Thursday, April 18, 2013

Thu Apr 18th Todays News

Happy birthday and many happy returns Noodle Won TonTri Tran andWatthanak Peter Lim. Born on the same day as David Tennant, across the years. He played Dr Who. And he could have been born on any day he chose. Be blessed.
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Gillard and Garrett are wrongski on Gonski

Piers Akerman – Thursday, April 18, 2013 (5:50pm)

JULIA Gillard and Peter Garrett deserve a big fail for their disastrous attack on school funding concealed in the bizarre interpretation of the Gonski review they wish to present to the state premiers.

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Carbon tax - dangerous hot air

Piers Akerman – Thursday, April 18, 2013 (6:47am)

THE collapse of the price European carbon tax has exposed the fraudulent basis for the Labor-Green-Independent carbon tax.
It makes no sense.
The European Union price has plummeted to around $3-a-tonne while the Australian government’s fixed price is $23-a-tonne and due to rise again to $24.15-a-tonne from July 1.
What an utter farce.
Blind Freddy can see that Australians are being hit with an unfair burden while their global competitors are laughing.
Business is finally screaming after spending years in bed with the Rudd-Gillard government.
Yesterday, both the Business Council and the Australian Industry Group slammed the government.
BCA president Tony Shepherd declared it “ridiculous” that Australian businesses faced a $23-a-tonne carbon price while the Europeans faced a price just above $3 a tonne.
AI Group chief executive Innes Willox said the EU parliament’s vote to keep carbon prices low highlighted “how far out of kilter Australia’s high fixed carbon prices are”.
“Linking internationally and abolishing the fixed-price carbon tax now would cut the carbon price by 80 per cent to $4, reducing electricity prices by more than 1.5c per kilowatt hour and taking pressure off trade-exposed industries and households,” he told The Australian, which has today’s best coverage on the price crash and its implications for the nation.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry economics director Greg Evans described the Australian scheme as “economic recklessness” and said it should be scrapped.
Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Mitch Hooke declared the scheme was now “untenable”.
The immediate effect of the price collapse will be a $6-$10 billion hole in Treasurer Wayne Swan’s next Budget.
Just goes to show what a complete house-of-cards Labor’s budgeting has always been.
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet desperately hopes something will force up the European price of carbon.
That is, he wants the market to manipulated.
More phony interfering with an unnatural market.
Opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey said the budget was in “chaos” and faced a $7bn revenue hole.
University of Wollongong economics professor Henry Ergas predicted a $5.3bn revenue hole in each of the 2015-16 and 2016-17 years based on the collapse of the European carbon price to about $5 a tonne. Professor Ergas said that, by pricing carbon at less than $5 a tonne, the market was providing an indication of where it believed prices were headed.
“It was a foolish scheme to begin with,” he said. “It makes no sense to have a high price now and a low price in future . . . there is no benefit to the environment or to the economy.”
The government’s scheme budgets for a $23 a tonne price in 2012-13, rising to $24.15 in 2013-14 and $25.40 in 2014-15. The carbon price will be linked with the EU scheme from July 2015 and the price will float.
In last year’s budget, Treasury predicted the carbon price would be $29 a tonne in 2015-16, providing projected revenues of $6.7bn.
In sticking with the $29 figure, Treasury acknowledged that prices had fallen but cited potential EU “policy options to increase the current low prices in the EU ETS, with implications for international carbon markets”.
On Tuesday night the European parliament rejected a proposal - by 334 votes to 315 - to postpone the sale of 900 million permits aimed at propping up the price. The price immediately fell 50 per cent to a low of $3.23.
ACCI’s Evans said the collapse of the European price “shows the scale of the economic recklessness of imposing a carbon tax of $23 a tonne on Australian industry and consumers”.
“The highest carbon price in the world is taking its toll on domestic industry with investment and jobs starting to move offshore in a number of energy intensive industries and smaller more vulnerable businesses,” he said.
Hooke said the $23 carbon tax was untenable, “as it locks in a huge competitive disadvantage against the only other economy-wide carbon pricing scheme, and an even larger hit compared with most other competitors with no carbon price at all”.
“This futile millstone around the neck of Australian exporters should be scrapped,” he said. “There is a better way to price carbon to manage the challenge of climate change.”
The reality is the carbon market is artificial. It was designed by Greens and global warmists not in any known market-place.
It’s just hot air. 

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WAYNE WORDS

Tim Blair – Thursday, April 18, 2013 (3:01pm)

Below junk status”: the Economist‘s concise description of Europe’s carbon market. This useful phrase may re-appear next month in analysis of Wayne Swan’s budget.

