All The News That Fits The Bias

There's a belief in journalism that good news doesn't sell, that bad news is what makes people pick up papers and turn on the evening news.

But when it comes to reporting good 'liberal' news, they're happy enough to give it coverage and not so much so when it sours in their view.

Thus the civil union of lesbians Carolyn Conrad and Kathleen Peterson won front page coverage for being the first of its type. But, as Cliff Kincaid notes in his piece Gay Times On TV, the first civil union couple are now getting the first 'gay divorce'.

Conrad has taken out a 'relief from abuse' order against Peterson and says she fears physical harm. Kincaid observes:

"On the Fox News Watch program, Cal Thomas wondered why the split wasn't getting as much attention as their original loving commitment, which was featured on front pages five years ago."

Indeed. Why would that be?

One doesn't need to pose sarcastic questions, however, about the reason for the Conrad-Peterson split:

Women are four times more likely to be victims of domestic violence in a lesbian household than in a married household. (Claire Renzetti, Violent Betrayal) Ref. 38, Myth and Reality about Homosexuality

And by 'married', Renzetti means heterosexual.

-- Nick

Nora's New Year's Notes

Well, the Christmas guests have gone, Nicky and I have the house to ourselves and we're looking forward to some fine New Year's revelries.

It's also the time to make New Year's resolutions. I wouldn't presume to answer for Nicky so mine are:

1. Keep up with some regular exercise so I can do justice to a gown like this for our April cruise.

2. Keep blogging on a regular basis (I haven't forgotten the murder mystery - it might be a New Year's hangover one instead).

3. Organise my time better to make sure I can fit in everything I need and want to do into a day.

4. Read more.

Fortunately this Christmas New Year break is allowing us to do just that.

On the reading list are:

1. Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door

2. The Compleat Gentleman: The Modern Man's Guide to Chivalry

3. Mere Christianity

4. Thunderball

5. Hollywood Cocktails

And on the DVD list:

1. The Avengers 1967 collector's edition.

2. Alfred Hitchcock

So tell me what's on your resolution or reading lists.

I hope you all have a terrific New Year's and that 2006 is the start of something wonderful.

And to celebrate:

Champagne Cocktail
Champagne
half measure of brandy
3 dashes of bitters
1 tsp sugar

Put the sugar in a champagne saucer and soak with bitters. Add the brandy and top with champagne.

-- Nora

For Whom The Road Tolls

After a few days off to indulge in the Christmas spirit, here we are again. We had a good time over Christmas and, as we head into the last two days of 2005, we'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year.

One imagines that the bureaucrats of Queensland Transport and Queensland Police have had a good Christmas too and are expecting a very happy 2006.

This should be bad news but one can rest assured there'll be much smug pleasure around the aforementioned halls of government on January 3 as they get set to use the road toll as an excuse to finally fire up the fibre installed along the M1 and set up Queensland's first fixed flash for cash cameras.

Nick's prediction for the New Year is that fixed speed cameras will be a fact of life in Queensland by year's end but remember, it's all for your own good and the profligacy and ineptitude of the State Government has nothing to do with their need for revenue.

-- Nick

Update: As predictable as clockwork, the Queensland Government is to stage a road safety summit over the holiday road toll. ABC reports State Premier Peter Beattie 'says the community as a whole must take some responsibility for the carnage on the State's roads'. Rest assured you will.

Dude Looks Like A Lady

AN Egyptian man discovered on his wedding day that his fiancee of three years was a man who had been concealing his identity behind a veil.

The 26-year-old groom-to-be, Tamer Shehata, was notified by a female guest attending his wedding that his would-be wife was a man in women's clothing.

When Mr Shehata confronted his fiancee, he broke down and revealed that he was actually an 18-year-old man called Ahmed Abo Zeid.

-- Nora

Royal Character Assassination Averted

From today's Australian newspaper:

THE country's most prominent wildlife protection charity has backflipped on a plan to install Princess Mary as its patron because kangaroo meat was served at a Danish royal wedding function last year.

The Australian Wildlife Protection Council (AWPC) was to ask the former Hobart girl to become its third patron, alongside philosopher Peter Singer and former Member of the NSW Upper House Richard Jones.

