim Jong Un
VOTE: Will You Be Heading to the Polls This November?
In one month, Burma's military regime will hold a sham election to legalize military rule. Sign up to hold an event to mock this election charade. .jpg)
Burma is set to have its first "election" in twenty years on November 7th. But these elections are just for show. The outcome has already been decided--continued military rule. Marching, chanting slogans, and speaking out against the military regime are all prohibited. Polling stations will not be opened in most ethnic minority areas, denying them the right to vote. Most importantly, the constitution guarantees the military will control the new government. Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy , and democratic ethnic leaders are boycotting the election to show its illegitimacy.Around the world, supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's democracy movement are coming together to host mock elections to protest the military regime's upcoming sham elections on November 7, 2010.
From October 25th - November 7th join in and host a mock election event in your community to show solidarity with Burma's true democratic leaders.
Click here to sign up to host an event and to download our Mock Election Campaign Package.
Can't host an event but want to attend one? Click here to see if one is being held in your area.
The military regime has power. With this election they seek legitimacy. Show your support for the legitimate democratic leaders in Burma by hosting a Burma Mock Election event.
In Gratitude and Solidarity,
Aung Din, Jennifer, Nadi, Patrick and Myra
=== Comments ===
Court martial an outrage for grieving families of lost DiggersPiers Akerman
WITH a heavy heart, another father of an Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan has joined the growing chorus of disgust at the decision by Director of Military Prosecutions, Brigadier Lyn McDade, to prosecute three commandos involved in a deadly night action. - Our troops deserve the support of their people and their government. If our government won't support them, take them out. I am sick of the ALP's war mongering and profiting from the deaths of our troops. Even so, the specific incident was a special forces op. They were under fire and responded appropriately as per circumstance. That there might have been a mistake was not their fault, but the fault of command, or possibly government. Peacekeeping is a language construct to preserve the importance of the UN, it is no different to warfare, and possibly worse, as those Dutch 'peacekeeepers' found in Yugoslavia when their rules of engagement didn't allow them to act to help those being killed in front of them.
For me, I want to know what happened, just after Rudd was elected PM in '07, when in Timor the two top government officials were nearly assassinated. It looks like Rudd involved himself with a bungled special ops and I think that brigadier commissar should investigate Rudd for war crimes. - ed.
===
Voter Anger
BY BILL O'REILLY
Voter anger - that is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo." The new unemployment figures are out today. The jobless rate remains at 9.6 percent. That is the 14th consecutive month. Unemployment has been over 9.5 percent, a situation not seen since the Great Depression.
And the American workers are angry, even if they have jobs, because there is a fierce climate of uncertainty in the air. Anything could happen in this economy. Uncertainty often breaths hostility. If you're insecure, you can't be happy. And often folks lash out at the source of the insecurity. Enter President Obama, who is bearing the brunt of voter anger these days. That's not entirely fair because the economy collapsed on President Bush's watch.
But, there is no question that Mr. President Obama's massive spending strategy has not improved things, and we Americans are an impatient people. So, we have displays like this one yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE OF AMERICA: Unbelievable recession - -
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: You're a liar!
(SHOUTING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Now, I continue to believe that all presidents should be respected, not shouted down like that display, but obviously, there is anger in the air.
A new Rasmussen poll out today asked Americans, "How angry are you at the policies of the federal government?" A whopping 43 percent say very angry; 20 percent say somewhat angry; 18 percent not very angry; 14 percent not angry at all; the remaining 5 percent of American voters are apparently in a coma. Sixty-three percent of the country is angry with Washington, 63 percent.
There is no way the party in power, the Democrats, can prosper in that climate. So, the Republicans will most likely benefit on November 2nd. But the GOP better not gloat because many Americans are very skeptical of them. Again, the economy went off the cliff when a Republican was in the White House. Although, to be fair, the Democrats ran Congress. That is almost always overlooked by the left-wing media.
Now, sometimes anger can be a positive thing. It can cause constructive change. We saw that with Jessica's Law when the nation mobilized against child molesters. But other times anger is simply destructive and clouds clear thinking.
In the case of President Obama, it is wise to step back to examine his policies without emotion. Sorry about the plug, but that's what I do in my book, "Pinheads and Patriots." And that's what the American voter must do - must do - if America is to make a comeback.
