by: Kerry McKay
Can those fish stories
Piers Akerman – Friday, April 22, 11 (09:14 am)
It doesn’t look like we’ll have fish this Easter.
The only fish we have seen since leaving the market place in Apia have been tinned anchovies and one stiff flying fish which came aboard during a rain squall early Thursday.
I have been searching through microfilm of Frank Devine’s old That’s Language column’s of the ‘90s. I am up to ‘96. Just like your search for fish in some of the world’s best sailing places, I am finding it hard to track down my prey.
I am looking for a quote from Mr Devine. I remember reading it, but I am not sure if it was in that column, or a editorial for the Australian midweek. I remember him writing about condom/aids posters in Africa (or Timor?) and how specific education from those posters was wasted aid money when compared to general education. I recall him referring to the “old adage that if you give women control of their minds they will take control of their bodies.” He referred to western democracy birth rates and high female education attainment and third world birth rates with low female education achievement.
The Australian is supposed to have those articles online and searchable, but I cannot seem to access them. So I have learned to use the microfilm. Four days and and twelve hours of searching later and I have found two quotes from ‘95 which suggest it is something he could have said. The first being from the 21st of January ‘95 in the column headlined “Agenda Specific” in which he said it was incumbent on both sexes to take a stand on the issue of gender neutral assault language. The other quote is from the 4th of February ‘95 “Hark the Herald” in which he wrote “it is surely desirable that everyone be educated to a level of literacy measured for literacy’s sake alone rather than calibrated to the rudimentary needs of employment in warehouses.” And yes I am drawing a long bow there.
Have you any suggestions as to how I may improve my search? I am sorry I can’t help you with the fishing. You know I would if I could.
Happy Easter to you and the crew, may the lord bless you mightily.
Fri 22 Apr 11 (05:28pm)
DIVERSITY DISCONCERTING
Tim Blair – Sunday, April 24, 11 (05:42 am)
A scandal revealed by the Melbourne Age:
The Christian organisation that provides chaplains and religious instruction teachers in state schools has advertised its services as a ‘’mission’’ in an area of Melbourne with a large Muslim population.
Apparently the use of “mission” wouldn’t have mattered so much in areas without large Muslim populations. Interesting.
An Access Ministries advertising feature shows a Christian chaplain at multicultural Glenroy Primary School talking to two Muslim children wearing hijabs. The headline is: ‘’Your Community Our Mission’’.
Take the Jesus lady out of the picture. Keep the hijab kids and the same headline. Think the Age would be upset?
The director of the Islamic Council of Victoria, Nazeem Hussain, described the image as ‘’disconcerting’’.
Here it is. It’s like a poster for multi-culti hugginess. Click only if you’re prepared to be disconcerted.
436 DAYS UNTIL LABOR’S CHRISTINE MILNE TAX
Tim Blair – Sunday, April 24, 11 (02:13 am)
Says Christine: “It was the Greens who put this on the table after the election. It’s part of our agreement with the Prime Minister.” Just so everybody knows:
UPDATE. Another Gillard deal:
As part of a binding agreement with the Gillard government, the key independents – Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor and Andrew Wilkie – were granted more than double the staffing entitlements of other backbenchers.
Parliamentary records show that on average each independent is endowed with enough public funds to pay nine electoral and personal parliamentary staff, whereas Liberal or Labor backbench MPs are allowed a staff of four.
So the Greens decide policy and the independents enjoy power. What does Labor get to do?
EXTORTO THE CLOWN
Tim Blair – Saturday, April 23, 11 (04:39 pm)
The phone call everybody fears:
The family was told in one call that a man in a clown suit and riding a small bicycle would be coming to pick up the money …
Solorza was arrested in February 2009 after he arrived at a home in San Mateo County on a child’s bicycle – while dressed in a clown suit, a clown glitter wig, a Pirates of the Caribbean hat (complete with dreadlocks) and sunglasses – and grabbed a briefcase that he believed contained $50,000 he had demanded as the price for not having his relatives deported, authorities said.
Frank Salvador Solorza was subsequently convicted of conspiracy, extortion and – of course – impersonating an immigration officer. His excuse: Norteno gang members put him up to it. Authorities were dubious:
“Nortenos always dress in their colors; they don’t use disguises, let alone engage in crimes wearing clown suits,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kevin Barry and Denise Marie Barton wrote in a sentencing memo filed in U.S. District Court in Oakland.
Solorza carried a receipt from the House of Humor costume store when he was arrested.
COLDSTERS
Tim Blair – Saturday, April 23, 11 (04:23 pm)
Parramatta council prepares for a terrible warmening:
“The highest priority risks were premature deaths of vulnerable residents, heat stress, personal violence, increased risk of skin cancers, increased cost to cool buildings and more power outages during heatwaves,” the Climate Extremes Risk Assessment and Adaptation Plan said …
To combat food shortages, the report suggested digging community gardens on council land to feed people in Sydney’s suburbs during times when “food becomes more expensive and limited”.