Just as well for Princess Mary.

Professor Peter Singer is an odd choice for patron of a wildlife protection charity considering his rather sick views on bestiality.

Having "established" that bestiality isn't rare, Singer [in his essay Heavy Petting - Nora] says that although the Judeo-Christian tradition maintains a gulf between men and animals, this may be just a Western construction. "We copulate, as they do," Singer insists. "They have penises and vaginas, as we do, and the fact that the vagina of a calf can be sexually satisfying to a man shows how similar these organs are." The vehemence with which people react to bestiality "suggests that there is another powerful force at work: our desire to differentiate ourselves, erotically and in every other way, from animals."

Even other animal rights organisations are worried (although probably not as much as the cows and chickens one would guess):

Heavy Petting will come back to haunt us and is a step backwards. Unchallenged, this essay will serve to further marginalize and, therefore, damage the animal rights movement. The consequences of it will push us back into the bubble-gum bottomed recess of prejudice that hell hole of ridicule that remains our greatest obstacle and enemy.

Singer is not the type of man you want around your infant child either.

Singer subscribes to the hedonistic philosophy of Utilitarianism which essentially says if you have a disability or you're old and can't contribute to improve the comfort of the majority, then it is no great loss if you're killed.

Alas in addition to being a sick bastard with an astounding capacity for moral equivalence, he is also a hypocrite:

Utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer says some humans — particularly fetuses, newborn babies, and elderly people suffering from dementia — should be killed if their deaths will reduce overall suffering. Never mind that Singer broke all of his own rules when his mother became ill with Alzheimer’s disease.

Perhaps The Australian would like to do some more thorough research on its contributors before it devotes extensive column centimetres on his views of fetal stem cell research.

Well done Mary, you unwittingly dodged a bullet you never even knew was coming.

-- Nora

Thoughts Expounded

Dear friend Jai Normosone analyses the aftermath of the Cronulla riots, the future of the Queensland Government and offers a practical Foreign Affairs policy.

All in one post.

Read it now.

-- Nora

Incendiary Advice

Dumb excuses from dumb people who face court in the aftermath of the Cronulla riots:

#1 No Fuel Like A Young Fool

Prosecutor Senior Constable Brad Scanlan said Mr Osmanagic had told police he was carrying the bottles to help a friend whose car had run out of petrol at Bondi.

"Why did his friend need petrol from Liverpool when there are numerous petrol stations in the city?" Sen Const Scanlan asked.

He said Mr Esmailpour told police he wanted the petrol to sniff it.

"Petrol is available in Bondi. One doesn't have to ride all the way to Bondi to sniff petrol," Sen Const Scanlan told the court.

#2 Immolation Renovation

TWO men who allegedly built and stockpiled seven firebombs at Cronulla were remanded in custody for the weekend yesterday amid fears of further unrest in the Shire.

Mark Barry Miller, 33, and Mathew John Lalor, 24, faced Sutherland Local Court after police allegedly found seven molotov cocktails hidden on their Cronulla unit balcony.

The court was told Lalor made the fire bombs to protect themselves after their unit was overrun by a mob of hooligans on Monday night.

-- Nora

Quick - You Scream While I Run Around In Circles

The year not yet over has been a tad warm so the sky is falling in.

Scientists with faulty and inaccurate computer models and (apparently) time machines that enable them to travel back to prehistoric eras, and who admit they base their findings on limited records, circumstantial evidence and theory, are spewing out more Chicken Little shit as the World Meteorological Organisation releases a statement on the status of the global climate.

Times have never been so good for the voodoo witch doctors of meteorology who can't predict the weather with accuracy two days ahead (where's that damn time machine?) but can certainly manipulate and stuff up data to get another grant.

It's all Junk Science.

-- Nick

Life's A Beach

Friday, December 16, 2005 is an extremely sad day in Australian life.

Those south of the border, down New South Wales way, people have been told to stay away from the beach this weekend.

PEOPLE are being urged to stay away from beaches in Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle and the Central Coast at the weekend after police received credible threats of gang violence and riots.

