Sad-damned

The Butcher of Baghdad is dead and the world, including Sydney, celebrates.

As do we:

The Lemon Drop Cocktail
45ml vodka
25ml lemon juice
10ml Cointreau
1/2 tsp sugar syrup
lemon twist for garnish
Pour the vodka, lemon juice, Cointreau and sugar syrup into a shaker with ice cubes. Shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the lemon twist.

-- Nora

I Wish I Knew The Right Words

You've got to be kidding:

THE NSW Government will allow clubs with poker machines to open in shopping centres and will not impose a ban on cash advances against credit cards for ATMs in the malls.

And just why won't gambling addicts use their credit cards? Because:

...the laws would protect people from irresponsible gambling by requiring the club and shopping complex to have separate entrances.

Just how stupid do they think we all are?

Don't answer that...

-- Nick

Criminals Responsible For Crime

Britain's Telegraph reports that massive law and order spending is not reducing crime:

Britain spends more of its national wealth on law and order than any other industrialised country yet still has a higher crime rate than most, new figures show.

Maybe it's because the cash is being spent on vital law and order operations such as:

Police camera crew keeps tabs on (fox) hunt... Two officers, leaning from a window, used a hand-held video camera to film the gathering. The meeting, like hundreds of others, passed without incident but Wiltshire police insisted that the filming was standard practice in case things got "out of hand".

...and selling useless programs like Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, of which:

47 per cent.. are breached

Labour's 'respect tsar', Louise Casey, isn't surprised at the rate at which Government's flagship crime measure is failing. She knows the reason why:

She said they were dealing with criminal groups of people. "The figures very clearly show that kids who are breaching Asbos are breaching everything else as well. "It is not the failure of the Asbo, it is the failure of getting the offending behaviour of that young person under control."

But the Asbo fails to modify the offending behaviour so, by definition, the Asbo is a failure. It's simple logic.

Oh, yeah. Labour...

-- Nick

Much Ado About Nothing New

The media continues with its hysteria generating and statistically meaningless holiday obsession:

Highway crashes boost road toll... The national holiday road toll is now 30.

...while Australian Transport Safety Bureau figures and studies reveal the truth that the only thing that changes during holiday periods is the nature of accidents and that the body count is the same as any other time of year:

Characteristics of Fatal Road Crashes During National Holiday Periods

Summary:
The study examines annual trends in road fatality numbers for Christmas and Easter holiday periods, and undertakes a comparative analysis of crash factors between holiday periods and the remainder of the year. Pronounced year to year fluctuations in the data suggest that the number of people killed in any given holiday period is significantly influenced by random events. An analysis of average number of deaths per day found that fatality rates during holiday periods were not systematically higher or lower than fatality rates at other times of the year. The study also found no evidence of any change in the involvement of primary causal factors (speeding, alcohol or fatigue). The findings are broadly consistent with the results of a similar study undertaken in 2003.

The media also ignores the fact that fatalities generally have been trending downward for years and that this Christmas-New Year's figures are actually looking good so far.

Nonetheless, their rote-like hysterics are found useful by police and politicians seeking ever more excuses to install flash for cash speed cameras that contribute little to safety - and may, in fact, create a dangerous distraction for motorists - but pour much into state coffers so they can afford the really important stuff.

-- Nick

Falling Like...

40-plus years ago when the biggest threat to western civilisation was Communism, the world's leaders took seriously the concept of the 'domino theory' which suggested that if one nation fell under its despotism, then its neighbours were at risk of infection too.

Welcome to the 21st century equivalent:

LAWYER Malik Imtiaz Sawar seems a most unlikely person to attract death threats. A small, softly spoken, friendly man, the impression he gives is above all one of consideration.

What has earned him the death threats is his appearance in court on behalf of Lina Joy, a case that has become a battleground of Malaysian political and cultural identity, and of freedom of religion.

The case highlights what some analysts believe is the Arabisation of Malaysian Islam, a dynamic that can also be seen in Indonesia. (emphasis mine)

Lina Joy was once a Muslim but has converted to Christianity. She didn't do so to make any broad point or to lead any social movement. It was entirely a private decision. But in Malaysia the state takes official notice of your race and religion.

Mark my words - it will be the Philippines and Singapore next unless there is a strong and dynamic Christian revival.

-- Nora

Sins Of Omission

In a report on Democrat Senator Joseph Biden's tilt at the US presidency, Reuters journalist Richard Cowan uses interesting language:

Mr Bush's term ends in January, 2009, and he is barred from seeking a third four-year term.

Technically, it's correct that Bush is 'barred' from a third term but failure to point out that the US Constitution limits all presidents to only two terms of office is deliberately misleading, surrupticiously hinting to those who don't know better that Bush has been specifically banned from running again.

-- Nick

Painting By Numbers

News Limited joins the feeding frenzy over the number of US troop deaths in Iraq:

THE number of American fatalities in Iraq has surpassed the death toll for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US, shining the spotlight on US policy in the war-wracked country.

If two police officers were killed in a shootout with a criminal who had killed one civilian, would that be regarded as a reason not to have gone after the crim?

-- Nick

Coulda, Mighta, Coulda

The Australian newspaper is all over a quote from an Israeli Army spokesman that it's possible they shelled an ambulance. They can't resist crowing at the idea that Foreign Minister Alexander Downer was the one who was sucked in, not them:

THE Israeli army has admitted its soldiers may have fired on a Red Cross ambulance during the war in Lebanon - an incident Foreign Minister Alexander Downer claimed was a hoax that had duped a gullible Australian and international media. The claims centred on a controversial July 23 attack in southern Lebanon in which two Red Cross ambulances were destroyed, either by artillery or missiles - injuring at least six Lebanese, including one man whose leg was later amputated. Initial media reports claimed the Israeli Defence Force targeted the vehicles, firing a missile directly through the roof of one ambulance using the international Red Cross symbol as a target marker.

Journalist Mark Dodd once again reports the missile/artillery destruction of the ambulance as fact - 'ambulances were destroyed, either by artillery or missiles' - when the photographic evidence shows they quite plainly weren't.

And his report goes on to say the Israeli spokesman 'has now gone closer than ever before to admitting responsibility' but the fact is that his comments, in response to reporters' questions, don't do any such thing:

"We (IDF) certainly do not target ambulances but in a combat zone, we cannot always co-ordinate their safety," Captain Benjamin Rutland said. "It (the ambulance) could have been struck by our mortar or artillery. There was (Israeli army) shelling in the vicinity of the ambulance, but we do not have UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) footage and we don't have access to the ambulance so we cannot tell for sure."

Caught out swallowing Hezbollah propaganda and manipulation hook, line and sinker, the mainstream media will go to any lengths to suggest they're not the gullible ones - or, worse, that they let their anti-Israeli biases blind them to the absolutely bleeding obvious lies of terrorists.

-- Nick

Note: The 'photographic evidence' link above takes you to a Fox News report. The actual ambulance expose and full analysis was carried out here by zombietime but the link was down at the time of writing.

Goodbye My Darlings...

Sad to read this morning of the death of a significant entertainer.

Not James Brown but a diminutive little chap called Charlie Drake.

Drake, born Charles Springall in the London borough of Elephant And Castle in 1925, stood just 5 feet, one inch tall but for two or three decades he was a relative giant of British comedy, carving out a niche as a hapless common man, best typified in his TV series The Worker (1965).

He also had an incredible talent for slapstick, performing his own stunts and paving the way for the likes of Michael Crawford in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. Such physical comedy was not without its risks, however:

Filming of the Charlie Drake Show by the BBC was cut short, however, by a serious accident that occurred in 1961, during a live transmission. Drake had arranged for a bookcase to be set up in such a way that it would fall apart during a slapstick sketch in which he was pulled through it. It was later discovered that an over-enthusiastic workman had "mended" the bookcase before the broadcast. The actors working with him, unaware of what had happened, proceeded with the rest of the sketch which required that they pick him up and throw him through an open window. Drake fractured his skull and was unconscious for three days. It was two years before he returned to the screen.

A London Telegraph obit adds:

During his career he broke several ribs and fingers; his right leg and left arm; and he cracked most of the bones in his neck and skull.

But Drake's manager for 37 years, Laurie Mansfield, called him:

"...perhaps the last of the great slapstick comedians, who combined both verbal humour with knockabout comedy. His timing was acknowledged by everybody as being the very very best..."