The report also suggests transporting the elderly to council-built “cool rooms” when the warmening strikes. Writes one commenter: “Bring on the freezer geezers.”
Pampered Independents provoke Labor MPs
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, April 24, 11 (08:14 am)
Just who is running this Government?
As part of a binding agreement with the Gillard government, the key independents - Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor and Andrew Wilkie - were granted more than double the staffing entitlements of other backbenchers.
Parliamentary records show that on average each independent is endowed with enough public funds to pay nine electoral and personal parliamentary staff, whereas Liberal or Labor backbench MPs are allowed a staff of four.
Disgruntled MPs from both sides who contacted The Sun-Herald said the ‘’inordinate’’ amount of attention and time given to the independents was beginning to disrupt the workings of Parliamentand daily committee work. Their concerns included:
The level of access to cabinet ministers granted to the independent MPs.Their own inability to secure meetings with the Prime Minister while independents were given a weekly audience when Parliament was in session.
Departmental briefings being rapidly made available to independents and not backbenchers.
Who’s in charge? We are, declares Christine Milne of the Greens.
Tanner unleashes on Gillard and Rudd’s spin
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, April 24, 11 (07:26 am)
Lindsay Tanner, once one of the Rudd Government’s “Gang of Four”, gave every impression that he did not rate Julia Gillard. That impression is now confirmed:
In the first memoir written by a Rudd government insider, former finance minister Lindsay Tanner also describes Ms Gillard’s “moving forward” election slogan as setting ”new records for banality”.
Mr Tanner, who quit politics on the same day that Julia Gillard became Prime Minister, said the 2010 election campaign was the “worst in living memory”, with “banal slogans, robotic delivery, and trivial policy announcement deployed by both the major parties”.
He also says Ms Gillard has dyed her hair red for years to help build her personal brand.
“It makes her more noticeable. She has registered as an individual personality in the sideshow.”
Tanner reveals how much the Rudd Government worked on spin rather than substance:
Mr Tanner, who was one of the “gang of four” ministers who ran Labor’s policy agenda, also writes that the media failed to twig that the government did nothing for two-and-a-half years to deliver on a key economic pledge by Mr Rudd in 2008 to boost national savings.
In 2007, when Mr Rudd announced the business advisory panel headed by the respected Sir Rod Eddington, The Australian “splashed the story on its front page, complete with a big photo of a smiling Rudd and shadow treasurer Wayne Swan”.
“Did anything actually happen?” Mr Tanner writes.
The truth, he explains, was that “Kevin Rudd may have announced the creation of the advisory panel but ultimately it was never established”.
Tanner claims no journalist noticed or reported the fraud.
“In spite of occasional cursory inquiries from journalists about when the names of its members would be announced, no one ever worked out that it was a chimera. A potentially highly embarrassing story was never written,” Mr Tanner said.
I think he means almost no Canberra correspondent noticed, since I did recall writing this in 2007:
Eddington was not consulted at all by Rudd on Labor’s IR policy… It is now clear that Eddington was hired not to represent business to Labor but Labor to business - and to voters. He’s being used.
And again:
As I’ve said before, Sir Rod Eddington will have to quit as Labor’s chief business advisor, seeing that Labor’s not interested at all in actually having him advise it:
Speaking of journalists covering up for Labor, we saw last year how Tanner was protected by ABC host Tony Jones from a Q&A audience member who’d correctly noted he’d done a backlflip:
AUDIENCE MEMBER: In March ... you said that an increase in superannuation from 9 per cent to 12 per cent would act have a negative impact on wages. You said the reason that your Government wasn’t putting it in because real wages were going to decrease because of it, because companies weren’t going to be increasing wages during that time, and now you’ve had a sudden backflip.TANNER: You mean me personally or somebody else?
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, you personally. You had an interview with Ross Greenwood in March…
TANNER: I’d like to see the transcript of that because I think there’s a certain amoung of verballing going on here.
AUDIENCE MEMBER (holding up an iPod: I’ve got it on podcast now if you’d like to listen
HOST TONY JONES: OK, I don’t think we’re going to do that…
TANNER: I’m afraid that without seeing that I’m not going to accept that there been any backflip or anything like that.
This is how Jones then wrapped up that exchange:
JONES: I think we’re going to move along now, because I actually think that is an incorrect -
TANNER: I’ll check my transcript.
JONES: I actually think that is an incorrect quote.
In his book, Tanner reveals he was likewise protected by then Lateline host Leigh Sales:
the ABC edited out of a Lateline interview a stumble when he was asked by Leigh Sales to describe Mr Rudd in one word and replied, “Nasty.” Mr Tanner quips his gaffe was edited out because he thought he was talking about John Howard.