NSW Premier Morris Iemma said police had received intelligence from the public indicating gangs would target Cronulla, Sydney's eastern beaches, Wollongong, Newcastle, and some Central Coast beaches this weekend.

It's an obscenity. Most Australians consider a day at the beach one of the many blessings of living in this country - especially since 85% of us live within 50 kilometres of the sea.

Everyone has the right to enjoy the surf and sand free of harassment.

Cops have a right to do their job to the best of their ability with the respect due to them as officers of the law, as representatives of law-abiding people.

We, Aussies are quite laid-back, we put up with a lot with little complaint (okay some complaint) and little action.

This needs to change is we are to continue enjoying the successful multiracial diversity which is one of Australia's best attributes.

We can all play a role today by demanding more of our elected representatives, by demonstrating our support for police to apply the rule of law for everyone, by holding these so-called leaders to account for tacit support for violence and anarchy perpetuated by their 'community'.

I recommend that, regardless of where we live, that we undertake the following peaceful civil action:

1. Write to each member of Parliament in NSW and tell them that we don't want new laws, we want the adequate enforcement of existing laws applied equally to everyone. Tell the politician that you expect a response and if the response if not forthcoming or is inadequate that they will be punished at the ballot box.

2. Write to the Chief Magistrate of NSW Patricia Staunton to tell her that you don't appreciate revolving door bail procedure for recidivists, nor do you appreciate her magistrates breaking the law and undermining police. Tell her that you expect offending court officers be removed immediately and if she doesn't agree, write to the Attorney General and lobby to have her removed.
If you can't make it to the beach tomorrow and all of this civil minded duty is making you thirsty, join Nick and I for cocktails:

A Day At The Beach
1 1/2 oz light rum
1 1/2 oz coconut rum
3 oz pineapple juice
a dash of grenadine & ice.
Pour both rums in a glass over ice, add pineapple juice and dash of grendine, stir and serve. Add garnish of pineapple if desired.

-- Nora

JF Beck has a great round-up here

Welcome To Apartheid

It has begun.

Australia has changed forever because the Cronulla riots.

In the place of a pluristic society where the beaches are open to everyone and anyone, governed only by common sense as to their use, >ghettos are being proposed:

CRONULLA'S beaches might be divided into sections to remove some of the tensions that erupted into mob violence this week.

Sunbathers, soccer players and surfers could each be allocated an area on the southern Sydney beach to reduce the chance of arguments and conflict over who controls the sand.
Muslim and Lebanese "marshalls" and elders might also be sent from the western suburbs to patrol the area and sanction troublemaking young men visiting the beach.

Mark my words, this is a horrendous idea.

Ghettoisation of parts of Sydney is what fuelled these racial/reglious/cultural tensions in the first place how can anyone sensible argue that we continue the practice?

Indeed in the case of Macquarie University, its contact with the sand is to >bury its head in it:

There is a popular belief in Australia that migrant groups living here have formed "ethnic enclaves" which have "taken over" certain areas of our metropolitan cities. The media have strengthened this opinion with emotion-laden stories on immigration, ethnicity and crime gangs, but academia is also to blame with many of our so-called "experts" talking about the rise of "ethnic ghettos" or the "Los Angelisation" of Sydney. But how much of this hype is based on fact?

All of it.

Perception is reality, not only to how this appears to the wider Australian population but also to new migrants who, in the larger cities appear to be conditioned into settling where their fellow countrymen are located.

For many, the only opportunity to mix under the great Australian sun was at the beach. It is the embodiment of what it is to be Australian.

The beaches are free and open to everyone. The only thing that is asked is to show common courtesy to other beach goers and bathe between the flags.

Fortunately it is an opinion which is beginning to be voiced in the Muslim community (which, it is worth reminded readers is not solely Lebanese but also comprises people originally from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and many other places). It also raises a number of questions that this relgious community need to sort out:

>Irfan Yusuf is a Sydney industrial lawyer and occasional lecturer at the School of Politics & International Relations at Macquarie University. He is also a columnist for the Adelaide-based Australian Islamic Review:

The most hilarious spectacle was to see "community leaders" – an assorted array of non-English speaking imams and organizational heads having talks amongst themselves. What were they talking about? These are the same people who never bothered learning English. Few have tried to understand what it's like growing up in Australia as a human pendulum, forever swinging between competing cultural and religious expectations.