However, he also admitted Drake was a difficult man to work with:

"He was probably the most stubborn man I ever met. He knew what he wanted and would not accept compromise on getting what he wanted."

It led to Drake having run-ins with Actors Equity in the UK , causing a protracted dispute that cost him 100,000 pounds, and dimmed his rising star in the US when he:

...walked out of America's Ed Sullivan Show and never worked in the country again, because producers would not allow him to do a (slapstick) routine the way he wanted...

Drake, who also released a string of comedy records including the gloriously (now) politically incorrect My Boomerang Won't Come Back, switched from comedy to straight acting later in his career and retired in 1995 following a stroke. He passed away Christmas Eve.

Drake's co-star in The Worker was later Benny Hill Show sidekick Henry McGee who also died this year.

At this rate, we'll soon be out of comedians who could make people laugh with a look, a catchphrase (Drake's was a cheeky 'Hello my darlings!') or just plain genuinely funny writing - and not a single four-letter word within earshot.

Thanks Charlie, it was nice knowing you.

-- Nick

Like Father...

Terry Hicks, father of Gitmo terror suspect David Hicks, is a lot like his son - he wants to overturn the Australian government:

... planning a major advertising campaign targeting key Liberal-held seats in the lead-up to next year's federal election. Terry Hicks has been told his campaign - which would focus on the Howard Government's human rights record - could influence 3 per cent of voters at the next election.

At least he wishes to do it by democratic means. However, Mr Hicks may also be as dangerously naive as his son:

...he told The Advertiser there were a number of financial backers who would support the campaign. "It's quite incredible the amount of people out there that all of a sudden if you want to do something say 'don't worry about finances we will look after that'," Mr Hicks... said. "There's people out there who are concerned and are prepared to help you."

Yes, they range from the pink Greens and red Socialist Alliance to al-Qaida.

Meanwhile, Poppa Hicks sobs:

... Christmas was one of the hardest days of the year, exacerbated this year by a decision by David not to accept a phone call from him less than a week ago... Mr Hicks hoped David was fed turkey for Christmas Day and treated well - even if it was for just one day this year.

Your son converted to Islam, dickhead. What's Christmas?

-- Nick

Religion Of What?

Sunni Muslims in Mosul have decided they want their Christian neighbours out:

"A letter was delivered to my door with two bullets placed on top of it," said Mr Fadi, 32, standing watchfully in the neat garden of his two-storey villa. "It said: 'Leave, crusaders, or we will cut your heads off.' They want us to go from Mosul completely."

Yet these Christians were practising their religion in the area more than half a millenium before Islam was even founded.

Crusaders?

-- Nick

If Not This, Then...

The Australian headlines it (asininely):

A short life that ended in a wheelie bin

Make that short, nasty and brutal. And it can be educed from the words of the victim herself:

My name is stacey... I love me alochol...

Before she was beaten to death with a brick and her body dumped in a bin by two other teenage girls, Stacey Mitchell revealed on MySpace a life already doomed to waste. Boozing hard at 16 - "i'm a party gurl", as she put it - her future was dim under any circumstances.

Detective Inspector Jeff Ellis said:

... he was shocked by the Lathlain killing. "It's surprising. It's not common for women to carry out such acts. Statistically speaking, one would not expect a woman to be the perpetrator of such a crime," he said.

Where the heck have you been the past few years, DI Ellis?

Neighbours had already learned to how to cope with the loud, violent noise that regularly emanated from the Perth death house and it wasn't to call the cops:

"My husband and I bought a home theatre system so we could turn it up loud and not hear them," she said.

-- Nick

Sticks And Stones

Just because a word is banned, it doesn't make the reality go away:

Saparmurat Niyazov, the Turkmen dictator whose cruel eccentricities raised him high in the pantheon of history's most bizarre megalomaniacs, died of a heart attack yesterday aged 66...

...In response to an outbreak of bubonic plague in 2004, Mr Niyazov banned the word "plague" and outlawed all infectious diseases. Hundreds died.

And some people still support political correctness.

-- Nora

Not Enough Value Placed On Human Life

The father of a woman shot by a Jordanian Muslim terrorist finds it sad that the killer is to be put down:

"I'm sad really that these things happen in the Middle East ... it's terrible really." (he said)

But then it wasn't his daughter who died. It was a travelling companion:

Ashlea was shot in the hip while her British friend Christopher Stokes was shot dead when a lone gunman opened fire at Amman's famed Roman amphitheatre in September. The gunman, Nabeel Ahmed Issa al-Jaourah, shouted "Allahu akbar", or God is great, during the attack in the Jordanian capital. Four other western tourists and a Jordanian tourist police officer were also wounded. Jordan's military State Security Court yesterday found al-Jaourah guilty of a terrorist attack and said his "hideous crime" deserved death.

Deserved indeed.

-- Nick

No Brainer

The Mental Health Council of Australia blows away some of the myths about cannabis use in a damning report that finds:

...clear evidence that greater and earlier use of cannabis leads to an increased risk of health and psychosocial problems including mental illness... Frequent (greater than weekly) and early cannabis use is associated with risk for later dependence and a variety of other adverse outcomes such as poor school performance, early school leaving, unemployment and the use of other illicit drugs. A number of studies have found that the risk of psychosis and other adverse mental health outcomes is most marked for those who begin using cannabis at an early age.

The report also deals with issues relating to modern cultivation techniques that increase health risk levels, including the use of toxic pesticides by growers.

-- Nick

Too Much Too Young

Senior Victorian paramedic Alan Eade is at the pointy end of dealing with the results of kids and alcohol:

Ambulance officers warn that youth boozing is at epidemic proportions. A senior paramedic said alcohol-related violence was skyrocketing and the number of children being seen for alcohol poisoning was on the rise... Some cases involved children as young as 12 and 13 drinking enough alcohol to black out or choke on their vomit.

But no matter how much reality he's exposed to on the job, he might still be living in the '50s when it comes to where under-18s are getting it from:

"The alcohol is not from licensed premises, but more likely stolen from their parents' bar fridge. They don't understand how dangerous it can be and that alcohol is a poison," he said.

Stolen from their parents' bar fridge?

Tales of the recent Schoolies 'Festival' on the Gold Coast brought the following admission from Queensland Police:

Supt Keogh said (the) schoolies themselves had been drunker than ever. He said the levels of intoxication in some cases have been extreme and criticised parents for supplying their children with high-alcohol drinks.

"The supply of alcohol by parents to their children perhaps needs a bit of a rethink," he said. "They need to look at the ramifications of the kids consuming alcohol to excess."

Supt Keogh said the practice had become commonplace in recent years and, as a result, more alcohol was now being consumed by school leavers. Queensland school students graduate younger than those in other states, and the majority celebrating schoolies week are not 18 and able to purchase alcohol for themselves.

Last week, police were surprised to learn parents had also been restocking schoolies' fridges mid-week.

"Disturbingly, it's high-level alcohol -- its not low-level alcohol drinks," Supt Keogh said.

The traditional picture of young problem drinkers identifies:

- poor parental supervision and discipline
- truancy from school
- disadvantaged neighbourhood
- early involvement in problem behaviour

However, it appears the picture is quickly being revised.

The kids at Schoolies suffer few of these deprivations. In fact, their alcohol problem arises not from a lack but a surfeit of parental indulgence.

It's a problem we'll all pay for as an entire generation of violence and accident-prone, sexually infected, only vaguely employable alcoholics comes through.

-- Nick

Be Verwy, Verwy Quiet...

Best song of the year (and we don't even like metal or rap).

Oh... explicit language warning.

-- Nick

Mean, Ain't I?

A BRITISH government minister:

... indicated overnight she wanted to see men who pay for sex criminalised...

That should put half the men in Britain, 90 per cent of whom have never visited a prostitute, behind bars.

-- Nick

My Thyroid Made Me Do It

Federal magistrate Jennifer Rimmer has quit after being exposed as a plagiarist.

In a scandal that rocked the Federal Magistrates Court, The Courier-Mail revealed in March that Ms Rimmer had copied significant parts of three separate judgments without attribution.
At the time Ms Rimmer blamed her plagiarism on a thyroid condition and overwork.

And here I thought it was her incompetancy.

-- Nora

Grip Needed

Five years after their daughter's accidental death:

THE parents of a teenager who died after her hair became caught in a spa pump are bitterly disappointed a coroner has ruled that no one should be charged over the tragedy...

Why?

