=== Todays Toon ===
Thomas David Gibson-Carmichael, 1st Baron Carmichael GCSI, GCIE, KCMG, DL (18 March 1859 – 16 January 1926), known as Sir Thomas Gibson-Carmichael, Bt, between 1891 and 1912, was a Scottish Liberal politician and colonial administrator.
=== Bible Quote ===
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.”- 1 Peter 3:18=== Headlines ===
New Republican Lawmakers Pushed to Declare Loyalties
The midterm election may be over, but the in-fighting that dominated debate about the differences between Tea Party conservatives and establishment Republicans appears to be far from over.Girl Reportedly Found In Missing Family Case
Thirteen-year-old girl, one of four involved in missing persons case that has rocked an Ohio community, has reportedly been found safe, as authorities make one arrest in the case
Report: Nazis Offered 'Safe Haven' — in U.S.
Justice Department documents offer new evidence that the United States reportedly created a 'safe haven' in America for Nazis and their collaborators after World War II
Mexico Resort Blast Kills 6, Injures 20
A powerful explosion believed to have been caused by an accumulation of gas kills six people and injures 20 at a resort hotel on Mexico's Caribbean coast, authorities say
CBA reports $1.6bn quarterly earnings
COMMONWEALTH Bank has reported cash earnings of $1.6 billion in the three months to September.
Man once thought dead held in kidnapping
"DEAD" man arrested in the kidnapping of a slain girl whose body was found in the woods.
$4m dive boat sinks at Port Douglas
A $4 million state-of-the-art charter boat sank at its mooring at Port Douglas, with police not ruling out the possibility of foul play.
BHP withdraws $45.5bn bid for Potash
BHP Billiton has withdrawn its $45.5 billion bid for Potash Corporation and will resume a share buy-back program.
Drinker attacks pub with axe
DRINKER kicked out of Gold Coast pub returns with an axe and starts smashing a door.
Sex assault victims get more power
VICTIMS of sexual assault are to get more powers to prevent their personal records being used in court.
School funds revealed on My School
PARENTS can compare how much is spent on each child in every school as part of a dramatic revamp of the controversial My School website.
Students risking lives in road run
HUNDREDS of mostly student pedestrians are dodging traffic on a seven-lane road in Sydney's west, which has baffled police.
P-plater in fatal power pole crash
A P-PLATER was behind the wheel of a car that hit a power pole, killing one passenger and breaking the neck of another.
Cop doesn't need a bullet-proof vest
FORGET bullet-proof vests and body armour - this police officer owes his life to a humble notebook.
Arnie's power muscle ignored
HE TERMINATED big power price rises in California - now Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his experts want to help NSW.
For sale: Lin horror house
THE "house of horrors" - the two-storey home left to rot since the Lin family murders - is now up for sale.
Bundy's charity run bites the dust
BUNDY the blue heeler biker dog’s famous charity fund raising days could be over after his owner was booked under new RTA laws.
Bullied nurse told: Let it go
A QUEENSLAND Health nurse who received workers compensation after being bullied has been told to "let it go" and find a job elsewhere.
Crocodile Hunter's life remembered
THE Crocodile Hunter's life will be remembered today four years after his death.
Fears ease for lost hikers
TWO men have spent the night in Lamington National Park after becoming `"geographically embarrassed'' during a bushwalk yesterday.
I'm crushed, says Zahra's mum
ZAHRA Baker's natural mother says she is crushed by her daughter's murder and hopes the girl's father was not involved.
Fire guts coffee shop
A FIRE has caused serious damage to a popular West End coffee shop.
Drinker attacks pub with axe
DRINKER kicked out of Gold Coast pub returns with an axe and starts smashing a door.
Watson in Governator's sights
CALIFORNIA Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed an order that would send Gabe Watson to jail if he ever landed in Los Angeles or San Francisco.
Cheap housing gridlock threat
THE state's affordable housing solution in Brisbane's inner north will significantly worsen congestion on one of the city's biggest arterials.
Parents tick off tuckshop food
AS the fight against childhood obesity ramps up, a free online service gives parents more control over what their children buy at the school tuckshop.
Is that Oprah in the Outback?
SECRET filming in Outback north Queensland has been linked to the Down Under spectacular of talk show queen Oprah Winfrey.
Brawl erupts at detention centre
SEVEN teenagers were hospitalised after a wild brawl inside a Melbourne detention centre last night.
Man arrested during armed robbery
A MAN has been arrested after trying hold up a service station at knifepoint in Melbourne's southeast.