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TEXAS EXPLODES

Tim Blair – Thursday, April 18, 2013 (2:23pm)

This is utterly terrifying:



The explosion, at a fertiliser plant in West, Texas, reportedly destroyed more than 75 properties. No official death toll at this point.

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HEDGE FUND

Tim Blair – Thursday, April 18, 2013 (1:21pm)

This seems a sensible use of ratepayers’ money: 
The City of Sydney Council is spending $9 million on a 1km hedge along a busy, polluted street.
The council, one of Australia’s wealthiest, claims the hedge will turn one of Sydney ugliest thoroughfares into a Parisian-style boulevard. 
Why not just send residents to Paris instead? First 6800 people to apply win a return trip.

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JAILHOUSE ROCK

Tim Blair – Thursday, April 18, 2013 (12:05pm)

The man arrested for allegedly sending a ricin-laced letter to a US Senator is an Elvis Presley impersonator who lives in Presley’s hometown of Tupelo, Mississippi.
(Via Iowahawk)

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BOSTON BREAKTHROUGH (UPDATE: OR NOT)

Tim Blair – Thursday, April 18, 2013 (3:34am)

Rapid developments in the past hour:

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The Globe reports: 
An official briefed on the Boston Marathon bombing investigation said today that authorities have an image of a suspect carrying, and perhaps dropping, a black bag at the second bombing scene on Boylston Street, outside of the Forum restaurant.
Investigators are “very close” in the investigation, said the official, who declined to be named.
That official said authorities may publicize their finding as early as this afternoon. 
CNN said footage from Lord & Taylor, on the same Boylston Street block torn apart by blasts Monday, have led investigators to a man believed to have planted the second bomb.
The suspect appeared to have a dark complexion, CNN said. 
And now
An official says a suspect is to be brought to court as video reportedly shows a man carrying a bag where one blast took place. 
UPDATE: 
An arrest has been made in the Boston bombings investigation based on two videos showing images of the suspect, a federal law enforcement source told CNN’s Fran Townsend. 
UPDATE II. Arrest or no arrest
A spokesman for the FBI at their national office in Washington DC confirmed to the Guardian’s Matt Williams that ”no arrests had been made” in the Boston case …
In direct contradiction of the spokesman’s statement, the Associated Press reports that a suspect is in custody and will be brought before a federal court. 
UPDATE III. The Globe now claims: “Suspect being taken to US District Court in South Boston.” But from the Boston Police Department: “Despite reports to the contrary there has not been an arrest in the Marathon attack.”
UPDATE IV. Previous reports described a suspect with a “dark complexion”. This piece points at awhite guy
[CBS News’ Bob] Orr said a person was seen on surveillance video carrying a black backpack and talking on a cell phone at the site of what became the second explosion on Monday moments before the blasts …
The person seen on the video is described as being a white male and was wearing a white baseball hat, grey hoodie and a black jacket, CBS News reported. 
UPDATE V
The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a statement Wednesday afternoon essentially scolding several media outlets after they incorrectly reported that an arrest had been made in the investigation of Monday’s bombing attacks against the Boston Marathon.
“Contrary to widespread reporting, no arrest has been made in connection with the Boston Marathon attack,” reads the FBI’s unusual statement …
CNN’s John King was the first to report that an arrest in the case had been made, a claim later backed up by the Boston Globe, Fox News and the Associated Press. 

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About these people wagging their finger at you…

Andrew Bolt April 18 2013 (4:22pm)

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Blog readers will have read a lot of Cater’s recent writing on our new class, and I suspect most of you will rate it as highly as I do.
To buy the book, go here.  

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Boston will not be bowed

Andrew Bolt April 18 2013 (1:11pm)

It’s Boston. The Marathon has just been bombed. The Bruins, Boston’s ice hockey team, is about to play. As usual, someone is about to sing the Star Spangled Banner to the crowd.
He doesn’t get far…
Not on his own, he doesn’t.
(Thanks to reader James.) 

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The new Thatcher and the shield of faith

Andrew Bolt April 18 2013 (12:35pm)

“The breastplate of righteousnous”:
She may be only 19-years-old, but Baroness Thatcher’s granddaughter captivated mourners on Wednesday as she delivered a flawless reading at the former prime minister’s funeral.
Amanda Thatcher, a US college student, appeared unfazed as she gave a lesson from Ephesians which called on the righteous to “put on the whole armour of God"…
She later told an MP that she had not felt nervous, adding: “It’s sort of in the blood."…
Ms Thatcher and her brother, Michael, 24, are the children of Sir Mark Thatcher and his first wife, Diane Beckett. They live with their mother in Dallas, Texas, where, according to her high school reports, Ms Thatcher is a talented sportswoman who excels in athletics and was voted “most likely to change the world” by her peers.
She and her brother are dedicated evangelical Christians, and were Baroness Thatcher’s “greatest delight” in later life.
It is often overlooked the Thatcher herself was Christian. She once explained:

