Friday, December 07, 2012

Fri 7th Dec Todays News

Happy birthday and many happy returns Tu Vuong and Darius Boyd. Darius is not yet entitled to his own page .. having been born at 11:47 today .. growing the Jesus Family. Born on the same day, across the years. Remember, birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

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December 7Armed Forces Flag Day in India; Pearl Harbor Day in the United States
Ante Gotovina

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Events

[edit]Births


[edit]Deaths

[edit]Holidays and observances


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Wilderness and infamy beckon for Labor lost

Piers Akerman – Thursday, December 06, 2012 (5:48pm)

LABOR sage John Faulkner has again called for sweeping reform of the ALP - in what is now an annual address. 

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Vale Bryson Anderson

Miranda Devine – Friday, December 07, 2012 (12:30pm)

image
VALE Detective Inspector Bryson Anderson, 45, a humble man, a “consummate” police officer, a leader, a protector, an inspired mentor, and a husband and father of three.
Loved by his family, respected by his colleagues and community, his death is a great loss.
His fatal stabbing at the scene of a domestic dispute between neighbours in Oakville, NSW, on Thursday is a reminder of the dangers facing police, who lay their lives on the line every shift.
We seem increasingly ready to criticise police, second guess actions taken in the heat of the moment, and take away their ability to defend themselves and the community.
Yet here is the reality of the thin blue line.
“Last night I looked into the eyes of a little girl, 15, and two little boys that were 12 and 10,” said NSW Commissioner Andrew Scipione.

“They have needs that will go on. I looked at Bryson’s wife, who will have debts that will continue to go on long past the passing of her husband.”
Tax deductible donations to the Anderson family can be made to a fund established by the NSW Police Association and to be administered by Police Legacy
Account name:  Bryson Anderson Memorial Fund
BSB:  815000
Account No:  273178

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Stories from Remember me: the lost diggers of Vignacourt

Grave marker for Private Samuel Lindsay Nixon

A farmer from Oaklands, NSW, Pte Nixon embarked from Sydney aboard SS Port Napier on 17 November 1916 with the 14th Battalion. He late
r transferred to the 29th Battalion and was a stretcher bearer when he was hit by a shellburst while bandaging a fellow soldier. He was taken to the casualty clearing station at Vignacourt but died from his wounds the next day. Affectionately known as ‘Sam’, this grave marker was made by the men in his company and erected over his grave in the Vignacourt cemetery.

View this photo in our collection here:http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/p10550.640

Photo: Stories from Remember me: the lost diggers of Vignacourt

Grave marker for Private Samuel Lindsay Nixon
 
A farmer from Oaklands, NSW, Pte Nixon embarked from Sydney aboard SS Port Napier on 17 November 1916 with the 14th Battalion. He later transferred to the 29th Battalion and was a stretcher bearer when he was hit by a shellburst while bandaging a fellow soldier. He was taken to the casualty clearing station at Vignacourt but died from his wounds the next day. Affectionately known as ‘Sam’, this grave marker was made by the men in his company and erected over his grave in the Vignacourt cemetery.

View this photo in our collection here: http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/p10550.640
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The doctrine of doing nothing wrong and our new website name.

It's prime ministerially approved.   Paul Howes has said that Julia Gillard did nothing wrong in The AWU Scandal.   Ergo neither am I.
Enjoy the following website.   The last time someone did nothing wrong with the AWU name they got away with about half a million dollars.   I have no malicious intent, I do not propose to steal nor to pretend that I represent the AWU in any way at all.   This site is set up to investigate and to pursue the truth.
Paul Howes still hasn't responded to our notice that we intend to use the AWU name in a new incorporated association.   He's on the record as saying that Julia Gillard did nothing wrong by using the name in an entity that had nothing to do with the AWU.   Let's see id he means it - or perhaps he's just protecting Julia Gillard and her old friend Bruce Wilson.

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A “thank you” from Thomson would have sounded better

Andrew BoltDECEMBER072012(5:06pm)

CRAIG Thomson will this morning formally ask police to obtain surveillance footage of the nights he is alleged to have visited Sydney brothels on a union credit card before he became an MP.