Many of these leaders themselves have been responsible for some of the worst forms of racism in Australia. What do mean? When a Lebanese Muslim girl wants to marry a Pakistani or Bosnian Muslim boy, her parents stop him. A non-Lebanese person cannot become a member of the association responsible for managing Sydney's main mosque – the Imam Ali ben Abi Taleb Mosque in Lakemba.

If I hold anyone responsible for events such as the Cronulla riots, it is the so-called ethno-religious leaders who refuse to allow young people to take control and who thereby force us to the margins. I am sick and tired of being a marginal Australian. Yet that is exactly what happens when the person who speaks on my behalf in media and to governments speaks English with a thick accent and expressed ideas that make me cringe.

As much as Australia's White Australia policy of the early to mid 20th Century was flawed, it had at its core one correct ideal:

"We don't care where you are from, but once you decide to make this your home, you are Australian, becoming one people and one culture from which the best parts of the 'old country' are brought to the new."

Food and festivals are those 'best parts'. Hateful concepts like Ghetto and Apartheid are not.

-- Nora

UPDATE: Keith Winshuttle has an excellent essay on this very subject.

Journalist Flees Kitchen

For those who already hadn't guessed, Nicky and I were journalists in a previous age.

So it is with some experience that we are critical of the media. One of its most glaring faults is its inability to adapt to new technology.

Nicky remembers the transition from electric typewriters to computers, I remember the installation of computers capable of WYSIWYG desktop publishing.

Now the latest evolutionary leap for journalism is the Internet and, more specifically, blogging. Some MSM journalists are trying it.

Some are highly successful, some crash and burn, while others, like the Sydney Morning Herald's Andrew West are downright terrified.

Writing for SMH's blog as The Contrarian, Mr West's quite thoughtful analysis on the Sydney riots polarised his readership and, it would appear, somewhat scared him to the point where he removed the post.

Exceptional journalist Tim Blair has the story here.

Regardless of interests or political colours, it tends to be a rare day indeed when a blogger removes a post. Even if one's premise is completely wrong and is demolished in comments by the readership it stands as an example of dynamic information collation.

Ironically there is a tenet of old journalism that has been picked up by this new wave of 'reporters' - you stand by the story.

For journalists, removal of the direct barrier between writer and audience is terrifying as it exposes them to the direct glare of public opinion.

In this case West couldn't stand the heat.

-- Nora

Don't Mention The War...

The front page of The Times Online this morning leads with the oil blaze outside London.

The top five 'Other Top Stories' have absolutely nothing in common. /sarc

Sydney erupts in second night of riots

The Sydney suburbs have erupted in a second night of racially-charged violence which has exposed ugly tensions beneath Australia's good-humoured exterior.

Local media reported a "terrifying escalation" in the conflict, as 70 car loads of Lebanese youths arrived in the predominantly white suburb of Cronulla - the flashpoint for yesterday's running battles - intent on revenge.

Father jailed for 'honour killing' of daughter's lover

A father who bullied his two teenage sons into killing their sister's boyfriend was today jailed for at least 20 years. The lengthy sentences handed to Ali, a 41-year-old Bangladeshi waiter, and his two sons are designed to send a clear message to the Muslim community that such killings - there is now at least one a month in Britain - will not be tolerated. Ali ordered his two young British-born sons to kill Arash Ghorbani-Zarin, a 19-year-old Iranian Muslim studying electrical engineering at Oxford Brookes University, after his daughter Manna Begum, 20, fell pregnant.

Britain 'has not been asked over CIA flights'

Jack Straw said today that the Government had not received a single request from the Bush Administration to transport terrorist suspects through British airsports or airspace during its global campaign against terrorism.

Kidnappers remain silent as deadline on hostages passes

FAMILY and friends of the British hostage Norman Kember joined churchgoers yesterday to pray for his release as the deadline set for his killing passed with silence from the kidnappers. John Reid, the Defence Secretary, said the fate of Mr Kember, 74, was still unknown after his captors set a Saturday deadline for Iraqi prisoners to be freed and troops removed from Iraq.