Since when has revenge - 'someone's got to pay for this' - been an appropriate form of closure? The lead excuse given in these types of tragic circumstances is generally 'to make sure this doesn't happen again'. And the coroner has tried to achieve that:

...deputy Queensland coroner Ray Rinaudo... did make a series of recommendations to try to prevent a repeat of the accident. His recommendations include that all public spa operators install an emergency stop button and alarm, erect signage warnings and ensure children are supervised at all times.

The coroner's court is the most liberal in the land, often creating headaches for the Director of Public Prosecutions whose office has to be much more conservative and realistic about the chances of sustaining charges.

With even the coroner's court finding no reason to charge anyone in 13-year-old Amanda Boyce's death, would her parents really feel any better if someone went to jail?

One doubts it.

-- Nick

Would You Like Stripes With That?

Great news:

AUSTRALIANS bought a record number of V8-engined cars last month...

I love the sound of Holden's V8s and the new Commodore is aggressively styled to match so the results for GMH are not surprising.

Meanwhile, even better news for this Ford fan:

Ford Performance Vehicles, the majority of which are powered by V8 engines... smashed its all-time annual sales record in November, with a month left to set a new mark.

All those lovely V8s running around out there. It just warms my heart to know how it annoys the greenies.

-- Nick

Crime Rate Plunges

With a serial killer on the loose and five 'working girls' found dead in 10 days in the English town of Ipswich:

Police and local drug workers are paying prostitutes to stay off the streets with money being provided by an unidentified charity.

Coming soon, cops buy car thieves new Mazdas to head off auto theft and retailers give stuff away to prevent shoplifting.

-- Nick

Veggie Tales

A real 'well, duh' moment in a British study of people aged 30 who were IQ tested at 10:

The findings, published online by the British Medical Journal, were consistent with other studies showing people who are more intelligent eat a healthier diet and exercise more.

...and proof that intelligence doesn't necessarily equate with good sense:

For each 15-point rise in IQ scores, the likelihood of being a vegetarian rose by 38 per cent.

Meanwhile, The Australian's headline editorialises:

Smarter children give up meat

Yeah, right. I've never met a Mensa member who wasn't a prat nor a vegetarian who wasn't sickly.

-- Nick

90 Degree Turn Of Events

Lots to read between the lines in this tale of tragedy:

In a bizarre sequence of events yesterday, five-month-old Leonardo Legrand died after his pram rolled into Adelaide's River Torrens, where he lay undetected for up to 25 minutes. His distraught mother – model and triathlete Kerry Lucas – had turned her back on Leonardo's pram as she took a mobile phone call about 8.45am. She had been jogging along a path about 3m from the river in inner-suburban Gilberton.

Who stops to take a call on a level path and turns a pram 90 degrees to park it on a slope pointing at a river?

Just asking.

-- Nick

UPDATE: Police investigators have cleared the mother.

Sound And Fury Signifying Nothing

Once again the British and the French have come out to tell all sane and sensible people what they already know - The Princess of Wales died in a car accident in 1997, and not murdered in some JFK-esque elaborate conspiracy theory.

Still sad, mad, Mohammed Al-Fayed, owner of Harrods, continues his delusion, offering this mean piece of 'evidence':

Mr Fayed also authorised an exclusive jeweller to release a video which it said showed Dodi picking up an engagement ring for Diana, just hours before both died in the car crash.

The jewellery company Repossi said it was making the images available after receiving authorisation from Mohammed Al-Fayed.

The washed-out, black-and-white video, which was timestamped August 30, 1997, showed a man resembling Dodi Fayed entering Repossi's upscale Place Vendome boutique in central Paris, which neighbours the Ritz Hotel owned by Mohammed Al-Fayed.

The man stayed a total of seven minutes. During that time he can be seen examining items of jewellery pulled out of a case and placed on a table. At the end of his visit, he seems to pick something up off a table and then leaves.

Seven minutes to pick out an engagement ring?

Seven minutes to pick out a rock to eclipse her iconic sapphire and diamond ring?

Any woman will tell you that if her fiance was so perfunctory in his selection, it wouldn't bode well for the longevity of the relationship.

Let them rest in peace Al-Fayed, the world's moved on and you should too.

-- Nora

At least He Didn't Mention The War

The Queensland Cancer Fund and Queensland Health have:

...dubbed pop star Robbie Williams a "very bad boy" for smoking onstage during one of his sell-out Brisbane concerts... "It sends the wrong message to kids." (said a spokesman for Health Minister Stephen Robertson)

No mention of his repeated use of a four-letter word that is a euphemism for copulation. Presumably it's ok to swear like that in front of kids these days and the message they receive from it is just fine and dandy.

Admittedly, I frequently use the word use the word myself but only in selected adult company.

It's all about context, something passing court jesters like Williams - and The Queensland Cancer Fund and Queensland Health - don't understand.

-- Nick

Public Enterprise

Whoever said public servants weren't an enterprising bunch?

A GROUP of senior RailCorp managers in New South Wales - including one who ran a prostitution service from Central Station headquarters - have been sacked for sexual harassment, pornography and other offences after a mammoth internal investigation.

One of the men, project officer Steven Slade, also used the office to run a Gosford escort agency - using a RailCorp fax machine to place advertisements for the service in the local paper.

It reminds one of the Canberran public servants quite a few years ago who saw a business opportunity in the arrival of the then new colour photocopier.

By the time they were discovered misusing the machines after hours, they'd built a $40,000 business supplying videotape case slicks to local pornographic film distributors.

-- Nick

Find That Sub And Sack Him!

The media cuts some slack for former court jester turned politician Peter Garrett, stumping for support with Labor's great white hope, Kevin Rudd, in Queensland:

Despite a minor stumble when he was caught out not knowing about a controversial dam proposal, it was a polished performance from the former rock star, who appeared at home on the campaign trail.

... wrote journalist Maria Hawthorne but the on-line editor who wrote the headline must be a closet rightie.

He or she picked that one paragraph from 21 others talking mainly about uranium mining and penned the head:

Garrett has no dam clue

-- Nick

No Need To Explain

You don't have to be a fan of Pauline Hanson to see there's a difference in the ways the media elite treat her and others:

PAULINE Hanson is furious with immigration policy again - but this time she's on the outside looking in. The former One Nation leader is battling US red tape as she seeks to become a refugee from the hot Australian Christmas.

In other words, writes Sunday Mail pisspot Edmund Burke, ha, ha, bitch, how's it feel to be on the receiving end, huh? How's it feel to be a 'refugee'?

It must feel very different for Hanson compared with, say, Russell Crowe or Cornelia Rau.

What's the comparison?

Well, as Burke notes, Hanson was 'jailed in 2003 for electoral fraud and spent 73 days in prison before her conviction was overturned on 6 November, 2006'. The reaction of the Australian media was disappointment that she 'got away with it'.

Russell Crowe, a violent tempered actor, threw a phone at a hotel clerk but his celebrity status when threatened with being unable to work in the US as a result garnered him media sympathy and acrimony towards the US.

Cornelia Rau was held in immigration detention for 10 months because she was a schizophrenic Jane Doe with no documentation and, to all appearances, potentially an illegal alien. The reaction of the media was to vilify the authorities for apparently being unable to read minds. And if Rau was being denied entry to the US while they cleared up her immigration status in light of a flag on her record, the media would be hitting the roof.

Hanson's real crime, of course, is being 'far right' in her views (though perhaps she is less far to the right than, say, the likes of media commentator and Communist sympathiser Phillip Adams is to the left) and also having been successful, for a time, in the Australian political sphere despite the best efforts of the media to brand her undesirable.

Burke, of course, trots out the standard media description of Hanson as:

the former fish shop owner

... which is intended as a put-down rather than necessary detail.

So much for solidarity with the workers.

-- Nick

Disproportionate Response

Piers Akerman calls it as he sees it:

The hateful response to a perfectly acceptable young Australian woman enjoying herself, while the lack of any measurable response to a disgusting act of desecration perpetrated upon a holy book other than the Koran, illustrates the very real problems that exist for young Muslims keen to become members of the broader Australian community first and subservient to religious extremists second.

Though he assumes that young Muslims are keen to become members of the 'broader Australian community'.

Meanwhile, one such keen young Muslim reinvents himself as the victim:

He said he hadn't delivered the court-ordered apology to RSL members because he was intimidated: 'I would have been speechless, that many people and that much anger, what am I to say? I wouldn't know what they expected."

