Out Of The Mouth Of Babes

An unsolicited analysis of the weekend's election results courtesy of Charlotte, aged eight almost nine:

Out-going Prime Minister John Howard:

"Mr Howard is sad because he lost his job. He was a good Prime Minister. He was great."

And on in-coming Prime Minister Kevin Rudd

"I wrote his name jagged because he's bad. I think he's terrible and sneaky."

The children are our future.

-- Aunty Nora

Howard PM (Post Mortem)

The ungracious leftie Lorax, from Andrew Bolt's blog asks: So Howard Huggers, why was the swing so big? Why did Rudd win in a landslide despite good economic times?Why did Rudd win in a landslide despite good economic times?

Here is my response:

Well, my gut reaction was that people are stupid, then I appreciated your question did deserve serious consideration.

In fact I'm still asking myself that question (as are the dozen or so people I spoke to today).

I would suggest that it is reform fatigue which is the reason the Liberals didn't get in 1993 with the revolutionary GST.

They were in shell shock: floating the Australian dollar, the beginning of the liberalisation of industrial relations laws, the deregulation of the banking industry brought in during the Hawke-Keating Government.

Although Work Choices was little more than the codification of the unofficial practice of many business (I would suggest the reform-minded Keating would have proposed something similar) the unions, battling their increasing irrelevance in a period in which economic indicators are good, mounted an effective scare campaign, spending $30 million of their members' money.

Some leftist commentators have called Howard's defeat a 'moral victory' - that a strong economy is not the be all and end all.

On this point they are only half right. For the federal government a strong economy and strong foreign affairs policy are the only things they should be concerned about.

Issues such as education, health and infrastructure are the responsibility of the states - well, it would be if they hadn't so royally stuffed them up.

To sum up a long story short - the people didn't have the ticker for reform and have taken the easy way out and voted for a mob who promise only mindless platitudes such as 'education revolution', 'computers for kiddies' and the 'Kyoto cure'.

-- Nora

Question Time In Parliament

Now the truth can no longer harm Kevin Rudd's political ambition to become Prime Minister, perhaps the media would like to ask some hard questions of him.

Let's start, perhaps, with his role in covering up child abuse:

Former Opposition leader Simon Crean said: "You cannot have people in authority who have covered up for child sex abuse. It is as simple as that''.

And it is. But what can be said about an Opposition Leader (Rudd) who may have been complicit in the illegal shredding of evidence?

-- Nick

We're Off To Tim's...

Live Aussie blogging comments on the Federal Election at Tim Blair's place.

A Fairer Australia

Union tactics:

Four young (liberal) campaigners, who had started to erect posters on the school fence, were approached just before 10pm by two men who allegedly started to tear the posters down using a knife. One of the men then (punched a campaigner) twice in the chest and shoulder (and another campaigner) was punched in the back of the neck. The two offenders then fled the scene...

Meanwhile, copying the tactics of their spiritual parent, the US left's moveon.org:

The political group GetUp!'s howshouldivote website asks participants to answer 20 questions and sends them an email or text message listing in order the candidates whose policies most match their answers... no matter how the questions were answered, the website never recommended voting for a Coalition candidate.

-- Nick

No Encouragement Necessary

A company with the Australian rights to trashy porn series Girls Gone Wild intends to run a booze cruise for 18 and 19 year old Schoolies to 'a secret island north of Surfers Paradise' and 'maybe' film 'a bit of nudity'.

Asked what they thought of the company's plans to charge adults $70 each for a half-day outing at which alcohol is served then film those who have no self-control, three female Schoolies, solicited by The Daily Telegraph to pose for photographs in their bikinis, described it as 'scary', 'disturbing', 'sick' and 'a bit like paedophilia'.

They then went back to pouring vodka down each others throats with funnels and flashing their tits from high rise balconies.

-- Nick

Every Vote Counts

Well it's that time on the social calendar when good friends gather together for a drink or two.

No, it's not Christmas - it's the Australian Federal Election and to make the evening's commentary more enjoyable and memorable (or not as the case may be), Nick and Nora (along with friends near and far - [Hi Neto!]) will be enjoying the:

Federal Election Drinking Game

There is a number of different ways to enjoy this game. It depends on your mood, but rest assured, regardless of the choice, you're guaranteed plenty of elbow exercise

Each person should do one (or more) of the following:

Have a drink at the ready to start at beginning of television news.

Chug at the phrase: "The polls have closed" or a variation thereof

[A] Select an issue and keywords associated with it:

1. Industrial Relations (Unions, Workchoices, AWAs)
2. The Economy (interest rates, employment, economic management/conservative)
3. Social Issues (health, education, childcare, school fees)
4. Environment (climate change, Kyoto, drought, clean coal, nuclear)

Whenever one of the key phrases associated with your issue arises in commentary - take a sip (or a chug for the more adventurous).