Paris police hold 22 in anti-terror blitz

More than 22 people have been arrested in Paris in an operation to dismantle a suspected network of homegrown Islamist militants.

Anyone would think there's a war on.

-- Nick

Beach Blanket Biffo

One would comment on the violence at Cronulla but others have already said it so well, including putting together an enlightening timeline.

-- Nick

Principal Prostrates Self To Prats

A state school principal in Central Queensland has virtually crawled on her belly to apologise to a pair of local ratbags who were offended by the phrases 'Christmas disco', 'Christmas concert' and 'merry Christmas' in editions of the school newsletter.

Yeppoon State School head Laurelle Allen wrote the apology after a family claimed she had discriminated against them by using "Christmas" too many times in school newsletters.

Paul and Melanie Jowsey, whose children Charles, 10, and Harrison, 8, attend the central Queensland school, do not celebrate Christmas and oppose the "historical dominance of Christianity" in Australia.

The story has echoes of the US case of Michael Newdow, an atheist nutbag who was determined that his 9-year-old daughter should not hear the word 'God' in the US Pledge of Allegiance recited in her classroom.

Yeppoon Principal Allen's reply to the Jowseys' demand she respond within 14 days was:

"I firstly must apologise for offending you and your family.

"You are right in that there are many references to Christmas and the Christmas season in the recent newsletters.

"On reflection, I should have referred to the holiday season rather than the Christmas season."

That Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said 'school principals should be free to discuss Christmas at will' and other groups have said, quite rightly, that Allen should not have apologised is somewhat heartening.

But the fact that she did kow-tow to such scumbags as the Jowseys is exceedingly disturbing and frankly she needs hauling into head office and telling she's been a total prat.

As for the Jowseys, the most unfortunate issue regarding this pair of cretins - perhaps after the fact that they have two children for whom one feels sorry - is that they run a company called Tag Master which produces a range of pet identification products called J-Tags.

Tag Master has contracts to supply councils around Australia, so, unfortunately, pet owners among you out there may in fact be unwittingly funding the Jowseys' not-uncomfortable lifestyle.

You can wish the Jowseys a Merry Christmas here and here.

-- Nick

UPDATE:
The Jowsey's respond!
I get this rather polite, if rather longsuffering, e-mail in response to mine:

Thank you Nora

We did not ask the principal for an apology. We merely brought to her attention the fact that her intense mentions of Christmas in newsletters and letters to parents may be in breach of anti discrimination law. We did not ask of her to change the name of Christmas to holiday or festive.

All the best for 2006.

Paul & Mel

Dear friend Caz didn't receive the same politeness. Alas, no Festivus miracle here.

-- Nora

Quote Of The Week:

To find the truth out takes weeks. To spread something that's not true takes five minutes. And it's all over the globe. - Donald Rumsfeld

Read the whole interview. Hat tip: Tim Blair.

-- Nora

The Royal Marines Theme Song

He drinks a whisky drink
He drinks a vodka drink
He drinks a lager drink
He drinks a cider drink...

And he then says:

I get knocked down
But I get up again
You're never going to keep me down

-- Nora

PS - The much anticipated Thin Man Christmas Mystery premiere is being delayed by 24 hour due to unforseen technical difficulties like real life...

Left, Right Out

If one had any doubts that those on the left side of politics are - hmmm, how shall I phrase this - stark raving mad, then just stroll through what constitutes cogent argument on that side of the intellectual divide.

Larry Elder politely requests assertions that US forces have killed half a million Iraqis and receives this in response.

Michelle Malkin notes that some sicko sent a card to an injured soldier urging that he DIE!!

And Dr Mike Adams' hate mail is always illuminating.

Locally, Brisbane-based blog Lavartus Prodeo has declared today "blog like an RWDB day" (sic).

Nicky's says always believed that left wing thinking is a form of mental illness and it would appear that Psychiatrist Dr Sanity agrees. She offers some fascinating insights into that most prevalent leftie mental illness Bush Derangement Syndrome.

-- Nora

Famous Last Words

"We deserve this, but not Him - He did nothing to deserve this... Jesus, remember me when you enter your Kingdom." - Anonymous criminal, crucified circa 30AD.