Off-stage Kennett speaks volumes
THERE were no rock anthems to welcome Ted Baillieu to the stage.
Emails warned of Ultranet fiasco
THE State Government's $77 million online schools portal was riddled with problems before its flop on a teacher training day.
Deluge leads to flash floods, landslip
MELBOURNE is on track for its wettest year since 1996 after more than 30mm of rain at the weekend.
Mum's intuition a lifesaver for baby
MOTHER'S instinct may have stepped in to save the life of Elise Hecker and her unborn daughter.
Sex Party flirt to sway voters
A PREFERENCE fling involving both major parties could see the Sex Party win its first seat in state Parliament.
Trouble made in China
Labor once insulted our most important ally. Now it realises our safe future, and that of others, might well depend on it.
Killer wife's $20m jackpot
EXCLUSIVE: A BLACK widow who killed her husband stands to hit a multi-million-dollar property jackpot after being released from jail.
So, are we uniformly drab?
IF we don't smarten up, that dowdy black dress the South Koreans put on the Julia Gillard doll could become our national costume.
Man dies swinging from bridge
A THRILLSEEKER died while trying to swing from a 40m-high bridge in a homemade harness at night.
Apollo rises from depths of the bay
A $20 MILLION tuna boat has been raised from its watery grave in Port Lincoln after lying on the floor of Boston Bay for more than a month.
Opportunities were once only dreams
FOREIGN investment and majority ownership in the wine industry has opened doors and provided skills local winemakers would have once only dreamed of.
Terrified residents ramp up security
TERRIFIED neighbours of the slain Rowe family in Kapunda are having security in their homes upgraded with the help of their local council and community groups.
Pugliese village tires of spotlight
AS PUGLIAGATE begins to gain attention in southern Italy, the mayor in the village of Sasha Carruozzo's ancestral roots is tiring of his hillside town being linked to the saga.
Sell-off places jobs at risk
AS many as 5000 jobs in the state's South-East are being put at risk by the State Government's plan to sell off its forestry assets, says Mt Gambier Mayor Steve Perryman.
River of Murray funds to gush on
THE State Government intends to retain the River Murray levy which raises $25 million a year despite billions of dollars of federal funds being available to save the river.
What's a girl to do with $37m worth of cars?
DUNCAN Mackellar is a converted man. Having previously owned 12 Porsches, he now has a Ferrari with a top speed of 320km/h sitting in his garage.
Rann sets agenda for council
PREMIER Mike Rann has challenged the new city council to work with the State Government to deliver on big promises to revitalise the CBD.
$50,000 for 13-hours work
BACKBENCH MPs are earning up to $50,000 extra a year for sitting on committees which meet for as little as 13 hours a year.
Davis dumped as Mayor
PORT Lincoln Mayor Peter Davis has been booted out of office as more new faces take over Adelaide's suburban councils following this weekend's elections.
WA 'in denial' on home-birth risk
WEST Australian health officials are in denial over the risks associated with home births, according to the Australian Medical Association.
Biker dies, wife critical after Padbury crash
A 65-year-old Greenwood motorcyclist has died and his pillion-passenger wife is critically injured following a fatal collision in Padbury yesterday afternoon.
Nothing new
=== Comments ===
Victorian Liberals spurn GreensAndrew Bolt
The Victorian Liberals have put the Greens last on their how-to-votes. Labor may be relieved, but Ted Baillieu avoids a mutiny of Liberals who think the Greens are beyond the pale.
Now, what does Labor think of the Greens? Will Labor offer them a Coalition if there is a hung parliament? Would it agree to shut down Hazelwood, supplying a quarter of our power?
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Gillard looks to China and bankrupt California for inspiration
Andrew Bolt
Julia Gillard says she won’t let her own plans for an emissions trading system be influenced by President Barack Obama’s decision to drop his own:
Ms Gillard said Australia would still work towards pricing carbon, which was the “most efficient way to cut carbon emissions” and would not be dictated by the US experience…We should let one bankrupt US state influence us, though:
“We are great mates but we are not an American state and we will make our own decisions on how we deal with this challenge,” Ms Gillard said.