...in an:

EXCLUSIVE by Justin Vallejo

...that seems to indicate Mr Vallejo has yet to be introduced to the concept of kitman:

His genuine regret, remorse, and willingness to make amends is a remarkable turn-around for a youth who became public enemy No.1 for burning the Australian flag at Brighton-le-Sands RSL...

Journalists! They're so cute when they try to be all sophisticated and they're really so naive.

-- Nick

Hollywood Babylon

More poor behaviour from court jesters:

DANNY DeVito was forced to apologise to top US anchorwoman Barbara Walters (for making comments on a tv show)... about how he and his wife had "utilised" a White House bedroom and... comments about the President that had to be bleeped out twice... The actor said he had been out partying all night with George Clooney...

The toad clown also boasted about his and wife Rhea Perlman's stay in the White House's famous Lincoln Bedroom during Bill Clinton's presidency:

"We went in and we made it our business to really wreck the joint," he said. "I mean every place in that bedroom was ..."

Prompted by co-host Rosie O'Donnell, who laughed throughout his appearance, he finished the sentence: "utilised."

Devito, Clooney and O'Donnell. Typical Hollywood Democrats.

DeVito's publicist, Stan Rosenfeld, told ABC News he had apologised to Walters.

Actually, he owes an apology to the people of the United States for boasting about using the Lincoln Room like a suite in some downtown hotel.

-- Nick

All the Ws

First a Wiggle, now King Wally.

If we were Gough and Margaret Whitlam we wouldn't start reading any long books.

-- Nick and Nora

A Blow For Democracy

In Britain, a simpering fascist gets ready to remove the last tool parents have to prevent their children growing into anti-social criminals:

The Children's Commissioner for England is preparing a dossier for the United Nations to back his case that parents who smack their children are abusing their human rights. Prof Sir Al Aynsley-Green says parents must be banned outright from smacking.

Aynsley-Green does not believe in democracy:

The dossier comes after a poll found most parents believed smacking was an acceptable way to discipline children.

Meanwhile, the British method of dealing with increased youth offending is to jail fewer youths:

Courts are being urged to send fewer young offenders to prison because youth jails are close to bursting point.

-- Nick

You Wish

Elton John, between vomits:

Asked what he would like to say to Mr Howard about his views on gay marriage, Sir Elton replied: "Up Yours".

Shut up and sing, clown.

-- Nick

Girly Man Wants To See You Sweat

The Greens want the Queensland Government to legislate to make you uncomfortable this summer:

Queensland Greens spokesperson on climate change Drew Hutton has called on Premier Peter Beattie to act now to prevent the uncontrolled use of air conditioners from disrupting power supplies, especially in the state’s south-east, and forcing the building of more coal-fired power stations.

It's precisely because of slavish Labor fears of upsetting the Greens that coal-rich Queensland hasn't commissioned a new power station in almost two decades and now experiences annual power shortages to match the anti-dam Green-inspired water shortages.

Greens spokesmanperson Drew Hutton realises his desire to make you sweat and needlessly lose sleep will upset you.

Perhaps that's why he offers these contact details on his press release:

Contact: Drew Hutton 0429 487 110 (my wife’s mobile)

-- Nick

You Are The Weakest Link. Goodbye...

Michael Novak nails the media's role in modern warfare:

The main strategic aim of war today is to dominate the mind of the enemy's public, and then ultimately to dominate the mind of that public's leaders... At what moment did the war in Vietnam come to an end? At that precise moment when America's leaders decided that they could not resist the unrelenting storyline of the enemy, which had long prevailed in their own press. The press surrendered first, then the leaders of the nation... the Cold War ended not in an explosion of unprecedented violence, but rather at the precise moment when the Soviet elites no longer believed their own storyline... (and) in Iraq... the weakest link in the ability of the United States to sustain military operations overseas... is the U.S. media.

-- Nick

Misrepresented Statistics Tell No Tales

Federal Deputy Opposition Leader and spokeswoman for education, training, science and research Jenny Macklin offers to 'throw some numbers at you' in an op-ed piece in The Daily Telegraph:

There is no doubt that violence against women is a major issue. Let me throw some numbers at you: 57 per cent of Australian women have experienced at least one incident of violence in their lifetime.

Two out of three women who experienced violence said their children had also witnessed the violence. Finally, 77 people die each year on average from domestic violence-related causes in Australia.

We need a national plan of teaching respect and responsibility in our schools so we can get serious about wiping out violence against women.

And notes:

The AFL has begun a program, Respect and Responsibility, to tackle violence. Andrew Demetriou and the AFL have been active with White Ribbon Day and encouraging healthy attitudes to women. The role people like Goodes play in their communities is invaluable but we need to support these young role models.

I know my Dad has been a great role model for my sons. Together with our football heroes, all our fathers, our husbands and sons need to be front and centre teaching respect so we can get serious about saving 77 lives every year.

It's a relatively gentle, encouraging piece of writing, not strident or chiding as often are calls on men to fight against domestic violence.

But a closer look at Mackin's words reveal a despicable dishonesty in which she misrepresents the statistics. Let's look again with some added emphasis:

...no doubt that violence against women is a major issue... 57 per cent of Australian women have experienced at least one incident of violence... Two out of three women who experienced violence said their children had also witnessed the violence... 77 people die each year on average from domestic violence-related causes in Australia... get serious about wiping out violence against women... get serious about saving 77 lives every year..."

We are left in no doubt the issue is violence against women. However, when it comes to the fatality figures, Macklin switches to gender neutral.

This is because up to 22 of those dead people were male:

"During the nine years between 1989 and 1998 an average of 55 women aged 15 and over were killed by their male intimate partners each year."

These figures come from 1999 research by the Australian Institute of Criminology.

Fifty-five plus 22 equals 77. And, as the AIC report points out, where males are killed by their intimate partner, in 84% of cases the killer is female. That's 18 of our 22 dead men, with the remaining four presumably killed by homosexual partners.

Macklin's choice of words is the giveaway - she plainly seeks to pump up her case by combining the male victims with female. For those men, it's a posthumous spit in the eye.

It's so easy to turn any dispute over domestic violence figures to an 'us versus them' argument in which each side battles to make out the other is worse. That's idiotic.

The sad fact is that non-fatal domestic violence is equally perpetrated by both men and women. A University of Melbourne La Trobe University study reveals:

Men and women report approximately equal rates of being assaulted by their partner...

The imbalance in results when these assaults become fatal may be a reflection of the generally greater physical strength of men, although it's worth pointing out a Monash University study's findings show how violent women level the playing field in the non-fatal arena:

Women were more likely than men... to have been injured by being hit by their partner or by hitting against something and to suffer bruising and inflammation, especially to the head. Men were more likely to be admitted to hospital indicating their injuries were probably more severe. They far more frequently than women were lacerated or punctured by knives, especially to the head and arms. The hit by a partner of object category was of equal proportions for men and women and this for men usually comprised being hit by cars, ashtrays, footwear, etc.

As for Macklin, deliberate distortion or misrepresentation of statistics doesn't do the cause any good. An injection of honesty might do better.

-- Nick

Drunk, Disorderly And Stupid

Journalists, usually so quick to judge and editorialise, see nothing wrong with this:

THE warning "Don't bother, I'm not drunk yet", printed on the tight white T-shirts of two young girls celebrating Schoolies' Week on the Gold Coast this year seemed to have little effect on the drooling, eager boys around them.

With outstretched hands trying to touch the young girls' breasts and bottoms, the mottos the boys wore on their T-shirts - such as "Plastered" and "Good Evening Bitches" - were perhaps a fairer representation of their true intentions.

And "Don't bother, I'm not drunk yet" isn't a fair representation of the girls' intentions? The young 'ladies' note a significant event in the making:

"We are sober. It's unusual I guess, but we are pacing ourselves and playing it cool," Brisbane girl Lejla Becirbasic said as she and her cousin Zejna Vojic brushed off the male attention sparked by their cautionary T-shirts. "Well, at least for tonight."

Cautionary?

The caption for the accompanying photo notes that Ms Becirbasic is 17. It is illegal for her to consume alcohol outside the family home. And by her own admission, it is unusual for her to be sober.

Mr and Mrs Becirbasic, you must be so proud.

Meanwhile, in other stupid bint news:

RAILCORP in New South Wales has launched two internal investigations into a smear campaign against a young female employee, with nude pictures of her circulated after she was promoted. RailCorp last night confirmed it was investigating how the photograph of transport security adviser Kimberleigh Kamstra ended up being emailed to the computer of a colleague. Ms Kamstra is said to be distraught at the circulation of the photograph...