"...To all who have prayed and those I have hurt, please forgive me for my sins and accept my sincere apologies... I am returning to the Lord now. He loves us all so much. He is in all of us. He's always been there. It is we who need to love Him." Van Nguyen, convicted drug smugger, hanged December, 2005.

-- Nora

On The First Day Of Christmas...

While watching the watching the Australian public's resolve to put the Christ back into Christmas, Nick and I were delighted to see one of Australia's major institutions, Australia Post, continue to back the traditional meaning of the season.

Meanwhile the Forum on Australia's Islamic Relations executive director, Kuranda Seyit has fallen on the old chestnut that he was misquoted by The Sunday Mail.

You'll all be pleased to know that Muslims will let us have Christmas after all.

-- Nora

Hook, Line - And Sinker

Rising seas caused by global warming are swamping a Pacific island:

RISING seas have forced 100 people on a Pacific island to move to higher ground in what may be the first example of a village formally displaced because of modern global warming, a UN report has said.

With coconut palms on the coast already standing in water, inhabitants in the Lateu settlement on Tegua Island in Vanuatu started dismantling their wooden homes in August and moved about 548.64m inland.
"They could no longer live on the coast," Taito Nakalevu, a climate change expert at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program.

Or is it just sinking?

It was unknown if the coral base of the island, about 31sq km, might be subsiding.

A number of Pacific islands have been playing the global warming victim game for some time now, aided and abetted by the UN.

So is the island swamping or sinking? It would be easy to find out by placing relatively cheap global satellite monitoring equipment there for a year. But one wouldn't want to uncover scientific fact when fiction is much more profitable.

Meanwhile, there's always a relatively low tech way of sorting this out.

Water always finds its own level. Have the beaches been shrinking near you?

-- Nick

(And erosion doesn't count!)

Think Tanks

The Forum on Australia's Islamic Relations - 'FAIR', geddit? - tells us on its web site it is:

"...an independent, grass-roots inclusive and transparent public relations group aimed specifically at promoting a positive and harmonious relationship between MUSLIMS AND THE wIDER COMMUNITY."

It intends to promote a harmonious relationship with the 'wIDER COMMUNITY' by infiltrating schools and telling us to rename Christmas and tone it down. They'd prefer it if Australians 'fall in line', crawled on their bellies like the English and:

"...replaced references to Christmas on signage with the words "Festive" and "Winter"."

One has two words for this particularly offensive litter. The second is 'off'.

The Retail First Group might also have few words to say regarding copyright and its long-established major Gold Coast shopping centre Australia Fair, should 'Australia's first Islamic think-tank' pursue its aim to 'publish its own newspaper called Australia Fair'.

-- Nick

Everybody Needs Good Neighbours

On reading this news story today Nicky asked if it was too little too late.

Muslim youth devise plan to tackle radicalism
Young Muslim leaders have forged a plan for improving relations with the wider Australian community.

The leaders devised a strategy to tackle radicalism and the alienation of Islamic youth at the inaugural national Islamic youth summit in Sydney yesterday.

Being the optimist, I replied that I wasn't so sure. Perhaps there is hope, as long as the aim is to enrich Australian culture rather than take it over.

But it's going to take a lot of work and it may not be getting off to the best start, especially since they've played the victim card straight out of the deck:

Delegates have also called for action to address bullying and discrimination.

They also want more grassroots contacts through sporting and social groups, greater representation in politics, and a boost in support to help young unemployed Muslims find work...

Iktimal Hage-Ali from the New South Wales Youth Advisory Council says:"They've stepped up and said 'look these are the issues, but we're not here to talk about the issues again and again, we're here to talk about solutions'."

Let's do that eh? Muslim youth are taught that they are superior and everyone is inferior until they convert to Islam (compare and contrast). As a result, they don't have a lot of respect for the institutions on which Australia was founded. So here is my list of discussion starters:

Bullying - Using your weight of numbers or your physical bearing to intimidate or threaten is wrong.