===
How Could Our Leaders Do This to Our Troops?
By Gerald Molen
It’s utterly amazing that our nation’s leadership is able to send our troops around the world and overnight have sleeping quarters (known in military parlance as “billets”) constructed to house them.
It is equally amazing that the required arms (bullets) can be shipped with equally profound efficiency and timely deliverance to any spot determined by that same leadership, anywhere in the world.
And yet, the same leadership fails to deliver election ballots to the very people who defend the right to vote for every other American. Is that a failure in leadership?
I come to this moment of truth not as a Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian, far left or far right zealot but as an American.
As a former United States Marine, I find it utterly unconscionable that our troops are denied the same rights as those citizens who refuse to even bend over and pick up a piece of trash they have so selfishly discarded on the street…
In fact, I find it contemptible in a country that can ship men to the moon and bring them back with pinpoint accuracy, can ship a letter or package from the back hills of Montana to any point in the country overnight -- with the guarantee of having it there before 3 p.m. the next day; can ship cargo the size of a tank overnight to any place in the world, can take advantage of new technologies and send messages around the world in a nano second, can deliver political campaign ads with efficiency and with certain specificity; can fly a group of politicians overnight to any desired location on the planet and can not or will not ship ballots to our men and women who put themselves at risk every day so that the rest of the country can vote.
Yes, it's a pretty dire situation when the commander in chief and his selected and even elected minions allow such a travesty of justice.
It struck me rather strange that our very own president who finds time to speak about equal rights, equal benefits and equal outcomes for all is so reluctant to better serve those he asks to pay the ultimate price for their country.
The president has signed numerous executive orders, using his position of power and decree to affect our lives as he sees best but he withholds demanding equal justice for our troops.
It amazes me that nearly every elected representative and senator, governor and mayor has yet to stand up and scream at the top of their lungs to stop the unequal treatment of our troops. Above all else, they should see to it that our men and women in the service of their country, should be first in line at the ballot box. Why have they not done this?
Why not? Can it be because those serving their country in the military may have a tendency to vote their conscience and there is a fear that it may just be a bit too conservative for those who make those decisions?
In my humble opinion, as an American first, and as an avid supporter of all our troops, regardless of their political affiliation, any politician who will not support the rights of those in harm’s way and do everything in their power to get them the opportunity to vote should either resign, quit, move on or step aside in the disgrace they so richly deserve.
And to you Mr. President, have you forgotten that as commander in chief you took an oath to serve all the people? Shouldn’t that include voting rights for the troops? To do otherwise is an insult to all who serve.
Gerald R. Molen is an Oscar-winning Hollywood producer and former Marine.
===
The Truth About Christopher Columbus
By Tommy De Seno
I’m sure it’s happened to you, as it did to me, again, last night: Some starry-eyed collegian told me that Christopher Columbus shouldn’t be celebrated because of his treatment of native Americans. Oh, and surprise, surprise, she was armed with nothing more than her university professor’s insistence.
If Mark Twain was right that a lie can travel halfway around the world before truth has a chance to put on its shoes, imagine the damage a lie can do over 500 years.
Let me introduce you to Francisco de Bobadilla – liar and Columbus usurper. The criticism of Columbus today comes from de Bobadilla. Who was he? The man who wanted Columbus’s job as governor of Hispaniola.
In 1500 the King and Queen sent him to North America to investigate claims that Columbus wasn’t being fair to the European settlers (which means Columbus was protecting the Indians). So de Bobedilla came here, and in just a few short days did his investigation (with no telephones or motorized vehicles to help him), and promptly arrested Columbus and his brothers for Indian mistreatment and sent them back to Spain, sans a trial. Oh and, he also appointed himself governor. Coup de coeur for power lead to coup d’ etat, as usual.
The King and Queen out these shenanigans and sent for be Bobadilla two years later, but he drowned on the trip home. Columbus was reinstated as admiral.
But what we know of Columbian malfeasance comes from a defrocked liar, de Bobadilla.
Nor was Columbus involved in the slave trade, as critics like Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky have asserted. One of his boats crashed in Haiti. He had no room for 39 men, so he started a colony there.
Columbus came back a year later to find that the Taino Indians killed all of them and left them where they fell. Columbus went to war with the Tainos and took 500 of them as prisoners of war, not slaves. They were released after the war.