Indeed. For how did a colleague come into the possession of such a personal and private item?

...which she sent to People magazine when she was 23, almost two years ago.

One should forgive her youthful indiscretion, a lifetime ago.

Transport security adviser?

Stay off RailCorp trains. That's my advice.

-- Nick

Words On Pegs

A call to get rid of displays and clutter on classroom walls so children can concentrate on learning receives a predictable response:

The advice was dismissed as "absolute garbage" by the National Association of Head Teachers. David Fann, the chairman of its primary committee, said children needed to be stimulated at school. "We make our classrooms bright and stimulating and even have words hanging down off pegs on fishing wire."

Perhaps that why 20 per cent of his students go on to high school:

...unable to read well enough.

-- Nick

But To Violence Against Men...

Nice to see an ad on subscription TV's W-Channel for the Federal Government's 'Violence Against Women, Australia Says No' campaign followed immediately by a promo for one of W's 'Telenovella' soaps in which the character played by Bo Derek whacks an unsuspecting bloke across the knee with a baseball bat, apparently as punishment for cheating on her.

Sort of puts the whole thing in perspective, doesn't it?

-- Nick

Predictable

No real surprise that this story:

MASS murderer Martin Bryant has been moved out of a maximum security prison into a lower security psychiatric unit. The Tasmanian Government has refused to confirm or deny the transfer of Australia's most notorious murderer. Bryant, now 36, shot 35 people dead and wounded many others at Port Arthur in 1996.

... is published on 'National Buy A Gun Day'.

Coalition for Gun Control activist and leftie lawyer Roland Browne probably suggested the story idea yesterday when he took part in this story:

A SHOOTERS' rights group has called for tomorrow to be national 'buy a gun' day, drawing strong opposition from gun control lobbyists.

Browne is credited with helping to 'script' the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre for killer Martin Bryant with two media comments prior to the event that there was, indeed, bound to be a massacre in Tasmania. Browne was also called in by the police after the event to help brief the media:

...when journalists from the ABC attended at Police Headquarters in Hobart to obtain information about the shootings at Port Arthur they were surprised to find that they were not the first to arrive at the Media Liaison Office. Mr Roland Browne, the spokesperson for Gun Control in Tasmania had arrived before them. The only person in a position to inform Roland Browne of the need to be at the Police Headquarters Media Office, prior to the media, would have been the Media Liaison Officer Geoff Easton...

While we're bringing people together, we may as well mention Browne's fellow anti-gun nut Rebecca Peters, who was head of the Coalition for Gun Control back in 1996, is now Director of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) and:

Prior to her work with IANSA... worked for the Open Society Institute, a private foundation funded by George Soros.

Soros is a billionaire socialist who funds the US Democrats and actions such as:

Hamilton –v- Accu-Tek wherein various gun manufacturers were absurdly held legally responsible for the illegal activities of someone who had illegally obtained firearms. This in a case where there was no firearm recovered to show a nexus to any of the manufacturers. As you might expect the litigation was very expensive, the Plaintiff’s representative stated that the matter would not have proceeded without the funding of the Soros Foundation.

-- Nick

Drink Up, Kids

Schoolies begins and News Limited continues its casual endorsement of illegal underage drinking:

For years Danielle Papazafiropoulos and Ashley Orford, both 17 and (as of Thursday) former Miami High School students, had saved themselves for the next 10 days. "I haven't come in to Schoolies the previous years because I didn't want to spoil it," Danielle said.

Neither knew where they would get alcohol from for tonight, the traditional start of the festival, or even if they would drink at all.

"I don't want to get trashed either, I mean fair game for all the other kids that do but I want to remember it," Sophie said.

...despite all the evidence that we now have a generation of minors who are binge drinking alcoholics even before they're legally old enough to buy the stuff.

Reporter Michael Wray pays lip service to the law toward the end of the story:

Schoolies also have been warned that under-aged drinkers and those who supply them will be charged.

Whatever.

-- Nick

UPDATE: Schoolies begins and the Gold Coast Bulletin continues its creepy obsession with minor females, posting a photo on the front page of its website of a pair of bikini-clad schoolgirls, one of whom is nearly jumping out of her top.

The newspaper pays lip service to protecting girls from sexual predators with a story about fencing off parts of Surfers Paradise for next year's mass underage booze-up:

In another option being canvassed, a fence could be put around the beach and Esplanade precinct, with schoolies admitted to the enclosed section after presenting their registration wristbands. A fenced enclosure would create a physical barrier between the teenage event and the ordinary operations of Surfers, and also end the unwanted mixing of schoolies and older gatecrashers, known as 'toolies'.

That prospect gets the seal of approval from the only people who matter, 17 year old girls:

(Emmanuel College's Laura) Priest said she would feel safer from the unwanted advances of older men.

But the fact that it's proposed for next year creates an irony lost on another of the children:

Nerang State High School graduate James Walker... said a fence would also have benefits for the guys. "It would stop the toolies coming in so there would be more girls for us," he said.

Newsflash, Einstein - next year, you're a toolie.

Weekend Assignment

A round-up of interesting reading and good writing for the weekend...

From Mark Steyn, his 2001 Remembrance Day piece:

Citizenship is about allegiance. We benefit from our rights as citizens of the state and in return we accept our duties as citizens of the state.

From Thomas Sowell, who asks Where Is The West?:

The achievements of western civilization are buried in histories that portray every human sin found here as if they were peculiarities of the west.

The classic example is slavery, which existed all over the world for thousands of years and yet is incessantly depicted as if it was a peculiarity of Europeans enslaving Africans. Barbary pirates alone brought twice as many enslaved Europeans to North Africa as there were Africans brought in bondage to the United States and the American colonies from which it was formed.

How many schools and colleges are going to teach that, going against political correctness and undermining white guilt? How many people have any inkling that it was precisely western civilization which eventually turned against slavery and began stamping it out when non-western societies still saw nothing wrong with it?

And from Ann Coulter, who brings perspective to the Democrat victory in the US mid-term elections:

In fact, if the Democrats' pathetic gains in a sixth-year election are a statement about the war in Iraq, Americans must love the war! As Roll Call put it back when Clinton was president: "Simply put, the party controlling the White House nearly always loses House seats in midterm elections" -- especially in the sixth year.

In Franklin D. Roosevelt's sixth year in 1938, Democrats lost 71 seats in the House and six in the Senate. In Dwight Eisenhower's sixth year in 1958, Republicans lost 47 House seats, 13 in the Senate. In John F. Kennedy/Lyndon Johnson's sixth year, Democrats lost 47 seats in the House and three in the Senate. In Richard Nixon/Gerald Ford's sixth year in office in 1974, Republicans lost 43 House seats and three Senate seats. Even America's greatest president, Ronald Reagan, lost five House seats and eight Senate seats in his sixth year in office...

During eight years of Clinton -- the man Democrats tell us was the greatest campaigner ever, a political genius, a heartthrob, Elvis! -- Republicans picked up a total of 49 House seats and nine Senate seats in two midterm elections. Also, when Clinton won the presidency in 1992, his party actually lost 10 seats in the House -- only the second time in the 20th century that a party won the White House but lost seats in the House.

-- Nick

Hard Labor

Around Australia, the Labor Party is having some sort of cosmic meltdown:

THE scandal surrounding sacked New South Wales Aboriginal affairs minister Milton Orkopoulos has widened, with one of his party workers believed to be under investigation for alleged child sexual assault.

and:

(Former premier Brian) Burke resigned from the Labor Party yesterday after WA Premier Alan Carpenter issued an ultimation: either he goes, or I do. (Small Business Minister Norm) Marlborough was sacked from the ministry and has indicated he will resign from Parliament, prompting a by-election for the safe Labor seat of Peel, likely to be in December.

and:

Something has gone seriously wrong with former NSW Premier Bob Carr, who in one astonishing TV interview last night destroyed whatever was left of his future as a serious political player. There may be some personal factors at play in the remarkable decline of Carr’s reason, so I will not speculate too much. But in an utterly bizarre performance on Lateline he revealed himself as a man now unhinged by Leftist conspiracy theories and a psychedelic hatred of George Bush, and all while in the grip of a messianic belief in global warming catastrophism.

and:

FORMER Queensland tourism and racing minister Merri Rose has been charged by the state's Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) with threatening a public servant while attempting to secure a job.

and:

QUEENSLAND corruption investigators examining a secret loan of $300,000 by a mining magnate to a cabinet minister have discovered that it has not been the subject of normal repayments in the five years since it was first provided. Investigators are closing in on the assets and financial history of the three adult children of former industrial relations minister Gordon Nuttall as the Beattie Government yesterday raised the prospect of criminal charges.