Discrimination - Targeting people because of their ethnic background is discrimination. Sydney's gang rapes are the most aggregious example of this.
Grassroots contacts - Well, I don't know what Sheikh Khalid Yasin would say about that. Here's another story to illustrate the point. In our fair city we've had a number of quote violent storms. After one significant and damaging hailstorm, an Australian, white, non-Muslim man went to his neighbour next door to see how they fared and whether they needed assistance. Although the wife, a Muslim, was at home, she did not come to the door, nor acknowledge this man's presence. He went away still not knowing if anyone was in distress.

Representation in politics - You may wish to try your luck with The Best Party Of Allah. But remember, Australia is not and will never be part of the Caliphate.

Unemployment - It's hard to believe that there is high unemployment in this country where the rate is a mere 4%, but there it is. Just a few suggestions - learn to speak English, let your daughters and sisters finish their education and get a job if they wish, accept the fact that you will be working with non-Muslims and get over it.

Get back to me when you've got some answers we can all live with.

-- Nora

Stay Tuned: The Thin Man Christmas Murder Mystery

Inspired by the season Nick and I have decided to celebrate Christmas a little early. We have decided to write The Thin Man Christmas Murder Mystery.

We expect to have it written and published either next Friday evening or Saturday morning (Australian time).

As is our wont, there will be plenty of cocktails to share but we'd also like everyone to take part.

Please leave your comments and suggest one thing (animal, vegetable, mineral or alcohol) to incorporate into the plot.

-- Nora

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Having trouble finding the right Christmas, er, Holiday gift for the moonbat in your life?

Thanks to Random Yak, you need no longer worry.

-- Nora

Hot Air Rises

The fun of blogging is connecting the dots between news stories that the mainstream media dare not.

Like this on the ABC:

The Federal Government has again rejected calls for Australia to ratify the Kyoto protocol on climate change.

People in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra have taken part in the international 'Walk Against Warming'.

And

Cows belching and breaking wind cause methane pollution but British scientists say they have developed a diet to make pastures smell like roses, almost...

...Scientists in Australia and New Zealand have also been working to develop similar products amid growing concern about greenhouse gas emissions from cattle and sheep.

Yes, I see a lot of similarities between the easily lead bovines of the two legged variety and their four legged cousins...

If anyone is in any doubt whether Australia should sign the Kyoto Agreement, Tim Blair does a terrific job in disabusing the gullible.

-- Nora

What's New Pussy Cat?

Our favourite cat fancier, Evil Pundit must be beside himself with joy over this happy reunion story:

Emily the cat is back -- after flying home in the lap of luxury.

The curious cat who wound up traveling to France in a cargo container touched down at the Milwaukee airport on Thursday, greeted by her family and a horde of reporters.

A Continental cargo agent handed her over to 9-year-old Nick Herndon, son of the cat's owners, Donny and Lesley McElhiney. Emily meowed and pawed at reporters' microphones as the family answered questions.

Awww, how cute! I knew there was a reason why Nick and I are cat people... no, that sort of cat people...

Anyway, let's toast the the transcontinental kitty with this:

Lion Tamer
1/4 shot(s) Lime Juice
3/4 shot(s) Southern Comfort
Mix in a shot glass and go wild

-- Nora

The Death Row Row

With the hanging in Singapore yesterday of drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van, there was the predictable howls of outrage by the Australian mainstream media. Though unconcerned by the hangings of non-Australians for the same offence, our media's orgy of angst was such that Nora and I could not even watch the 6pm National Nine News after it descended into nausea-inducing pathos and sanctimony within the opening minute.

Note to Packer: We'll keep turning off and eventually just won't watch your usually workman-like 6pm bulletin at all if you keep letting your employees vent their own biases.

One agrees that imposing the death penalty for anything less than murder seems somewhat extreme. But the people of Singapore judge drug trafficking serious enough to warrant death for offenders and support their government in this, despite efforts by international media to talk this down. And even on the ABC's forums, there was plenty of support for backing Singapore's sovereignty, even if one does not agree with the death penalty.

It was also noted by ABC forum poster Patrick that:

Most of the people on here who are crying for us to interfere in another country's legal system are the same ones who say on other issues (Afghanistan, Iraq et al) that we have no right interefering in other countries.