(Thanks to readers Southernlight, PaulC, Correllio. Lin and Tony.)
Bottom line: the green way loses again
Andrew Bolt – Sunday, April 24, 11 (07:12 am)
Mass murder in Syria
Andrew Bolt – Saturday, April 23, 11 (08:24 pm)
Syria grows bloodier - as the dictator Assad kills and kills to stay in power:
Syrian forces shot dead at least 72 people as they tried to disperse thousands on the streets for Good Friday protests to test long-sought freedoms, activists said.
A day after President Bashar al-Assad scrapped decades of emergency rule, his forces used live ammunition against demonstrators in several towns and cities nationwide, witnesses and activists said.
CAUTION: DO NOT WATCH THE FOLLOWING VIDEO IF BLOOD AND SHOTS OF PEOPLE SHREDDED BY FIRE UPSETS:
Syria, not being some Libyan joke, will not face a NATO bombing.
UPDATE
A response from Assad’s supporters in Australia is called for:
And perhaps the Friends of Syria in Australia could do something to deplore the massacre of unarmed Syrians, like, you know, resigning or something:
Fiona Hill (PhD Anthropology) is owner operator of Almanar Consultancy, assisting Australians to achieve optimum results in the Arab markets… and mediating the ‘cross-cultural’ experience of Australia-Arab relations.
Fiona provides briefings, workshops, and strategic advice about Arab country contexts and characteristics; arranges trade and cultural visits; ....; and is a Public Speaker about the joys of interaction with the Arab countries.
Fiona served on the Council for Australian-Arab Relations (CAAR) 2002 – 2008, and is President of Friends of Syria/Australia, appointed by the Syrian Embassy in Australia… As a writer and perpetual researcher, Fiona is Senior Fellow of the Asia Institute at University of Melbourne; Honorary Associate in the School of History, Heritage & Society at Deakin University...
I mean, Fiona wouldn’t want to seem an apologist for butchers, would she?
The problem is?
Andrew Bolt – Saturday, April 23, 11 (07:57 pm)
Something seems not right with Taree, on the NSW coast, but so timid are authorities in discussing social issues that we can only speculate about the problem:
2009:
ASSAULTS, break and enters, cannabis offences and breach of apprehended domestic violence orders are occurring in the Greater Taree region at rates well above the New South Wales average…
Non-domestic violence assaults were up on 2006 and 2007 figures with 376 offences, a rate of 795.9 per 100,000 compared to the NSW average of 629.1. Assault police crimes dropped from 44 offences in 2007 to 29 last year but the rate 61.4 was still above the State’s 41.4.
April 12:
TWO men had to receive hospital treatment after being bashed and robbed on a Taree street.
The two, along with a female friend, were set upon by a group of about five Aboriginal males and one Causacian male aged between 12 and 17, while they were walking home from a licensed premises in Victoria Street.
Today:
Five people, including a 13-year-old boy, have been arrested and charged after a 35-year-old man was violently assaulted on the Mid North Coast last night (Friday 22 April).
About 10pm yesterday, the 35-year-old and a friend were walking through a car park off Macquarie Street, Taree, when an altercation began with another man, aged 21.
Police were told the 21-year-old assaulted the older man, before four other people joined the altercation. The 35-year-old man was allegedly struck with rocks and bricks.
How we shipped off $599 million to the United Nations’ warmists
Andrew Bolt – Saturday, April 23, 11 (10:21 am)
(Climate Change Minister Greg) Combet boasts that ”Every dollar raised by the carbon price will be dedicated to supporting households with any price impacts, and supporting businesses through the transition to a clean energy economy.”This is impossible. Under the “Fast Start Finance” commitment from Cancun, which Combet announced, $599 million will be given to the IPCC under Australia’s combating AGW obligations. This $599 million is on top of the commitment made by Australia at Cancun to give 10% of revenue raised from a carbon tax to the IPCC. Then there will be the bureaucratic expansion to run the tax, checking compliance and eligibility criteria; these administration costs apparently run at 50% for the Australian government.
JoNova presents this table from the United Nations-associated Fast Start Programsite:
Some questions:
- Why is the Gillard Government handing over so much money?- How much more does it intend to give to United Nations’ programs on global warming?
- What steps has the Government taken to ensure the money is not wasted, as so much UN funding is?
- By how much will the world’s temperature fall as a consequence of all this spending?
- Is some of this spending properly described as a bribe to get countries to sign up to a UN deal on emissions?
- Is any of this spending to be paid for by the carbon dioxide tax?
- How much of this funding on warming projects has been diverted from aid programs meant to help the poor?
(Thanks to reader Steve.)
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