With Labor in power at state level all round Australia, which will be the first state to fall?

-- Nick

Hurricane Glass

Well, despite the dire prediction of 'global warmening' doomsayers, 2006 didn't hail the beginning of even worse hurricanes around the world.

So what happened?

Perhaps they moved to Saturn:

NASA'S Cassini spacecraft has pinpointed a hurricane-like storm swirling at Saturn's south pole, marking the first time such a system has been spotted on another planet, the US space agency said.

It measures approximately 8047 km wide, or two-thirds Earth's diameter.

That's worth pondering further over a cocktail.

SATURN MARTINI
20 ml Vodka
30 ml White Wine
10 ml Water
10 ml Runny Honey
Grapes
Shake with ice and strain to a chilled cocktail glass.

-- Nora

Affirmative (Action) Defence

A good reason why subsidies and funding programs should not be race based:

A YOUNG woman who claimed government funding by faking Aboriginality has been released on a two-year community-based order...

... (Emma Louise) Tatnall, of Bendigo, admitted that he had helped to make false claims totalling $11,430 through the Aboriginal Tutorial Assistance Scheme...

... Tatnall also claimed she was Aboriginal in an application for an indigenous cadetship.

A cadetship was found for her and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations provided $15,400.

Of that, $12,000 was to go to Tatnall.

-- Nora

Who Needs Jayant Patel?

Around 500 people die in Australia each year as a result of gunshot wounds (mostly suicides). Just over 1600 died in 2005 in road traffic accidents.

Doctors demand gun control (15.5) and wag their fingers at us about road safety - and themselves kill around 18,000 Australians every year.

Now it's revealed they're screwing up 20 per cent of procedures in hospitals:

ONE in five people who undergoes surgery in Australian hospitals will require a second operation to fix complications caused by infections, medical errors and the poor quality of the new generation of hip and knee prostheses. Preventable medical problems were costing billions of dollars, driving up the cost of private health insurance and placing patients' lives at risk...

It was Dr Ross Wilson who revealed the 18,000 figure way back in 1995. Now Canberra Hospital's director of infectious diseases Peter Collignon is having a go at his sloppy colleagues:

"Doctors often justify it by saying, 'Well, there are sick patients in hospitals, so of course there are going to be infections'."

then draws one of the same parallels as above and raises an interesting point:

Professor Collignon said hospital-acquired infections caused significantly more deaths than road accidents. "When someone dies in a road accident, there's a thorough investigation that looks at what went wrong, but we don't do that for infection deaths."

Why not?

-- Nick

UPDATE: Ironically, the medical profession actually contributes to the road toll.

Just Get Over It, Will You?

Come on, guys - homosexuals are just like everyone else, they're not constantly sizing up every man they see:

"There is no 'gay' gay nightspot in Darwin, which makes the cruising that much more of a challenge - or pleasure - at Throb, where the drop-dead gorgeous bloke with the square jaw and winning smile may or may not drop his girlfriend home before coming back for you."

They don't just think about sex, you know:

With all the Paul Hogan wannabes running around... It's hard not to arouse a johnson...

Honestly, you're such homophobes.

-- Nick

Ticket To Stockholm

Some would call it forgiveness:

ONE of the victims of the gang rapes that shocked Sydney is leading a secret double life - with a Muslim boyfriend. The woman known as Miss D, who was raped by the gang led by Bilal Skaf, has fallen in love with a Muslim man - but he and his family do not know her history.

I suspect it's a pathology:

The women in his family, including his mother, have sympathy with the fundamentalist views of Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly about blaming women for inciting rape.

Miss D's mother yesterday said of one emotional occasion at the family's house. She and Miss D were sitting in the loungeroom chatting with the man's mother, who wears a hijab, and his sisters, who wear tight, skimpy Western clothes.

Someone among the Muslim women brought up the subject of the gang rapes. "They don't know who we are but the women in his family said the girls deserved it," Miss D's mother revealed. "My daughter walked out crying of course but they didn't work it out. They didn't see it. She should have just told them but she hasn't."

She was raped by 14 men. The young woman is in a state of denial:

Her mother said Miss D was still unable to discuss the detail of the rape, even with her. "She has never spoken to me about what happened. From that, I can see how much damage was done," said her mother. "It hurts me to see her like that, it breaks my heart."

and her selection of boyfriend stems from her inability to comprehend what happened to her and its motivation.

The poor girl should listen to her boyfriend's mother and sisters and, unkind as it sounds, get a clue.

-- Nick

Shut Up And Sing

Where do entertainers get off on thinking they're entitled to lecture people?

Bono, during the U2 classic Sunday Bloody Sunday, said Hicks should be released from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, where he has been since 2001. “We call for David Hicks to be brought back to Australia,” he said.

The Irish rock star may have the opportunity to discuss the matter with Prime Minister John Howard. He has already said he wants to talk to Mr Howard about boosting Australia's aid to poor countries.

Get stuffed, Bono.

If I was doing work for a company and demanded to see the CEO to lecture him about how he ran the business, I'd be thrown out quick smart.

-- Nick

Swingin' Time In Baghdad

FORMER Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death by hanging after being found guilty of crimes against humanity at his trial in Baghdad.

That's worth celebrating with a drink:

Hang Man's Joke
1 part Vodka
3 parts Coke
3 parts Strawberry Juice

-- Nora

Speed Stunt Smoothes The Way For Lucas

Bingo. Queensland is to get its first fixed speed cameras - and the announcement, if not the execution, falls perfectly in the time frame one predicted at the end of last year.

Brisbane Sunday Mail journalists kindly provided the platform for State Transport Minister Paul Lucas to make the announcement after:

... reviewing the results of a Sunday Mail investigation which found motorists defying speed limits at notorious Brisbane black spots last week.

Lucas suggested:

... motorists would support the introduction of the cameras.

and no doubt polls, like the one running on-line at the Sunday Mail's website, and letters to the editor will support Lucas's view as government shills get out there and pump up the righteousness of the cause.

Lucas and Police Minister Judy Spence trot out the same old cliches and misleading stats throughout the announcement, none more grievous than:

"Sadly, the most alarming statistic during this period (the month of September) was our road toll," (Spence) said. "Already this year 271 people have been killed on our roads."

Indeed, according to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, Queensland did have an increased fatality count in September and the total number of road deaths nationally in September 2006 was a 3.7% increase over the September 2005 figure. However:

The number of road deaths in 2006 to the end of September is 1,196 - this is a 1.3% decrease from the same 9 month period in 2005.

And comparing September this year to September last year is statistical silliness. The toll may be up, it may be down. The value lies in trends over many years, not just five or 10 but 20 or 30.

And when one looks at the national road toll, it is a miracle of safety compared to its horrendous peak in 1970.

Additionally, measuring the road toll in fatalties alone is the kind of stupidity only a journalist would sponsor.

Measured in the more telling deaths per kilometres travelled, our road toll is surprisingly low considering massive increases in vehicle movements over the years, coupled with the fact that Australian drivers are poorly trained for the task by the likes of Lucas's department and appallingly ill-behaved on the road.

But the raw figures make better headlines for journalists and politicians alike - and mean more dollars for government in The Cash-Strapped Catch-Up State of Queensland.

-- Nick

Promises, Promises

Hilaly offers to tape shut his mouth.

So how soon can we we take him up on his offer?

Lay Down and Shut Up
1/2 oz chartreuse
1/2 oz cinnamon schnapps
1/2 oz kahlua
1 splash cream
Shake over ice, strain and pour into a shot glass.

-- Nora

Right right?

Amazing admissions from a Left-leaning British 'think tank', The Institute for Public Policy Research:

Its report is implicitly critical of Labour policy, which has encouraged both parents to go out to work, leaving children "home alone" or in the company of other teenagers who lead them astray.

Patricia Hewitt, a former deputy director of the institute and now the health secretary, admitted recently that the Government had undervalued mothers who remained at home, saying the Labour Party had mistakenly given the perception that it was better if all women got jobs.