Second, we should remind ourselves that around the world, nations are taking measures to deal with climate change. Many important places in the world price carbon, to give just one example California. If California were a country it would have a seat at the G20 table, it has an emissions trading scheme, it prices carbon. And it’s just one example and when we look around the world, through measures that are being taken, shadow prices are being put on carbon, carbon is effectively getting a pricing in some economies.We should let certain other countries like China influence us, too:
Australia will review overseas carbon price regimes as it seeks to tax polluters and reduce greenhouse emissions, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency said.On Sky News today, Climate Change Minister Greg Combet refuses to say what the effective carbon price of the Gillard’s Government “cash for clunkers” scheme is, and will not confirm that it’s a ludicrous $400 a tonne. Nor will he say what the carbon price for the Government’s solar schemes is, either. (The price is the cost per tonne of carbon dioxide removed or prevented.)
The country’s Productivity Commission will look at carbon reduction policies in key international economies, Climate Minister Greg Combet said in a statement today. It will study policies in countries including the U.S., U.K., Germany, China, Japan and India, he said.
”Australia can’t afford to be left behind,” Combet said.
Combet says he just wants the Productivity Commission to figure out what other countries are paying per tonne of carbon dioxide; he dodges David Speers’ questions about whether he should figure out at least what we’re already paying for each of the Government’s schemes. The answer, you see, would appall you.
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An inconvenient truth about a gassy film
Andrew Bolt
Gasland, an American film, is feeding paranoia in Queensland over natural gas extraction - a paranoia now exploited by the Greens:
Where that’s happened, people can’t drink the water that comes out of their taps any more; in some cases there’s so much gas coming out they can set their water alight.Here the film gets a fearful fact-checking from the gas industry it demonises:
Unfortunately, in the case of this film, accuracy is too often pushed aside for simplicity, evidence too often sacrificed for exaggeration, and the same old cast of characters and anecdotes – previously debunked – simply lifted from prior incarnations of the film and given a new home in this one.(Thanks to reader Matthew.)
“I’m sorry,” Josh Fox once told a New York City magazine, “but art is more important than politics. … Politics is people lying to you and simplifying everything; art is about contradictions.” And so it is with GasLand: politics at its worst, art at its most contrived, and contradictions of fact found around every bend of the river.
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Six more pages of McGeough’s slant
Andrew Bolt
Emily Chaprot analyses Fairfax writer Paul McGeough’s latest soft-soaping of the Free Gaza Movement and demonisation of Israel over its bloody boarding of the Mavi Marmara:
In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, he yada yada’d over the best part. (* Video of the cache of weapons including knives, slingshots, rocks, smoke bombs, metal rods, improvised sharp metal objects, sticks and clubs, 5kg hammers and firebombs, * Close up video of “peace activists” attacking the metal batons, *Video taken by the IDF showing passengers of the Mavi Marmara violently attacking IDF officers trying to board the ship, *Video of the radio exchange between the soldiers on their way to the bridge and the IDF ship. The soldiers are reporting their encounter with live fire and serious violence., *Video of Israeli Navy officer describing the violent mob aboard the Mavi Marmara, *Video of the Mavi Marmara passengers attacking the IDF before the soldiers boarded the ship, *Video of the flotilla rioters as they prepared rods, slingshots, broken bottles and metal objects to attack IDF soldiers, *Video of Israeli naval officers addressing the ship )Read it all.
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Cancun - more dangerous than Copenhagen
Andrew Bolt
Dalibor Rohac warns that while the Copenhagen deal is dead, the warmists are planning even costlier ways to “save” the planet”:
Although preparations are in place for a summit on climate change in Cancun, Mexico, at the end of November, it is clear that the goal of cutting carbon emissions through coordinated action by the world’s governments is dead. Nevertheless, it would be too early to celebrate, as the threat of fear-driven and economically costly climate policies is not gone yet. It is merely being transformed into a more subtle - and potentially more dangerous - agenda…In Australia, for instance, the Gillard Government is ploughing more than $100 million a year into research into carbon capture and storage, even though the early signs are that the technology will prove far too expensive to be practical. Other attempts by the government at picking winners have proved largely disastrous or merely useless, from subsidising solar plants to sticking free insulations in roofs.