In a fresh and final attempt to clear his name, the member for Dobell will call Victorian police to seek any tapes that may still exist, insisting his face will not be among those involved in the alleged union-funded sex romps…

“I’m going to speak to Victorian police today,” Mr Thomson said.

“It is my understanding that under licensing rules in NSW they (brothels) must keep footage for six years. I am going to ask them to look at footage of those nights.”
So I’m surprised today to find his lawyer surprised and seemingly cross that police have - seven months later - asked for exactly what Thomson claimed would clear him: 

Several of the nine subpoenas issued today have been issued to brothels and escort agencies, seeking any records of services provided to Mr Thomson…
One subpoena issued to a Sydney-based escort service also requests CCTV footage dating back to 2003.
Mr Thomson’s lawyer, Chris McArdle, said FWA had filed a shaky case from the outset if it was going after crucial information “this late in the game”.
“We’ve said that from the very beginning, if you need to ask for something you don’t have it, so the case is flimsy,” Mr McArdle told The Australian.

“I only found out today that these subpoenas existed, which was rather rude, and I got in touch with the other side (FWA) and they said we’d be told about them in due time.”

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2GB, December 7

Andrew BoltDECEMBER072012(5:03pm)

 2GB podcasts
With Steve Price from 8pm. Listen live here.
Last night’s show: listen here.

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Who will balance “our” ABC?

Andrew BoltDECEMBER072012(3:35pm)

Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch Dog chews on plenty of ABC bias. Much mention made of Phillip Adams, Jon Faine, Fran Kelly, Linda Mottram and Malcolm Farr, who owes Niki Savva an apology.

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Maybe they’re just protecting the restaurants from racists

Andrew BoltDECEMBER072012(12:25pm)

What a marvellous contribution Lebanese Muslims have made to Sydney. They’ve brought their wonderful restaurants, and the gangs to protect them:
ORGANISED criminals using religious and ethnic divides as a front are extorting the restaurant-lined main streets of Bankstown; three businesses were sprayed with bullets and another three torched over the past two months…

Some owners have linked the attacks to Brothers for Life, a gang formed by the convicted killer Bassam Hamzy. The group, which specialises in extortion and drug supply, has had a recent resurgence and was involved in a shooting death in Greenacre in October.
Police said religion and ethnicity were being used as a front by ‘’criminals being criminals’’....
The Lebanese owner of one cafe/restaurant on South Terrace said men wearing traditional Middle Eastern clothing sat down for a coffee and started talking about religion but quickly demanded $50,000 in exchange for protection.
The owner could not pay, so approached a ‘’rival gang’’, which offered protection for half the price.

Others have not been so lucky. Three large Lebanese restaurants were shot at on consecutive Friday nights last month.
Another sign of the success of our immigration and multicultural programs, which have brought in self-sustaining communities so reaassuringly strong and independent that some insist in providing their own police force. And, of course, we now have rules to punish anyone so unenlightened as to criticise this most refreshing new development.
Lovely.
(Thanks to readers Lin and rapscallion.)

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Even seeming green now costs too much

Andrew BoltDECEMBER072012(12:20pm)

 Global warming - general
Governments can no longer afford to spend money just to seem green - not when people are bored with that whole end-of-the-world thing:
NINE green energy schemes have been axed to help stave off any more double digit price rises, [NSW] Premier Barry O’Farrell will promise today as he enters negotiations at COAG over power bills…

“I’ll be very clearly pointing out how our actions have been overwhelmed by federal Labor policies and green schemes which add $270 to the average NSW household bill.”
The latest green schemes to be axed are Fleetwise and the Energy Efficiency Training Program, which duplicated an existing federal scheme, and Energy Savings Action Plans.
This is on top of a further six programs the government recently ceased: Energy Savings Fund Grants, Green Business Grants, Public Facilities Grants, Renewable Energy Development Grants, Schools Energy Efficiency Grants and a Hybrid bus trial.