Now they're adopting right-wing thinking on the issue, maybe common sense will get some attention at last.

The admissions come as part of the discovery that Britain has among the worst behaved teenagers in Europe:

According to the report, which is to be published in full on Monday and is based on a series of studies conducted in recent years, the UK was at, or close to, the top on a number of indicators of bad behaviour for teenagers. These included drugs, drink, violence and promiscuity.

Fifteen-year-olds were drunk more often, involved in more fights and more likely to have had sex, compared with children in Germany, France and Italy.

One study suggested that in 2003, 38 per cent of 15-year-olds in Britain had tried cannabis, as opposed to just seven per cent in Sweden.

A core finding should signal a warning to parents everywhere:

Whereas 45 per cent of 15-year-old boys in England and 59 per cent in Scotland spent most evenings with friends, in France that figure was just 17 per cent. In Italy 93 per cent of teenagers ate with their families, compared with 64 per cent in the UK.

Mr Pearce said the figures pointed to "increasing disconnection" between children and adults, with youngsters learning how to behave from each other, which damages their "life chances."

Where are your kids tonight?

-- Nick

One, Two, Three

Some people collect baseball cards, some collect phone cards.

Keith Hamer collects TV test cards:

As an 11-year-old... When the test card appeared accompanied by its incidental music, Mr Hamer was seduced. He set up a tape recorder he had been given for his birthday and began recording the music — and didn't stop until the card was taken off air 20 years later.

As a result, he has 3,500 pieces of accompanying music and stills of every test card produced. His knowledge is so vast that the BBC consults him when making dramas set in the 1950s, 60s, or 70s, not just to get the right test card, but also the correct accompanying music.

Cute.

Australians will possibly recognise 'Test Card Girl' Carol Hersee.

-- Nick

Integrate Or Die

You've got to feel as sorry for this poor bastard:

Mr Riaz, a factory worker, died at 8.33am, having sustained 60 per cent burns in the blaze at the family’s end-of-terrace home in Accrington, Lancs.

as for his wife and four daughters:

...Caneze, 39, a community worker, and sisters, Sayrah, 16, Sophia, 13, Alisha, 10, and Hannah, three, (who) perished in the fireball that engulfed their home...

and the family's sole survivor:

Adam Riaz, 17, (who) received the news as he lay seriously ill in a hospital bed with leukaemia.

The gut kicker:

Detectives then confirmed to him the fact that his father, Mohammed, 49, had been the sole suspect in their hunt for the arsonist.

Why sorry for a man who killed his family?

Because he never had a chance:

Mr Riaz, already with a reputation for being moody, apparently had spoken of feeling isolated from the rest of his family... he held low-paid jobs and centred his life on the local mosque (emphasis added)...

while:

It emerged yesterday that he had become depressed both by Adam’s illness and the gradual disintegration of his arranged marriage.

Having mastered only a little English since coming to Lancashire with his British-born wife in the late 1980s, he felt isolated as she and the children became increasingly westernised.

Little English after more than a decade in England. No wonder when his life centred on his local mosque and the likes of Australian Mufti Sheik Taj Cat Meat al Hilaly - more than 20 years in Australia and refusing to learn the language - are running the show.

What kind of hope could Mohammed Riaz have when the thing that should help him - his faith and his church - encourages him to stand apart, deepening his sense of isolation and murderous, suicidal despair?

-- Nick

There's A Comedy Sketch In Here Somewhere

A Muslim in the north of England was prevented from getting on a bus because she would not lift her veil so the driver could check she was the person on the student bus pass:

The 22-year-old woman, who does not want to be identified, said yesterday that other passengers laughed when the driver refused to let her board.

She has magnanimously offered:

...to help the driver's employers... draw up guidelines for staff.

but transport company First Manchester says:

"We have investigated this incident thoroughly but found no complaint on our system."

One suggests they've already got it right.

-- Nick

Not Really Plenty Of Fish In The Sea

Disaster:

All seafood will run out in 2050, say scientists...

Good grief - what are we going to tell someone who's just broken up with their boyfriend or girlfriend?

-- Nick

Book 'Em, Danno

ABORTION pill doctor Caroline de Costa:

... revealed yesterday her Cairns home had been pelted with eggs before a confrontation with pro-life protesters this week.

She is about to release a book.

Television personality Jeannie Little revealed to A Current Affair the other night that she was raped many years ago and hates to talk about it.

She is about to release a biography.

Entertainer Debra Byrne has accused television personality Johnny Young of allowing sex, drugs and alcohol on the set of Young Talent Time and turning a blind eye to her sexual involvement as a 12 year old with a 24 year old crew member (although YTT didn't start airing until Byrne was 14).

She has just released her biography.

-- Nick

No Appearance, Your Worship

They're a phenomenon Tim Blair has dubbed 'men of no appearance'.

Here's the entire News.com.au / Daily Telegraph report:

Armed gang rob club
November 01, 2006 05:59am
Article from: AAP

A GANG of armed men robbed a western Sydney club last night.

A group of five or six men, believed to have been wearing hooded jackets and carrying a gun, allegedly entered the Regents Park club at around 11.10pm (AEDT) and ordered staff and patrons to the ground.

The men allegedly took cash and fled the scene on foot.

No one was injured.

Anyone who has information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Now here's the entire NSW Police media release:

Police appeal for information following armed robbery - Regents Park

1 November 2006

Police are appealing for witnesses following the alleged armed robbery of a club at Regents Park overnight.

About 11.10pm yesterday, witnesses will allege five to six males, believed to be wearing hooded jackets and wielding a firearm, entered the premises.

The men are believed to have threatened staff and patrons at the club, ordering them to lay on the ground, before demanding cash.

The men have stolen a sum of money from the premises before fleeing the scene on foot along Regent Street.

Police from Bankstown Local Area Command attended the scene, with assistance from the Forensic Armed Robbery Unit.

No injuries were sustained during the incident. Investigations are continuing.

Police are seeking five to six men, described as being of Middle Eastern/ Mediterranean appearance (emphasis added), and wearing hooded jackets.

Anyone who witnessed the incident or who has information that may assist police, is urged to contact Auburn Police on 02 9646-8699 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

The omission is part of a deliberate campaign in which Sydney papers such as the Tele and the SMH edit references to Middle Eastern/ Mediterranean appearance out of police reports - apparently, it 'hardly narrows it down and serves no purpose' - but leaves in white/ European.

Anything to keep the peace, eh?

-- Nick

Bully Boys

The makers of the video game Grand Theft Auto, who want kids to be promiscuous (they inserted a hidden x-rated sequence into an edition of the game), now want boys to be bisexual:

...its latest schoolyard title Bully ... stars 15-year-old Jimmy Hopkins, who must navigate cliques, fights and young love at his new boarding school, along the way winning brawls, completing missions and plying girls with candy and flowers in exchange for kisses.

But Jimmy can also use the same approach with boys. When Jimmy approaches a tall, blond boy with some flowers, the boy replies: "I'm hot. You're hot. Let's make out."

Looks like the video game industry has the Hollywood disease.

Meanwhile, the News.com.au story also unintentionally highlights homosexual hypocrisy in accusing heterosexuals of being obsessed with their (homosexuals') sexuality. "Why can't they leave us alone? There's more to us than just being gay!" they complain.

But if that's the case, why the need for:

...Gaygamer.net...

, a reader of which praised Bully.

If there's more to homosexuals than their sexuality, why are there gay gamer sites, gay hiking sites, gay skiing sites? Why a National Gay Pilots Association, a gay bikers club and a lesbian auto enthusiasts club?

Looks like sexuality comes second to every other interest in homosexual's lives. Maybe that's why they want 15 year old boys thinking about kissing other boys.

-- Nick

One Or The Other

Expect the howls of protest to run loud and long as the Prime Minister announces a $90 million plan to introduce Christian chaplins into schools.

Discrimination?

Perhaps you would prefer your child to be counselled by a Muslim mufti.

Or have no spiritual guidance at all.

Ineffective use of resources?

Not if it gives you the grace and compassion to deal with this:

FORMER security guard Karen Brown and the grandparents of the robber she killed have spoken of the power of forgiveness which has enabled them to form a special bond.

In exclusive interviews with The Sunday Telegraph, both sides in the shooting described how they have grown closer after Ms Brown was acquitted of killing William Aquilina as he bashed and robbed her.

Frank and Elaine Rasmussen, who shared their home with Mr Aquilina for eight years, said they have forgiven Ms Brown and even sent a touching sympathy card after her murder trial last month...