Christianity is about more than doing good works. It is a deep faith which expresses itself in your relationship to God. It is a sanctity, and no politician is entitled to take that away from you or to have what I call corporate State activities which only look at interests as a whole.
So, you’ve got this double thing which you must aim for in religion, to work to really know your faith and to work it out in everyday life. You can’t separate one from the other. Good works are not enough because it would be like trying to cut a flower from its root; the flower would soon die because there would be nothing to revive it.
No Government was a substitute for religion:

Governments aren’t Big Brother. If you have a Minister for Marriage what is your view of people? If you treat people as so many pawns on a chessboard you have no Christian base, no religious base, no religion at all. It’s as if the whole of religion had come to: ‘What can governments do about these things?’ ...
What can I do about the rising rate of marital breakdown? What am I expected to do? Go into the houses? To say that if you are living a violent, drunken life you may not divorce?

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Just the man for the ABC’s job on Thatcher

Andrew Bolt April 18 2013 (8:04am)

I didn’t see it, but readers aren’t impressed.
Reader Earnestlad:

The ABC coverage of Margaret Thatcher’s funeral was very poorly judged, with their main commentator being Professor John Keane from Sydney University, a lugubriously left-wing academic with a tousled shock of fashionably oiled hair who even tried to ping her for Britain’s current unemployment rate, 23 years and 4 governments after she left office.
Most of the commentary was about how there weren’t any protests. The opportunity for us to actually learn something about the woman being buried was almost completely lost. Not as disrespectful as the street parties, but nowhere near professional.
Reader paulg:
I watched Margaret Thatcher’s funeral on ABC24. It would have been improved by removing the graceless and ignorant comments provided by the ABC journalist and the frizzy haired academic. They described in great detail their low opinion of her (inexplicably,she won 3 elections!) They added no description of what was happening, such as who was the (I assume) grandchild who read and why does she have an American accent?
There was a historic moment at the end when the Queen was talking to Thatcher’s children and grandchildren on the steps of St Paul’s. Of course our ABC journalists made no comment. I suppose they didn’t care.
Reader paridell:
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ABC-24 gave practically no information about Lady Thatcher’s funeral service, but made sure to identify it repeatedly at the bottom of the screen as the funeral of the “divisive former British leader Margaret Thatcher”. I trust that when the time comes for the funerals of Gough Whitlam or Julia Gillard (and may they be a long way off), the ABC will refer to each of them not as the Australian Prime Minister, but as the “divisive former Australian leader”.
In this interview, however, Keane seems all right to me.
But here he draws a long, long bow:
When historians look back on her thumping flag-waving reign, they’ll be inclined to see that she put Britain on a road to ruin. A Britain where life for many millions of people came to resemble Hobbes’ state of nature: more solitary, poorer, nastier, brutish and short.
Is that the quality the ABC was looking for in a commentator for the funeral?
UPDATE
On the other hand, don’t miss the terrific audio on ABC’s AM (up now) of Falkland Islands schoolchildren interviewing Thatcher in 1992 on regrets, doubts and standing up to pressure.  Fascinating, and it says something that it took children to ask such artless questions and so produce these revealing answers.

PORT STANLEY CHILD: How can you survive a 17 hour plane trip in such an immaculate condition?
MARGARET THATCHER: I’ve had quite a lot of experience in my 11 and a half years as prime minister of flying around the world. And I think the fact is that I don’t need very much sleep anyway. I’ve always enjoyed work which is the secret of life…
PORT STANLEY CHILD: Have you ever had any difficulties or comments being the first British female prime minister?
MARGARET THATCHER: Yes lots and lots, although now it won’t seem strange at all if in due course of time someone else, another woman, becomes prime minister. It so happens that I was the first research scientist to became prime minister. Somehow no-one every commented on that.
PORT STANLEY CHILD: Do you sometimes get nervous when making a speech?
MARGARET THATCHER: Always and especially when doing a television interview…
PORT STANLEY CHILD: What does it take to be a prime minister?
MARGARET THATCHER: I think it takes a great deal of knowledge about how politics works. All the time you have people arguing against every single step. So there’s always great controversy about things, always great debate.
Sometimes very harsh words are said. Sometimes people say that you have the wrong motives when you haven’t. So it’s much tougher and sometimes it’s very hurtful and so you have to have great belief in what you are doing. 