A double chuck if the commentary refers to your seat.

[B] Select a TV commentator's cliched catch phrase:

1. Bellwether Seat
2. Too Close To Call
3. Heartland
4. Line Ball

And, you know the drill.

[C] But it's not all drinking you know. Every time key personnel appears on screen or is mentioned in commentary you must do the following:

Kevin Rudd: Stick your finger in your ear and say "Zob, zob, zob"

Peter Garrett: Pretend you've been struck by 240 volts and sing: "US Forces give the nod."

Pauline Hanson: Call out, "Please, exploin?"

John Howard: Fluff up your eyebrows and say, "My fellow Australians"

Peter Costello: Smirk enigmatically.

Bob Brown: Sing out: "Every Man I Love is Either Married, Gay, or Dead"

What To Drink

If you want to be perfectly conventional, beer or wine is acceptable.

However, if you're looking for a little more zing, select the following recipes, although for the truly bipartisan you'll have to have one of each:

Labor Supporters:
Union League Cocktail
1 1/2 oz. Gin
1 oz. Ruby Port
Dashes Orange Bitters
Orange Peel
Combine gin, ruby port and orange bitters in a shaker filled with ice, shake and strain into a chilled martini or cocktail glass.

Liberal Party Supporters:
The Daiquiri Liberal
1 oz white rum
1/2 oz sweet vermouth
1 dash Amer Picon orange bitters
Stir all ingredients in a mixing glass half-filled with ice cubes. Strain into a cocktail glass, and serve.

National Party Supporters
National Cocktail
2 oz rum
3 dashes apricot brandy
1/2 oz pineapple juice
3 dashes lime juice
Pour the rum, apricot brandy, pineapple juice and lime juice into a cocktail shaker half-filled with ice cubes. Shake well, strain into a cocktail glass, and serve.

Democrats Party Supporters
Suffering Bastard
1.5 Ounces Dark Rum -
1 Ounce Light Rum -
.5 Ounce Creme de Noyaux -
.5 Ounce Triple Sec -
1.5 Ounces Lime Juice
Shake with ice and strain into a highball glass

Pauline Hanson/One Nation Supporters
Red Head On The Moon
1 tsp DeKuyper Sour Apple Pucker Schnapps
1 dash Cranberry Juice
1 tsp Melon liqueur
1 tsp Sweet & Sour Mix
1/4 oz. Vodka
Layer in a shot glass.

The Greens Supporter
Green Goblin
1 oz vodka
1 oz peach schnapps
1 oz DeKuyper Sour Apple Pucker schnapps
1 oz coconut rum
1 oz sweet and sour mix
Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker half-filled with ice cubes. Shake well and pour over ice cubes in an old-fashioned glass. Serve with a lime wedge.

Family First
Keep Sober
1/2 measure grenadine
1/2 measure lemon syrup
3 measures tonic water
soda water to top up
Shake the ingredients well with ice and strain into a tumbler.
Top up with soda water. Add ice cubes if liked.

By the end of counting you're guaranteed to either be entertained, drunk or comatose.

And that's a core promise.

-- Nora

Perspicacious Pop-Up

The things that pop-up while you're reading the news:



-- Nick

Bottom Of The Barrel

Left-leaning types are quick to accuse conservatives of 'dog whistling' - the use of 'seemingly innocuous words to convey sinister purposes' - and they're sure conservative voters are stupid enough to fall for this evil mind-control:

Dr Hamilton said words and phrases commonly used in dog-whistling included "Australian values", "the thought police", "the black armband view of history", "practical reconciliation", "border protection" and "be alert, but not alarmed". All are among Prime Minister John Howard's favoured language to appeal to his so-called battlers.

Well, here's an example of dog whistling from the left - from the mainstream media - that really takes the cake.

It's the use of a foreign rape victim in an attempt to influence domestic politics by whipping up anti-government sentiment just prior to the Federal election:

Politicians have refused to stand up for a gang rape victim sentenced to 200 lashes in Saudi Arabia... The US and Australian governments have effectively abandoned the woman, who was raped 14 times by seven men.

The Australian Government has... failed to make any official statement. A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed to NEWS.com.au that Minister Alexander Downer has not made a formal comment on the affair.

The politicians’ silence doesn’t stop us from speaking out for her. Today we are collecting your comments and views in a petition that we will present to the Saudi embassy in Canberra.

Please post your comments below, with your full name and address.