...Their faith and local Anglican church has helped them through their grief, they said.

-- Nora

YourSpace, Not Mine

MySpace is potentially Microsoft's most successful venture into online content. Providing free space for people to post pictures and blogs, make new friends and share pictures with existing ones, it's a major online community.

But one has to ask whether a major corporation should be associating itself with the criminals, freaks and losers who make up a large proportion of that community.

Recent uproar over a DVD made by a group of Werribee school students showing the rape and degradation of a mildly retarded girl and other criminal behaviour has opened up the MySpace can of worms.

The makers of the DVD, engagingly entited 'C*** - The Movie', appear to have MySpace profiles in which it is revealed today:

...on his personal website, a person claiming to be the film's producer declares: "You probably know me best by my f***** up, illegal movie, which I find funny and do not regret at all."

Another MySpace page (warning: language) suggests 'naming and shaming' the perps, has screen grabs from the DVD and has attracted an 'interesting' debate amongst a group of mostly illiterate MySpacers as to whether the 'producer' could be so stupid as to boast about his lack of shame. Other participants point out they were stupid enough to film a rape and sell video copies on DVD.

Following some of the links from the various MySpace pages is like taking a stroll through a sewer.

It also reveals repeated examples of the braindead stupidity of many page owners, such as this 16 year old girl who lists among her favourite activities the theft of street signs and includes not only some photos of her collection but also a nice close-up of her cousin in the act of stealing one.

Her photo slideshow also shows her and her other underage friends boozed to the gills.

And the makers of 'CTM' needed to seek out a retarded girl?

By the way, does ANZ know where its advertising is hanging out?

-- Nick

Buying Power

Columnist Piers Ackerman reveals more about how Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, among Labor others, sold Australia out to Islamic terrorists:

Prime Minister Bob Hawke's federal Labor government ignored several adverse reports on the activities of controversial imam Sheik Taj Eldeen Alhilaly, filed by Australia's foreign and domestic intelligence agencies, ensuring that he would be granted permanent residency.

Had it heeded the reports from both ASIS and ASIO, instead of pandering to the ethnic vote, Alhilaly would not be in the country now, still claiming to have been misinterpreted after spending 24 years delivering abusive and intolerant sermons to his followers.

...Alhilaly's name first surfaced in a report prepared by one of Australia's most senior intelligence assets in Cairo, towards the end of 1984, when the sheik was living in Sydney, though he had already overstayed his tourist visa... (the) report on Alhilaly drew upon information held within the files of the Egyptian intelligence service in Cairo and detailed his alleged activities at Lakemba Mosque.

The Egyptian government was interested in Alhilaly because of his membership in the extremist Muslim Brotherhood, an organisation that still preaches a visceral hatred of the West... They said there was a cache of weapons of military calibre kept at the (Lakemba) mosque and listed various items, including rifles and ammunition. It was not the sort of stuff farmers keep, the source said. The Egyptians' informants in Australia said the weapons were kept at the mosque because it was thought the authorities were unlikely to raid a place of worship.

Australian authorities still won't go near Lakemba Mosque, these days even when Muslim youths are openly wandering around the environs with guns, as they did during the revenge riots following Cronulla.

And members of the Australian Labor Party will still wilfully turn a blind eye to terrorists if it means keeping their vote.

Lakemba is NSW State Labor Premier Morris Iemma's electorate.

There's a bitter irony that 'Citizenship' is among Iemma's portfolios.

-- Nick

Eyes Wide Shut

Who's Google searching for Australian actress Nicole Kidman the most?

Tehran comes out on top on Google Trends, a new service offered by the search engine that tracks interest in key searches to their city of origin. Beyond the Iranian capital, which is far and away the most prolific searcher for Kidman, other cities in her top 10 include Sydney, Brisbane, Istanbul, Toronto and Barcelona.

Of course, many of the searchers in Sydney et al would be looking for Nicky like this (caution: adult content) but one suspects her good Islamic Iranian fans are just hanging out to see her like this:

Prrowww! That's some hot cat meat!

-- Nick

Oink!

To those who ask 'why this sudden hysteria about Islam?', the answer is it's not hysteria, it's valid concern, and it's not sudden:

Even before that, in 1982, the sheik (Hilaly) was causing ripples. The (NSW) Arabic community newspaper El Telegraph in July of that year reported a speech by Sheik Hilaly in which he said "the flesh of Australian women is as cheap as pigs' flesh". The paper attacked his comments and soon had to have guards protect the journalist.

Not long after, the El Telegraph office was badly damaged in a suspicious fire.

Yet high profile Australia Labor identities were willing to turn a blind eye to terrorism and the oppression of women for personal political gain. A few years later:

Prominent Labor figures Paul Keating and Leo McLeay "demanded" a ministerial colleague grant residency for Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly. The two party leaders were furious when in 1989 then-Immigration Minister Robert Ray refused their requests, Labor sources said yesterday.

The sources said it was at least the second time they had sought to lobby on behalf of the controversial Muslim leader. The sheik has played a walk-on role in ALP affairs since he arrived here in 1982, with Mr McLeay being his strongest champion within the party.

Other Labor identities, such as NSW Upper House member Eddie Obeid, had been in the forefront of attempts to get him kicked out.

Sheik Hilaly did not get permanent residency until 1990 when Gerry Hand was Immigration Minister.

The sheik's case had been taken to Senator Ray in response to appeals from electorally powerful Islamic communities within Mr Keating's seat of Blaxland and Mr McLeay's seat of Grayndler (emphasis added).

To be fair to former Prime Minister Keating, it may not only have been threats from the Blaxland Muslim community that he would lose their votes. Keating may have felt a certain affinity with Hilaly.

After all, Keating knew the value of pig's flesh, at least in taxpayer's dollars. Keating also held in contempt the Australian population and women, including his wife, who he told he was leaving over the dinner table in front of friends.

-- Nick

The People Of The Book Cocktail Party

Nick and I, people of the book, living in what Sheik 'Ya Bootie' al Hilali might describe the modern day Sodom and Gommorah (the Gold Coast), open our doors to guests of that wonderful raconteur Mr Tim Blair.

So welcome to The People Of The Book Cocktail Party.

Some lefties might call us 'old fashioned' but rather we have a strong sense of history. After all, we appreciate that 'There's nothing new under the sun'.

Old Fashioned
2 oz blended whiskey
1 sugar cube
1 dash bitters
1 slice lemon
1 cherry
1 slice orange
Combine the sugar cube, bitters and one teaspoon of water in an old-fashioned glass. Mix well, add blended whiskey and stir. Add a twist of lemon peel and ice cubes. Add slices of orange and lemon and top with the cherry. Serve with a swizzle stick.

There are many differences between we people of the book and the Johnny-come-latelies from the 7th Century:

Camel Basher
1 part orange juice
1 part vodka
1 dash grenadine syrup
Add orange juice, vodka and grenadine. Mix thoroughly. The correct mix will give a drink which is between pink & orange in colour. Serve in a beer mug.

But there are a number of key differences. The most fundamental of which is we believe that Jesus is all he purports to be.

The Resurrection Cocktail (aka I See Dead People)
1/2 oz high proof rum
1 oz Absolut vodka
1/2 oz whisky
Serve in equal parts in a 2-oz shot glass.

And hey, you've got to love a Messiah who turns on the high quality plonk.

-- Nick and Nora

The Name Of The Game

Law Council of Australia President John North believes minors involved in making and selling a DVD of a girl being sexually assaulted 'should not be named and shamed':

"It's appalling behaviour, it's outrageous behaviour, but we shouldn't punish it with that feeling of retribution and revenge. We should try and make sure that people are punished properly if they commit a crime but that the rest of their lives aren't ruined..."

Why not? Used to work fine.

-- Nick

UPDATE:
Sticks and stones...
What's worse: A young mentally disabled woman physically and sexually assaulted or some adults having to deal with unpleasant phone calls?

If you're Josephine Franklin, a teacher of the school at the centre of the scandal it's the latter:

"I can't tell you how bad it is," she said.

"The people in our office who answer the phones are having a terrible time.

"People are abusing them and screaming at them, but there is nothing we can do but go on.

"This is misdirected. It's misguided. It's cruel. It's ugly, and it's as bad, if not worse, than the original crime (emphasis mine).

"To treat people in this way is inhuman. The kids are scared to wear their uniform."

Really?

-- Nora