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Savva gives Herald a reality check

Andrew Bolt April 18 2013 (7:36am)

The Sydney Morning Herald’s Mark Kenny joined Julia Gillard on her “successful” trip to China, and was puzzled by her subsequent fall in the Nielsen poll to a catastrophic 43 per cent to 57 per cent:

The bad news for Labor came on the day that Ms Gillard announced her $14.5 billion school funding plan. It also follows one of her best weeks in many months leading up to the survey period ...
Niki Savva responds:

If you were living in or reporting from China, the Prime Minister did have a good week. Viewed from here, it was awful.
Holden got rid of 500 jobs and reduced production, even though it has received billions in subsidies from the government. Thursday’s March unemployment figures showed the jobless rate at 5.6 per cent, the highest for three years.
On Friday, Woodside abandoned its $45 billion onshore liquefied natural gas plant in Western Australia.
Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese released a plan that cost taxpayers $20 million to produce that he has no intention of adopting, and that nobody believes will ever be implemented, for a high-speed rail network connecting Australia’s east coast at a staggering cost of $114bn…
In case anyone missed the reasons for all the train wrecks, Simon Crean helpfully reminded them who was driving it all with her tin ear and penchant for class warfare.
Thanks to the pictures, the small battered ship that pulled into Geraldton harbour seemed to sum up for many voters the government’s incompetence. When the Sri Lankan vessel tied up at Geraldton it was the 78th boat to arrive this year, and its 66 passengers took the total number of asylum-seekers for the year so far to 4956.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Asher Moses was scathing of the Coalition’s plan to wind back the lavish spending on the NBN:

Technology has a habit of moving quicker than even the experts expect, and while Abbott is correct to say that 25 Mbps is enough to stream multiple high-definition movies (in some cases), tech commentators like Brad Howarth say ‘’the problem with designing a network to meet the needs of today is that it denies you the ability to meet the needs of tomorrow’’…
In 2006, Melbourne computer programmer and tech pioneer Jon Oxer injected a microchip the size of a grain of rice into his arm. The chip, which is still working fine, allows him to open the front door of his fully automated house. Oxer says the NBN’s 100 Mbps speeds could be immediately helpful in his various work projects quite apart from the consumer applications.

Another corrective from Savva:

ON Sunday, after he had replaced the back decking on the family home, Tony Abbott took the old planks down to the tip. When he got there, as well as directions on where to dump his load, one of the workers in a high-vis vest gave him some free advice.
This tip worker did not say: Tony, build Labor’s NBN, we have to have 100 megabits per second at our house because we want to insert a silicon chip in our arms so we can open our front door without a key…
What he said was: “Tony, we have got to stop the boats!”

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You can’t herd conservative bloggers

Andrew Bolt April 18 2013 (7:26am)

The Washington Times’ Joseph Cotto quizzes blogger Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom:

Cotto: Aside from the obvious partisan and philosophical differences, what would you say is the greatest difference between the left-leaning and right-leaning blogospheres?
Goldstein: The right-leaning blogosphere tends to be far more self-critical. It runs as a kind of far-flung debating society — or at least, it did. Lately there’s been pressure to coalesce around a given set of political narratives, to “rebrand,” which would follow the left-leaning model, under which messages are disseminated using a top down, “talking points” model.
It’s no accident that on a number of occasions the left has been caught organizing its messaging, whether through secret email groups or, as we saw thanks to an open mic before a Romney press event, through an active collusion of activist journalists looking to drive an agreed-upon narrative.
A major battle on the right, it seems to me, comes from conservative resistance to just such a model. It turns out Hobbits aren’t terribly gracious when they’re told to get their asses in line. Who knew?
(Via Instapundit.) 

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Boston bombing latest: probably untrue

Andrew Bolt April 18 2013 (6:52am)

The mainstream media reported the following things about the Boston Marathon bombings:
- two more unexploded devices were found.
- 12 people were killed.
- a Saudi man was arrested.
- another suspect was later arrested.
- a dark-skinned suspect has been filmed.
None of the above is true. 

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Column - On the deadly new white man’s burden

Andrew Bolt April 18 2013 (6:41am)

TO A certain kind of ABC viewer - or maybe even presenter - the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing didn’t deserve so many tears.
On Tuesday, ABC 24 presenter Virginia Trioli noted 37 people had also been killed in more bomb blasts in Iraq.
“It seems to many we are overly focusing on what happens to rich white people in the West, versus what happens on a daily basis in those countries.”
Yes, another bombing, another excuse for a cultural self-loathing of the kind that’s drowning boat people and devastating Aboriginal children.
True, the three Boston dead include whites like eight-year-old Martin Richard, although how rich he was I don’t know. 
(Read full article here.)
UPDATE
Salon:

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Worse than the mining tax debacle

Andrew Bolt April 18 2013 (6:39am)