The state government will also merge the Energy Efficiency for Small Business and Energy Saver programs to improve their effectiveness and reduce the compliance burden for business. The government will also reform GreenPower by requiring greater industry participation.
How much difference to the climate did any of those Seem-To-Be-Green schemes make? What fools put them in place? We ought to be told.
(Thanks to reader Hmmm.)

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Surplus gone. Excuse coming

Andrew BoltDECEMBER072012(8:14am)

The promised surplus - “no ifs, no buts” - is already dead. Now comes the preparation of some excuse:
The Gillard government is preparing to dump its commitment to a budget surplus if economic growth slips below its long-term average in the current quarter.

The big shift in budget strategy comes after real gross domestic product – which measures the amount of goods and services the economy produces – grew by just 0.5 per cent in the September quarter, the smallest gain in six quarters and the first clear sign that the economy is slowing below its average growth rate.

While federal cabinet’s expenditure review committee has met in Canberra this week in a desperate search for savings to keep its surplus commitment alive, sources point to the multiple statements from senior government ministers that link the budget surplus commitment to stronger levels of economic growth.
Some of the commentary is already conflating two issues.
One is: should the Government really be contracting spending when the economy is already slowing?
The other is: should the Government be held to account for promising a surplus so definitively when it was in no position to do so? Remember why that promise was made: to give the impression it was financially responsible when it was in fact irresponsibly splurging many billions more than it should have on a stimulus. The promise was simply a deception - political cover for a bad decision. This needs to be stressed, otherwise we give governments licence to lie.

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Whinging, suing and controlling

Andrew BoltDECEMBER072012(7:45am)

John Roskam says next year could cost us some of our freedom as the culture of complaint is ramped up:

The number and variety of threats to the civil liberties of Australians during 2012 approached almost unprecedented levels.
What’s more dangerous is the way that, during the year, the Gillard government stepped up its efforts to inculcate in the community a particular set of attitudes. Australians are now urged to find sexism, racism, and discrimination at every turn. 
The Prime Minister’s misogyny speech was noteworthy because it revealed the sense of grievance the Gillard government wants Australians to experience in all walks of life, not just in politics.

Where no sexism, racism or discrimination is obvious, we’re now actively encouraged to go looking for it, and if we can’t find sexism, racism or discrimination, the government will find it for us. This is the approach found in a host of legislation ranging from the Fair Work Act, to the Workplace Gender Equality Act which was passed last month, to the Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill which will go to Parliament next year.

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Al Gore foiled. Himalayan glaciers grow back

Andrew BoltDECEMBER072012(12:04am)

 Global warming - dud predictions
Don’t tell me Al Gore was exaggerating again! 
With high-altitude mountains in Himachal Pradesh experiencing up to 100 cm fresh snowfall in November month after 10 years, the abundance of snow on mountains has rejuvenated nearly one thousand glaciers and has ensured uninterrupted supply of water for drinking, irrigation and hydel projects.

Even after years of research on glaciers and climate of Himalayas, scientists have failed to learn the pattern of the weather here. While scanty snowfall and rising temperature in last decade had sparked the possibilities of fast shrinking of glaciers, good spells of snowfall in last three years have changed the trend with glaciers almost growing to their original size. Some scientists say that despite heavy snowfall in winters, the extreme heat in summers is causing the melting of the glaciers with abnormal speed and others say extreme cold in winters is neutralizing the minor effect of risen temperature in summer. Overall, speed of melting of glaciers has reduced over the past few years only due to good snowfall in winter months.
This improves even on the good news reported in February:

The discovery has stunned scientists, who had believed that around 50bn tonnes of meltwater were being shed each year and not being replaced by new snowfall.
The study is the first to survey all the world’s icecaps and glaciers and was made possible by the use of satellite data. Overall, the contribution of melting ice outside the two largest caps – Greenland and Antarctica – is much less than previously estimated, with the lack of ice loss in the Himalayas and the other high peaks of Asia responsible for most of the discrepancy.

Bristol University glaciologist Prof Jonathan Bamber, who was not part of the research team, said: “The very unexpected result was the negligible mass loss from high mountain Asia, which is not significantly different from zero.”
Not what Al Gore was saying three years ago, when he was warning of a billion people running out of water:
(Thanks to reader Steve.)


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