Big difference, of course.
It is also wrong to blame Columbus for bringing genocidal microbes to kill native Americans. His detractors make fun of him for thinking he was in the East. So was his evil plan then to bring disease to wipe out the East?
Europeans didn’t know anything about germs until Italian physicist Girolamo Fracastoro proposed the theory 40 years after Columbus died.
Also, had an Indian built a boat and traveled to Europe and back, he would have contaminated the Indians too. Transcontinental contamination was going to happen at some point, making the first carriers irrelevant.
Brown University recently changed the name of the Columbus Day holiday to “Fall Weekend” due to the Columbus slave allegations. Hypocrisy alert: Brown University was partly founded with slave trade money, according to the university's own reports. But they didn’t vote to change the name of their college!
Hypocrites.
Happy Columbus Day!
Tommy De Seno is a writer and an attorney. Read more from Tommy De Seno at JustifiedRight.com.
===
POSTBOX FIXED, CHILD ALLOWED TO LIVE
Tim Blair
The 10:10 child-killing movement – now hitting peak parody on YouTube – rejoices in the success of Sunday’s campaign:
Sunday, 10th October, 2010 was the largest day of positive action on climate change ever.It sure was. Here’s an example of 10:10’s positive action:
Maia fixes the postbox that was previously a draught catastrophe.
===
FENG SUEY
Tim Blair
A courtroom feng fight erupts:
A Chinese couple is suing the Springvale Botanical Cemetery in Victoria for destroying the “feng shui” of a grave because they fear it will create bad fortune for their descendants.At issue is some kind of structure-based feng shui blockage:
Doncaster lawyer Hina Pasha said David and Margaret Chan were worried their descendants would suffer bad fortune if the situation was not resolved before they died.
The Glen Iris couple believe the structure destroyed the feng shui by coming between the cemetery’s hilltop Buddha temple and their graves.Question: what happens if the court itself is found to be bad fengy? Do they move the case to somewhere fengtastic? Meanwhile, expert fengpinion is divided:
A report by Templestowe’s Feng Shui Science and Services Centre done for the cemetery in 2003 said there should be a clear line of sight between graves in the cemetery and the temple.(Headline courtesy of reader Possum Hunter)
But Cemetery chief executive Russ Allison said its own expert advice suggests the mausoleum has had no negative impact on the area’s feng shui.
===
LEFTOID SLAPFIGHT BEGINS
Tim Blair
Like rival anti-whalers, leftist Crikey publisher Eric Beecher and leftist former Crikey editor Jonathan Green are going at it. Beecher opens proceedings:
Crikey publisher Eric Beecher has attacked the ABC for branching into online commentary in competition with websites such as his own.Green may be a little chunky, but he’s hardly a tank. And he’s more likely to roll up on your lawn aboard a Gaia-happy bicycle than a useful Sherman.
He has likened the move to seeing “tanks roll up on our lawn”.
Mr Beecher – whose purchase of Crikey in 2005 turned the activist online publisher into a forum for more measured commentary in recent times – criticised the ABC’s opinion site The Drum as “seriously and dangerously” compromising the ABC’s editorial integrity by running “wacky” personal opinions that were “mainly from the Left”.Which is exactly what Green did as editor of Crikey. Beecher – whose friendship with Green ended during 2009, from what I’m told – seems slow to notice editorial trends, even at his own publication.
Beecher said while he expected competition from commercial rivals such as The Punch (published by News Limited, which owns The Australian), it was “bewildering” when it came from the national broadcaster and the government should intervene if it failed to curtail itself.Interesting. Crikey now sees itself as the establishment, even to the point of demanding government protection from its previous staffers. Green responds evasively:
*fights temptation to tweet all manner of things*Probably a good move, considering Green’s history of blunders. More from Andrew Landeryou: “[Beecher’s] real worry is that The Drum is slopping up for free what he charges around $100 a year for.”
===
BUT THE T-SHIRTS LIVE ON
Tim Blair
Ernie “Che” Guevara has been dead for 43 years. His victims, a little longer.