The Gillard Government has created another financial disaster exactly like its mining tax - but even worse.
Its carbon tax, which it expected to raise $9 billion a year, is now likely to raise much less than half that from 2015, with the money already promised away in compensation and tax cuts.
This tax always was utterly ridiculous. Here was little Australia trying to “stop” a warming that has actually paused for the past 16 years.
Here was our government driving up power bills even though it would make no difference to temperatures.
But to futility now add incompetence. The government sold its carbon tax on the lie that the rest of the world was leaving us behind.
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet even claimed that by 2015 the world price for carbon permits - which businesses buy to allow them to keep emitting carbon dioxide - would reach at least $29 a tonne.
As Combet insisted last August: “The Treasury modelling that was done is something that the government stands behind and ... that does predict a $29 a tonne carbon price in fiscal year 2015-16.”
And so he pushed on with his crazy tax, set at $23 a tonne and rising.
But this week, Europe’s Emission Trading System - the world’s biggest - crashed again, falling to just $4 with little sign it will ever recover. 

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They said the world would warm dangerously, too

Andrew Bolt April 18 2013 (5:28am)

Climate Change Minister Greg Combet in April 2012::

KELLY: Have you looked at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance prediction which suggests that the international carbon prices could be as low as $5 a tonne by 2020 let alone by 2015?
COMBET: Well I have discussed a range of the forecasts while I have been in Europe with people fairly expert in the carbon markets and I haven’t found too many that support that view, that’s for sure.
Greens leader Christine Milne, August 2012:

It’s clear when you talk to analysts about where the European price is going to be by 2015. They are all saying that in fact it could be well ahead of where the Australian Treasury modelling is in terms of a higher price. There are some saying that you could have a European price as high as $50, for example
Greg Combet, August 2012:

(GREG) Combet said Treasury modelling of carbon pricing had proven to be accurate and, if anything, conservative. “How about we have a bit of trust in that than some ridiculous allegation made by (Opposition Leader) Tony Abbott about the impact of carbon pricing,” he said . . . “There is every reason to believe that carbon markets will recover and we’ll stand by the Treasury modelling.”
That modelling predicted?:
Mr Combet repeated he was confident of the Treasury modelling, which predicts a $29 a tonne carbon price in 2015/16.
The European price today? €2.80, or $3.55:

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UPDATE
Tim Wilson:
This reality is unfolding in Europe. A tonne of emissions is now $3.20, and is expected to fall to $1.20 compared with $7 earlier this year, a 2008 starting price of nearly $50 and Australia’s $23 carbon tax, which will increase to $24.15 on July 1. The European carbon price crash is not unprecedented. The voluntary Chicago climate exchange traded permits for about $7.50 in 2008, but bottomed out at 5c when the scheme closed in 2010…
European politicians have recognised how little public appetite there is to increase their hip pocket costs to cut emissions and reward rent seekers.
Malcolm Maiden:

The collapse of Europe’s latest attempt to breathe life into its moribund carbon trading scheme is a hammer-blow for proponents of a global carbon trading system. So much has gone wrong with Europe’s scheme that a global trading regime may be out of reach for decades, even if the carbon price recovers.

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Moral pygmies dancing on the grave of a giant

Andrew Bolt April 18 2013 (5:16am)

Greg Craven on the parties to celebrate the death of Margaret Thatcher:

There does seem to be something special in the capacity of that mercifully tiny faction of the venomous Left to hate. It may lie in the common observation that the definition of a mad right-winger is someone who thinks they can run the country, whereas the definition of a mad left-winger is someone who thinks they are a good person. Once your politics consists of dividing people into good and bad, it is a short step to excluding opponents from the category of people altogether. There is something disturbingly modern about street-party hatred. The same segment of the population that sends mindlessly devastating emails and pens clinically caustic blogs is utterly uninhibited in metaphorically urinating on a corpse in public.
So where does that leave us in Australia? The political rancour that has been directed against Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott has been vile, if not unprecedented. But does Tony wish Julia dead, and does Julia lie awake at night fantasising about dusting his budgie smugglers with arsenic? No. A more troubling question is whether nut cases, inspired by their British equivalents, will hold Howard parties and Kennett raves when their time comes. Quite possibly.