Meeting the initially envisaged objectives of reducing CO2 emissions by 50 percent by 2050 and 80 percent by 2100 is, under current technology, not feasible without drastic reductions in economic activity and, therefore, standards of living… The dominant view that animated Kyoto and Copenhagen - and is now disintegrating in view of the latter’s failure - was focused on reducing emissions through massive deployment of currently existing sources of “clean” energy. Notwithstanding the cheerleading about wind farms and solar panels, these methods proved to be overly expensive and were introduced and sustained in the first place only by government subsidies…
However, while the climate-change alarmists are slowly becoming aware of the impasse the traditional approach has created, their agenda has not gone away. A number of thinkers from across the political spectrum are progressively gaining influence… This rising group is a heterogeneous bunch. It includes Gwyn Prins of the London School of Economics in England, Roger Pielke Jr., author of “The Climate Fix,” and the “skeptical environmentalist” Bjorn Lomborg, who is releasing his new movie focused on climate-change policies, “Cool It.” Finally, it includes experts from both the American Enterprise Institute and the liberal Brookings Institution in the United States, who recently published a joint proposal for fostering energy innovation…
The central argument made by this group is as follows: Because emission cuts using current technologies are not practicable, the main thrust of new policies should lie in subsidizing research and development so that a new “breakthrough” technology can arise, which will allow easy and costless “decarbonization” of the world economy in the future.
This argument relies on a rather naive understanding of the economics of innovation. It is simply assumed that pouring money into research will bring the desired technology - and also that this technology could not have been obtained through privately funded research technology alone.
Furthermore, where is the compelling argument that governments are especially qualified to identify those technologies that have a high social but low private return - technologies that are worth developing but that no private organization has the incentive to bring about?
And here comes Bjorn Lomborg, blithely demanding more billions for research into pet projects:
Entitled Post-Partisan Power, the report comprehensively and convincingly argues the US government should invest roughly $US25bn a year (about 0.2 per cent of US gross domestic product) in low-carbon military procurement, R&D, and a new network of university-private sector innovation hubs to create an energy revolution...(Thanks to reader Douglas.)
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“Equality activism was uneven towards certain equality-seeking groups”
Andrew Bolt
Why does the equality industry lead to so much inequality of treatment - not to mention strife?In response to the human rights complaint of racism and sexism in its search for a new dean of law, (Canada’s) University of Windsor has fired back at failed candidate Emily Carasco, saying she has a reputation for being vindictive and vengeful, and that she “lacked sufficient scholarly gravitas.”Here’s a radical idea: why don’t we start judging people as individuals, rather than as representatives of some race, gender or sexual orientation?
Prof. Carasco, a one-time NDP candidate who teaches family and immigration law at Windsor, has asked the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario to stop the search for a new dean, appoint her to the position and award her compensation for “injury to dignity” of $60,000 from the school, and $15,000 from her colleague, hate-speech expert Richard Moon.
She alleges Prof. Moon “sabotaged” her candidacy last March by raising concerns about plagiarism in early drafts of a book she co-edited with another law professor, who is now Prof. Moon’s wife.
In its response, the school contradicts Prof. Carasco’s claim she was the best of two failed short-list candidates, saying the search committee in fact scored her lower than her white male competitor “despite being granted extra points due to her gender and self-identification as a visible minority.”..
The search committee received mostly negative feedback about Prof. Carasco, the response says, including the views that she was “a disruptive and divisive force” and “would condemn the law school to “years of acrimony, division and dysfunction.” One faculty member said her hiring would be a “critical mistake.” Other reports suggested her “equality activism was uneven towards certain equality-seeking groups.”
(Thanks to reader Alan RM Jones.)
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Detainees brawl
Andrew Bolt
MTR is reporting a big brawl - with injuries - at the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation Centre.
I suspect the centre holds people who flew here rather than sailed here, but this can only add to pressure on the Gillard Government to fix the shambles of its boat people policy, rather than build yet more detention centres to cope with the overflow.
UPDATE
In fact, the brawl involves unaccompanied minors who came by boat. This centre houses both them and family groups - the two groups who will also fill the new centre at Inverbrackie, in the Adelaide Hills.
More:
Seven of the males, between 15 and 18 years, were taken to hospital with minor head injuries and three others were treated at the scene.And:
A similar brawl between up to 30 youths erupted in the centre in May this year, with two teenagers injured.UPDATE 2
Hume Police Acting Inspector John Kearney said about 40 teens were involved in the brawl.===
“These are unacompanied minors - they’re all between about 14 and 17 years of age,” he told radio station 3AW…
The number of detainees at the centre swelled on the weekend after about 100 detainees arrived from Christmas Island.