===
CAN’T STOP THE RAIN
Tim Blair
Back when he was in pessimism mode, Tim Flannery predicted that Brisbane could run out of water by the end of 2007. His call wasn’t remotely plausible at the time, and becomes more amusing with each Queensland shower:
Drenching rains have delivered southeast Queensland enough water to last until 2018 without another drop falling from the sky.Of course, 2007 was a time when global warming panic – history’s greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud – was absolutely rampant. Flannery is now a climate optmist.
===
DAME JOAN SUTHERLAND
Tim Blair
Australian opera singer Dame Joan Sutherland has died at 83.
===
Advice to the blinded: don’t drive
Andrew Bolt
Reader Michael wonders whether motorists too blind to notice they can’t see are too blind to read a newspaper ad advising them what to do next.===
Will Flannery and Jones declare?
Andrew Bolt
Coming up on next week’s Q&A on the ABC, a discussion on climate change.
Tim Flannery - scientist and authorBut will Tim Flannery this time declare his vested interest in this debate? And will host Tony Jones, another global warming evangelist, likewise declare the money he makes from the global warming scare?
Greg Hunt - shadow minister for climate action
Jennifer Marohasy - climate sceptic
Bruce Guthrie - former News Limited editor
I’m not alleging anything improper against either - just requesting a declaration of a potential conflict of interest of some interest to viewers.
(Thanks to Gavin Atkins.)
UPDATE
My question is especially pointed given that Jones’ team has sought to declare that Marohasy is, gasp, a sceptic - which is not, incidentally, how she describes herself. Marohasy is every bit as much a scientist as if Flannery, who is merely described as “scientist” - without any leper’s bell rung over him to announce what agenda he’s pushing. Marohasy is the partisan; Flannery the impartial.
Or put it this way: either both Marohasy and Flannery should be billed as scientists, or Marohasy should be tagged a “sceptic” and Flannery a “warmist”. Just to be even-handed.
===
Act rich, live cheap
Andrew Bolt
There’s acting rich and there’s being rich. Some tips on the difference from the co-author of The Millionaire Next Door and author of Stop Acting Rich: ...And Start Living Like A Real Millionaire:
Eighty-six percent of all prestige or luxury makes of motor vehicles are driven by people who are not millionaires.(Via Instapundit.)
Typically, millionaires pay about $16 (including tip) for a haircut.
Nearly four in 10 millionaires buy wine that costs about $10.
===
Gillard gets a maybe for her centre - for a maybe time
Andrew Bolt
Is this a green light or amber for Labor’s one-fine-day proposal?:
EAST Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta has given the strongest signal yet that the Gillard government’s controversial plan for his country to house a regional refugee processing centre could be accepted.===
On the eve of a meeting in Dili today with Immigration Minister Chris Bowen, Mr Ramos-Horta was quoted saying that the ‘’irrational’’ first reaction by East Timorese MPs and citizens opposing the plan could be overcome…
Other conditions laid out by Mr Ramos-Horta included a three-year deadline for processing and resettling each asylum seeker, and that any centre be temporary only.
Dams filled by rains Flannery never saw coming. UPDATE Miller neither
Andrew Bolt
Alarmist of the Year Tim Flannery in June, 2007:
Over the past 50 years southern Australia has lost about 20 per cent of its rainfall, and one cause is almost certainly global warming....Desalination plants can provide insurance against drought. In Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane, water supplies are so low they need desalinated water urgently, possibly in as little as 18 months.So let’s check the Queensland dams that Flannery warned could be empty by January, 2009:
DRENCHING rains have delivered southeast Queensland enough water to last until 2018 without another drop falling from the sky.Convinced by the alarmists that global warming was drying up the rains, the Labor Government spent billions on alternatives to dams, including the desal plant Flannery recommended, which was handed over to the Government only last week:
Two years ago, southeast Queensland was in drought, prompting the Bligh government to spend $9 billion on a water grid to “drought-proof” the region, by introducing a recycled water scheme, raising the wall at the Hinze Dam and building a desalination plant on the Gold Coast… The plant is producing 44 megalitres of water a day at $731/ML for a daily cost of $32,000, despite all the major dams in the area being full or practically full.Hand the bill to Flannery.