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A lesson from Asia - and it’s not Gonski

Andrew Bolt April 18 2013 (5:05am)

Greg Sheridan says it’s not money but culture that counts most in class:

Education more generally demonstrates our almost complete divorce from our Asian neighbours. We are about to waste a colossal amount of money on this Gonski madness. This money will have no measurable effect on our educational quality…
I have spent a lot of time in schoolrooms in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Almost without exception, these schoolrooms are physically less well endowed than their Australian counterparts. The class sizes are bigger, the grounds smaller, the buildings tackier. But the instruction is traditional, the teacher is boss, the school day and year are much longer, kids have to learn and remember a huge amount of content.
The result? The outcomes are vastly better than Australia’s. This is a lesson official Australia never wants to learn. Asian migrants are now bringing this wisdom to Australia, which is why Asian kids do so disproportionately well in our schools. Our society is well engaged with Asia, but at most policy levels our government hasn’t a clue.
A new study from the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research tends to agree.  From the press release:

Co-author of the research, Associate Professor Chris Ryan from the Melbourne Institute said while the Gonski Report declared that additional resources to schools would have a substantial impact on student achievement and improve their performance, additional resources provided to Australian schools in recent decades had not resulted in improved student performance.
“International academic research in economics and education suggests the effect of additional resources on standardized test scores is, at best, small,” he said.
Likewise, Associate Professor Ryan said the SRS used within the Gonski Report to determine the base funding level per student that all schools would receive was inherently flawed.
“The approach to determine the SRS did not consider the impact of student background on achievement, and as such can’t guarantee the student achievement targets will be met,” he said. 

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Boston bomber: suspect filmed, but not arrested

Andrew Bolt April 18 2013 (4:55am)

Some progress, but not the reported arrest:

Boston police are reporting there has been no arrest in the Marathon bombing case, saying in a Twitter message: “Despite reports to the contrary there has not been an arrest in the Marathon attack.”..
The U.S. Attorney’s Office refused to answer questions about any suspects being questioned or in custody…
A Herald source says video surveillance shows a suspect dropping a black bag at the scene of the second bombing on Boylston Street… They also have a facial image of a suspect, CNN reports. Herald
UPDATE
Patience:
The official said the components of the bomb — common kitchen pressure cookers, wire, batteries and gunpowder — are so widely available that barring the assistance of an informant or a telling photo from the crime scene it will likely take investigators some time to determine where the materials were obtained and who acquired them.

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4 her
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It was great to welcome Tony Abbott to Bruce today with Senator Helen Kroger. We had coffee at Jells Park with local mums and heard about the impact of rising living costs on their families. — with Tony Abbott and Senator Helen Kroger atMadelines at Jells.
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Today we travel to amazing Copperfield Bay, Musha Cay, Bahamas. Picture courtesy @EarthPix 
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You have embarrassed us in front of the world.
He, not only clearly hates the American way...he also hates our closest friends....the British.

"Obama’s absence meant he was upstaged by the presence of F. W. de Klerk,former President of South Africa, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Italy’s Prime Minister, Mario Monti, and Poland’s Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, just to name a few state leaders who decided that Lady Thatcher was worth honoring.

The leading chief-of-state who attended today’s memorial was Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. Today was the first time the Queen of Great Britain attended the funeral of a prime minister since Sir Winston Churchill passed away forty-eight years ago.

The Obama Administration did, however, send a formal delegation to the funeral of Socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who died last month."

(Jim)>

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Top Ten Infamous Quotes
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Wonderful and Amazing Western Sydney Wanderers FC, wishing you the best on Sunday to finish this amazing journey and to make our dream a reality. On Sunday's grand-final match you will be not just the premiers but the champions. Thank you for the joy you have given to countless thousands of thirsty football supporters from the home of football, Western Sydney. - Andrew Rohan
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Genius? Leftwing ideologue?
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Something terrifying is hiding in Caliburn House, and the Doctor finds himself part of the ghost hunt...

Don't miss 'Hide' this Sunday at 7.30pm on ABC TV Australia.
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Mount Chocorest. Do you think you would make it to the peak?
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A BOAT packed with 66 asylum-seekers managed to evade detection by border patrols and made it to the West Australian port of Geraldton.

Locals were stunned as the crowded fishing boat approached.

It is thought it came from Sri Lanka and had been at sea for around six weeks.

The boat's passengers were holding up a sign saying, ''We want to get to New Zealand”.

Mmmm. New Zealand eh? - Larry Pickering

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TIMES, THEY ARE A CHANGIN’ Larry Pickering

Thought of a cartoon but it’s too hard to draw so I’ll just tell you about it:

About 20 Kiwi rams all crawling over each others’ backs trying to get to a peep-hole in the hedge to see two ewes getting it off in the next paddock. That’s the way it works doesn’t it?

Anyway, I’ve got a better idea and no hope of drawing it.

I reckon if we drag Tasmania and New Zealand into Bass Strait and moor them both up to South Australia, we could fence the three of them off and forget about them.

They could then secede as ‘The Great Southern Land of the Marxist Tree-Hugging Homosexual’.

They could develop their own tourist economy, saving us the problem of supporting them.

Imagine it, Christine Milne dawn tours to view the almost-extinct Southern Bell Frog, the Spotted Tailed Quoll and the Forestry Industry.

[We could agree to restock them with some extinct species they have killed off themselves, like small businesses and Tassie Aborigines.]