Here are the rains that anti-dam Melbourne Water said had gone
Andrew Bolt
Melbourne Water last year explained why Melbourne could not have a cheap new dam:
Unfortunately, we cannot rely on this kind of rainfall like we used to.That page has been taken down. This may be the explanation:
MELBOURNE is on track for its wettest year since 1996.But Melbourne Water is still clinging to its global warming faith and the climate models predicting local outcomes - models that a University of Athens study confirms are not “credible”:
Dam levels are still low in historical terms, and we remain extremely vulnerable to the hotter, drier climate predicted by climate scientists.===
One race must have “prominence” on paper
Andrew Bolt
Patrick Dodson thinks the next symbolic gesture will work better than the last - and implicitly confirms such futile gestures sets off a political fight that entrenches racial divides rather than overcome them:
AS WITH many indigenous people, I have no appetite to relive history, but I crave an honest dialogue in Australia that might finally allow us to rewrite our constitution in such a way that it restores indigenous people to a deserved place of prominence and respect in our nation’s foundational charter.===
The referendum announced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard offers us an opportunity to take matters that are addressed in the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Rights and cement them into Australia’s domestic law....
In that light, the reconciliation process is seen by many of our young indigenous people as just a new framework for assimilation.
Nonetheless, we welcomed the Rudd government’s apology, although there is little evidence that Kevin Rudd’s promise of a new compact with indigenous people has brought about much change on the ground.
Enter Julia Gillard, with what I believe is a genuine attempt to write First Australians on to the first page of our nation’s basic contract with itself.
Melbourne fit to burst
Andrew Bolt
I still haven’t heard any pro-growth leader explain how many people will eventually prove too many. But a new Nielsen poll shows many Victorians think we’re getting there too fast:
HALF of Victoria’s voters believe Melbourne’s population is growing too fast - and only 1 per cent think the city should be growing more quickly.===
Liberals look stronger with Greens last. But Labor….
Andrew Bolt
Paul Austin sums it up well:
THE Liberals’ bombshell decision on preferences changes everything.===
First, the Greens, instead of storming the lower house as they had hoped, now face the prospect of winning no seats in the house of power.
Second, Labor, instead of attacking the Liberals and the Greens on the basis that they were allegedly doing an unlikely preferences deal, will now have to explain why the ALP is the party that has done a deal with the demonised minor party.
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Third, the Coalition, instead of continuing to agonise about what to do about Greens preferences, will now be united behind Ted Baillieu’s leadership.
Dick Smith gases on
Andrew Bolt
Yet more evidence that global warming is the first faith to be led exclusively by hypocrites:
After criss-crossing the world in his personal helicopter, Dick Smith tells The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Weekend magazine he’s finally nailed who is responsible for global warming:===AFTER my research, it is most likely that humans are affecting climate.So is Smith willing to share some of that responsibility? As the Herald’s writer Greg Bearup notes:HE has a holiday house, a farm with a homestead, a large house with a swimming pool, two cars, a steam train and all that owning three separate households entail. He’s very open, but for some reason refuses to confirm just how many aircraft he owns; there are at least two helicopters and a jet.
OECD chokes on NBN
Andrew Bolt
How many more warnings does this Government need?
THE OECD has urged the Gillard government to slow down the rollout of its $43 billion high-speed broadband network.Let no one say later that no one realised this would turn out very badly
It has warned that the project is installing a public monopoly that could choke off the development of better internet technologies.
The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has declared that a more gradual approach would allow a better assessment of the costs and potential benefits associated with the National Broadband Network.
In a new report, the OECD said the government had adopted a “picking-the-winner strategy” on the NBN that could hinder the development of “as yet unknown, superior technological alternatives”. The report also found “substantial financial uncertainties” with the massive project - which is expected to have $26bn worth of equity funding from the government - and cautioned that it may not be the most cost-effective strategy.
UPDATE
Reader Spencer de Vere may be right:
I oppose the NBN, but I think it’s foolish to go quoting the OECD’s opinion simply because it provides ammunition with which to oppose it. Would you think that the OECD viewing the NBN favourably was a significant factor in its favour ?The more appropriate take on this story is, “The OECD should mind its own damn business”===
Missing him already
Andrew Bolt
Toby Harnden on the last adult to be president:
Bush must know, however, that his steadfast refusal to make any comment at all about Obama’s presidency stands in stark contrast to the derision he has received from his successor. He is self-aware enough to realise that his pithy, confident interview answers are sharply different from Obama’s wordy circumlocutions.
Who would have thought that the man hailed as a great American orator and whose stage at the 2008 Democratic convention was a faux Greek temple would be shown up in terms of the theatricality and articulation of the presidency by the man derided as a tongue-tied bumbler and global village idiot?…
By the same token, perhaps only a performance in office as myopic, self-absorbed and hubristic as that of Obama could have brought about a Bush rehabilitation so swiftly.
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