UPDATE
George Miller explains the message of his film Happy Feet:
There’s always those characters in stories and for people who don’t believe in climate change, in the country where I come from Australia, we have no ozone and we have the highest rate of skin cancer in the world, the further south you go, and more particularly, we’ve had the worst drought on record that’s continuing, so I can see garden drying up. Something’s happening out there. We can be in denial about it.George Miller explains the delay to his latest Mad Max film:
THE blossoming desert at Broken Hill has forced the filming of the new Mad Max movie to be postponed again - possibly for a year. In a blow to the New South Wales film industry, director George Miller said rain had forced the planned February shoot for the Warner Bros production to be delayed for a second time…===
‘’Unfortunately for Mad Max, what was wasteland is now this wonderful flower garden,’’ Miller said.
Two articles by Bolt supporting the ALP here and here.
===
Foreign students guard illegals
Andrew Bolt
The perfect symbol of the shambles that is our border policy:
FOREIGN workers are using a loophole in the visa system to gain full-time employment in Australia. And they’re being employed to guard illegal fishermen and asylum seekers at Darwin’s detention centres.(Thanks to reader Watty.)
===
China proves the Nobel committee right
Andrew Bolt
China celebrates the winning of the first Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded to one of its citizens:
THE lawyer of Liu Xia, wife of Nobel peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo, has slammed her de facto house arrest as illegal.===
Since the award was announced on Friday, authorities have stepped up their harassment of dissidents and human rights advocates, effecting house arrests, shutting down phones, breaking up meetings and inviting offenders for a cup of tea.
Ms Liu has been confined to her Beijing apartment without visitors or a telephone since she was allowed to deliver at the weekend news of the award to her husband, who is serving 11 years in a prison in northeast China. She has been denied the legal aid to which she is entitled.
La Stupenda dies
Andrew Bolt
Dame Joan Sutherland, Australia’s greatest singer, has died at 83.
Her most famous role:
She became an international sensation after her career-defining performance in the title role of “Lucia di Lammermoor” at Covent Garden in London — its first production there since 1925 — which opened on Feb. 17, 1959. The production was directed by Franco Zeffirelli and conducted by the Italian maestro Tullio Serafin, a longtime Callas colleague, who elicited from the 32-year-old soprano a vocally resplendent and dramatically affecting portrayal of the trusting, unstable young Lucy of Lammermoor.Not only a great artist but a lovely person:
Mr. Porter, reviewing the performance in The Financial Times, wrote that the brilliance of Ms. Sutherland’s singing was to be expected by this point. The surprise, he explained, was the new dramatic power she brought to bear.
“The traces of self-consciousness, of awkwardness on the stage, had disappeared; and at the same time she sang more freely, more powerfully, more intensely — and also more bewitchingly — than ever before.”
In Australia she was loved for her embodiment of all the national virtues – stoicism, humility, good humour and sheer ordinariness. Her public loved the down-to-earth and cheerful, but self-deprecating and vulnerable, personality which shone through even the most tragic or imperious of operatic roles.If at first you don’t succeed:
She was, by all accounts, a delight to work with. She never complained about the inconveniences of life on tour; never wasted energy on tantrums; never criticised another singer or took advantage of being a star. Her colleagues had an image of her waiting backstage during rehearsals, glasses perched on the end of her nose, doing needlepoint tapestries to adorn the cushions at her home near Montreux. She formed lasting friendships with many fellow singers, notably Luciano Pavarotti and Marilyn Horne.
In 1950 she had won the Mobil Quest Prize as a mezzo-soprano. With the prize money, she and her mother sailed to England the following year to try their luck at Covent Garden. She was turned down at her first audition. “She starts with a good ringing voice, but has very little experience or gifts by nature,” read her report.Martin Kettle:
Lord Harewood, in the days when he edited Opera magazine, got it right. Joan Sutherland, he once said, was the vocal phenomenon of the postwar era. At the time, it seemed an excessive tribute: what about Callas? Or Pavarotti? As the years went on, though, and especially since Sutherland retired in 1990, Harewood’s judgment seems to me to be farsighted. Callas transformed opera. Pavarotti broke the boundaries. But Sutherland, whose death was announced earlier today, was the voice. Vocally, she was the most complete artist of her day… She wasn’t a great actor or a great beauty. Critics said they could never hear the words either, because consonants were not her strength. But it didn’t matter. Sutherland possessed the most secure and compelling soprano voice of the age, based on her rock-solid technique ...Sutherland on her technique here.
Sutherland’s farewell to the operatic stage:
Recorded in 1979:
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