Then off for a spot of latte with Bob Brown and his mate, toasting your own wholemeal bread over a log fire. Followed by a trip to the Julia Gillard Hall of Fame with the ever-popular Andrew Wilkie.

After a luncheon hosted by Penny Wong, an exhilarating rainbow hunt before viewing same-sex group marriages over at the NZ sector, finally returning to the boutique Islington Hotel where a sumptuous vegetarian quiche spread awaits, followed by the ever-popular Clitlickin’ Cowgirl and Cocksuckin’ Cowboy complimentary drinks.

Then it’s time to retire with strict segregation arrangements... blokes on the first floor and sheilas on the second.

Oh well, I’m starting to feel a bit left out being normal.

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The Fish Market on Flinders Street.

This building was destroyed in 1956

Around the time of the Olympics, Melbourne sought to modernise her image in preparation for the 1956 games. As a result, many ugly Victorians (in the era of modernism) were tidied up. The growth of floorspace meant that the Fish Market needed to be moved to the Spencer Street Railyards. The old Fish Market was demolished to create a carpark and Flinders Street flyover.
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It is always a pleasure to catch up with the wonderful Hon. Bronwyn Bishop in Dobell. Today Bronwyn was guest speaker at the Wyong Shire Council Executive Women's Leadership Breakfast.— with Bronwyn Bishop and Lynne Webster.
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UPDATED Queensland's Treasurer says Wayne Swan has kept the Queensland Flood levy for his own bottom line===

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Horrible: Huge fertilizer plant explosion rocks West, Texas; As many as 60-70 feared dead ==>http://twitchy.com/2013/04/17/huge-fertilizer-plant-explosion-rocks-west-texas-photos/
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Truman can hardly be called left wing - he continued FDR's liberalism. The Democrat/Republican ideological battle if a lot more complex. 
FWIW I disagree with both decisions - my morality is driven by a more complex process than subscribing to a simple "right wing good, left wing bad, m'kay" paradigm.

Now be quiet and let the adults discuss things, you tend to miss the point and get upset>

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This cup I got from hoyts is cool cause its got a hidden compartment underneath. Lol love it!!! #thecroods #lollystash
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HISTORY IN THE HEADLINES: During excavations relating to a road-building project earlier this month, a team of Israeli archaeologists uncovered a ritual bath dating to the Second Temple period, some 2,000 years ago. http://histv.co/YvytDN
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Do official histories help with family history research?
Official histories provide a detailed account of the Australian experience of war. They are chronological and cover all services and all theatres of conflict. There are official war histories for the First and Second World War and the Cold War conflicts in Korea and Southeast Asia. In 2004, the Federal Government authorised a fifth official history relating to Peacekeeping and Post–Cold War operations. In family history research the official histories can be used for contextual information. For example, if your relative died in a particular battle you can use the official histories to find out what other units were involved, why that battle was significant to the campaign and often you will find a map or sketch of the battle area.

The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918 and Australia in the War of 1939–1945 have been digitised and can be read onlinewww.awm.gov.au/histories
You are welcome to visit the Research Centre to read the official histories for Korea and South East Asian conflicts. If you are unable to visit your local library may hold copies of these volumes.

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6 years after Joe McDonald was expelled from ALP, he's rejoined. Ms Gillard should stand by her word and block his return.
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Photos: Mourners line streets for Margaret Thatcher’s funeral; Disgusting protesters: ‘Rest in shame’ ==> http://twitchy.com/2013/04/17/photos-mourners-line-streets-for-margaret-thatchers-funeral-disgusting-protesters-rest-in-shame/
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Two brooms are getting married. 

Before the ceremony, the bride broom says to the groom broom, " I think I'm going to have a whisk."

The groom broom says, "How can that be possible ? We haven't even swept together ! "
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The latest in Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Last week, there was a bit of a media uproar over a speech that I was scheduled to give at Grosse Pointe South High School in Michigan. The speech was canceled by school administration then quickly rescheduled once controversy erupted over the school's seemingly intolerance to views differing from their own. I am grateful to so many of you who rallied with me and our First Amendment rights when word got out that the speech was cancelled. It was remarkable how many folks fought for this cause - many of whom disagree with my positions on issues - because you believe in our fundamental right to free speech. Many of you also said that it is our duty to provide differing views so that young people are armed with information to form their own opinions.
Thank you again for your support,
santorum-signature