Come on guys, take a position; do we interefere if something is wrong or do we respect their right to sovereignty? You can't have it both ways.

Also yesterday as part of the media's campaign against other countries' rights to enact laws that suit them (when those laws don't suit the liberal left), one encountered numerous tales of murderer Kenneth Boyd who, early in the day, had drawn the straw to become the 1000th person executed in the US since the 1976 reintroduction of the death penalty and by the end of the day had become that very statistic.

Agence France Presse correspondents in Paris, in a Courier-Mail story linked above, noted Boyd's demise while selling the Amnesty International line that the death penalty is losing ground, with 122 countries or territories abolishing it in law or in practice. What they failed to point out is that many of these countries did not abolish the death penalty because they had 'seen the light' but because they were blackmailed into doing so by liberal first-world nations which tie death penalty abolition into conditions for trade and other international relations.

But in citing only Boyd's death by lethal injection, the correspondents turn a blind eye to Boyd's crime, a premeditated double murder committed in front of his own children.

From About.com:

Boyd, armed with a .357 magnum pistol he had purchased five days earlier, went to pick up his children at the Curry home. He told the boys they were going for pizza, but instead Boyd circled the Curry's neighborhood several times. The pistol was sitting on the seat of the car between Boyd and his children. Christopher Boyd, age 13, moved the pistol under the car seat, away from his father's reach.

Boyd pulled into the Curry home and yelled at Christopher to give him the gun. Christopher, frightened, ran to warn his grandparents

And from WRAL.com:

During the 1988 slayings, Boyd's son Christopher was pinned under his mother's body as Boyd unloaded a .357-caliber Magnum into her. The boy pushed his way under a bed to escape the barrage.

Popular among anti-death penalty types is the claim that executing murderers doesn't achieve anything except revenge. Try telling that to Britain's Linda Bowyer or America's Julio Chavez - oh, sorry, you can't. They were murdered by murderers who escaped.

Bowyer died when:

John Thomas Straffen... strangled 2 little girls but was found insane and sent to Broadmoor. In April 1952 he escaped and strangled Linda Bowyer before being recaptured the following day. He was sentenced to hang for this murder and reprieved after his appeal. Fortunately he has not been released, and is Britain's longest serving prisoner. (Source)

Let's hope he doesn't give them the slip again.

As for American Julio Chavez, his killer was Norman Parker Jr, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in Florida in 1967 for a first degree murder committed the previous year (and also carrying a second degree murder conviction in Washington). But he escaped and committed a further murder and rape:

On 07/18/78, Parker and codefendant Robbie Lee Manson were admitted into a Miami home to complete an illegal drug deal with two male occupants of the home. Soon thereafter, the defendants produced firearms and demanded cocaine and money from the two men. They were forced to surrender jewelry, strip naked and lie on a bed. Two other occupants, a female and her boyfriend, were discovered in another room and also were forced to strip naked and surrender jewelry. All four victims were then confined to the same room, on the same bed. Parker then searched the home for additional valuables while Manson stood guard over the four occupants. After a period of time, Parker aimed a revolver at Chavez’s back, whereupon Manson handed him a pillow. Parker then shot Chavez through the pillow. The other three victims heard the muffled shot and nothing further from Chavez. Parker then committed a sexual battery on the female. (Source)

Of course, the more cynical anti-death penalty liberal might suggest Chavez could have been alive today if he weren't mixed up with illegal drugs.

But then so might Nguyen Tuong Van.

And before any bleeding hearts out there suggest the authorities should have better security to stop killers escaping, consider this:

According to Home Office figures, at least 71 people have committed a second murder after being released on licence from their first life sentence in the last 35 years. (Source, as above)

while Britain's Hansard records:

6 Mar 1997 : Column: 698

Ms Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many convicted murderers have killed again after release from prison in the last 10 years; and what is the average sentence that they serve as a result. [18478]

Mr. Maclean: In England and Wales, during the years 1986 to 1995, nine persons released from prison after having served a sentence following conviction for murder are known to have killed again. One of these persons subsequently committed suicide. The other eight were sentenced to life imprisonment.

One down, eight to go.

-- Nick