Rick Santorum 

Patriot Voices Radio
Check out recent Patriot Voices radio shows "on-demand" at our website and mark your calendar for our next live show on April 23rd at noon ET.
Our Prayers are with Boston
Karen and I are praying for all of those affected by the horrific terrorist attack in Boston on Monday.  We hope and pray that whoever is responsible for this crime will be found and swiftly brought to justice.
Educating our kids
The column I wrote this week focuses on our rights as Americans to make educational choices for our children. I pay special attention to the Romeikes, a family from Germany who sought asylum in this country after facing penalties in Germany for homeschooling. I also discuss the recent TV ad on MSNBC from one of their hosts suggesting that children don't belong to families but rather to whole communities.  Take a read.    
The Shame of the Kermit Gosnell Trial 
For anyone who has been following the trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell of Philadelphia, it is often too much to bear.  The details of what he did to babies born alive are horrific.  He is charged with murdering 8 children and one woman over the course of time that he ran his abortion clinic.  The case is stomach turning and painful to read about.  It should be.  It is a murder case of a man and his associates who killed living, breathing babies.
Yet despite all of this, the media coverage of this trial has been largely silent.  I encourage you to read about the lack of coverage in three very powerful pieces written by Kirsten Powers in USA Today Tim Carney in The Washington Examinerand Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic

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Friend,
I am writing to ask you to please take a few minutes and call your senators right now at 202-224-3121 and ask them to oppose the Manchin-Toomey gun control amendment.  This legislation, which will be voted on this afternoon, will do nothing to stop criminals and madmen from obtaining guns, but rather it make it harder for law-abiding citizens to protect themselves.
This amendment will only lead to expanded background checks which will do nothing to stop criminals from obtaining guns, because criminals do not submit to background checks. 
And the unintended consequence of this amendment will be the formation of a national gun registry, which would negatively impact a law-abiding citizen's ability to own a gun - a right protected by the Constitution.
I believe we must work to stem the tide of violence, but this is a hollow measure that will not solve this problem.  If we are to be honest about putting a stop to these senseless acts of violence, we must first address the brutality in our media and the inadequacies of our mental healthcare system.
So please call your senators right now at 202-224-3121 and tell them to vote no on Manchin-Toomey.
Fighting for Liberty,
Rick Santorum signature 
Rick Santorum  

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Photo credit: John W. Pope Civitas Institute
Hi everyone! Here's the MichelleMalkin.com newsletter for April 17th. Enjoy!

From the Blog

America’s empty slogan: 'See something, say something'

In brief remarks to the nation yesterday on the Boston Marathon bombings, President Obama said that “we all have a part to play in alerting authorities...

Harry Reid: ‘Anti-gun legislation before the Senate’; Updated

Possible alternate headline: Harry Reid oh-so-briefly forgets to lie...

Barney Frank on the Boston bombing: Let this serve as a reminder to you, smaller government tax cut zealots!

The wisdom Frank tried to impart on CNN yesterday morning is that the best way to fight against terrorism is by making government a lot bigger...

More From the Right Side of the Web

Michelle's Top Tweets

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And ... Our Hate Tweet of the Day

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Thanks for the plug!

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...[Christ’s] face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.—Isa 52:14, NLT

At the cross, the visage and form of Jesus were marred beyond recognition. There was no beauty in Him, because He took upon Himself all our sickness, disease and illness. Every cancer, growth, virus, deformity—Jesus took it all so that you would enjoy healing and complete wholeness today.

So see your condition smitten on Jesus' body on the cross. Behold Him stricken with your sickness and disease, and you will begin to witness your own healing manifest. Because Jesus has taken it at the cross, sickness and disease have no right to remain in your body!http://josephprince.com/

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Your heavenly Father has already given you a great inheritance in Christ when you became His child! Check out more in today's devotional and be blessed!http://bit.ly/11peKcM
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As deep darkness covers the earth today, you can live unafraid and expectant of the Lord's glory upon you and your family! Watch this inspiring video excerpt and discover how because of Jesus' unfailing light on your life, you can expect provision and restoration for you and your household, and be a blessing even in times of darkness!
http://josephprince.com/
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Flow with God by tuning in to His frequency. He’s on FM—Favor Mode. Are you tuned to that frequency today?
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“Rabbi,” His disciples asked Him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.” 
—John 9:2–3, NLT

I love how our Lord Jesus is such a loving and practical God. When there is a problem, He goes straight to the solution! Before Jesus stepped in to heal the man born blind, his disciples were caught up in uncovering whose sin had made the man blind. Jesus, on the other hand, was interested only in using His power to give the poor man sight! The same way Jesus didn’t get sucked into the “blame game” is the same way He doesn’t want you to. So don’t ask what or whose sin caused your sickness. Forget about what you should or shouldn’t have done or why it happened. Be preoccupied instead with your solution—Jesus Christ, who through the cross has removed every sin in your life and who wants to work a miracle in your body!
http://josephprince.com/

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Saint Peter's Basilica by Giovanni Paolo Pannini

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