And, having been whistled, the dogs have come running in comments:

"Why the Government is not responding is beyond me. May be they are too busy with the elections."

"Shame on you Australia"

"What is wrong with our Government."

"This is a disgrace. I find it appalling that my own government could say nothing!"

The story is not new and the Australian media is only covering it here as a follow-up to the US media using it to bash Bush.

-- Nick

Rats!

Freaky:

Heather Mills McCartney has urged people to drink milk from rats and dogs to help save the planet.

-- Nick

Kreepy Kev

An interesting observation by a friend after being in Brisbane on the day of the Labor election launch.

She found herself in a bank queue commiserating with a young woman on disrupted traffic conditions around town. "It all Kevin Rudd's fault," they joked together.

Suddenly, the woman looked cautiously around her then, lowering her voice, she leaned in and whispered: "I really shouldn't say this, but I don't like him. He's kind of creepy..."

'I really shouldn't say this'? Why not? Because it goes against the groupthink?

-- Nick

Monkey See

This on the front page of News.com.au:
... along with this:

POPULAR singer Missy Higgins ... has appeared on the front cover of a national lesbian magazine, telling readers that she is not straight and believes sexuality is a "fluid thing".

...along with this:

SINGAPORE has lifted a ban on an Xbox video game... The futuristic space adventure video console game made by Microsoft was banned on Thursday because it contained what the Board of Film Censors described as a "a scene of lesbian intimacy".

(The game has been cleared for viewers 18 and over; in Australia it is fit for 15 years olds; in the UK for 12 year olds.)

No wonder we get to this:



...and this:

Child psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg said there had been a rise in sexual practices among teens copied from internet pornography, and leavers' (schoolies') celebrations were no exception. "Things like group sex have become quite popular and that would simply not have happened a couple of years ago,'' Dr Carr-Gregg said.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - it's all about context. There's nothing wrong with pornography in its non-violent forms as long as it's restricted to adults.

But when we're bathing children in it and their pop culture role models are spruiking 'sexual fluidity' in public, well... ah, figure it out for yourself.

-- Nick

Celebrating Four Decades Of Drivel

British Labour has announced 7.5 million training places to improve the skills of the workforce. Half the places are to improve numeracy and literacy.

Simon Heffer notes the indictment of an education system nearly identical to Australia's:

This is where the Marxist drivel taught in teacher training colleges for the past 40 years or so has got us.

Ouch!

-- Nick

End Justifies Means

Labor's media cronies are - incredibly - still trying to sell a vicious con job as the truth. The Herald-Sun's Peter Jean and Ellen Whinnett:

PRIME Minister John Howard has been forced to come to the defence of Tony Abbott after the Health Minister appeared to publicly acknowledge that the Government's WorkChoices laws had stripped protections from workers. Excerpts from an amateur video taken at a community function early this week featured comments from Mr Abbott, a former workplace relations minister, on the effects of the controversial laws.

What Labor did to the footage has already been revealed as nothing short of a dirty little fit-up:

This video, which Labor gave to the ABC, was doctored, removing some qualifications Abbott gave and splicing two quotes together...

Here's what Abbott was seen on the ABC saying:

I accept that certain protections, in inverted commas, are not what they were. I accept that that has largely gone. I accept that.

Here's what he actually said:

I accept that certain “protections” - in inverted commas - are not what they were. That whole raft of regulation expressed in awards that sometimes ran into hundreds, even thousands of pages, I accept that that has largely gone. I accept that. I accept that the Industrial Relations Commission doesn’t have the same power to reach into the nook and cranny of every business that it used to have. I accept that.

But in the end, the best protection for the worker who feels he or she might be under pressure at his job is the chance of another job, the chance of a better job. That is the best protection. Not going off to some judge or Industrial Commission that might order your employer, who you don’t like and he doesn’t like you, to keep you in an unhappy partnership forever.

So that is the best protection that we can give people, the protection of an abundance of jobs, the protection of an economy which is crying out for more workers. That is the best protection and I think that has been delivered in spades locally and nationally.

-- Nick

Not Playing The Race Card

Everyone knows it's not racist if it's whites you're attacking:

Maori nationalists called on the government in Wellington to limit the number of migrants from Britain. They accused the government of running a secret campaign to prevent the "browning of New Zealand" by encouraging large numbers of white immigrants so that they outnumber those of Pacific and Asian origin who would align themselves with the Maori minority...

Tariana Turia, the founder and co-leader of the Maori Party which holds four seats in parliament, said: "What we are talking about is the number of people coming into this country and what that means for Maori political representation. The prediction is that we are going to see a considerable browning of New Zealand with Maori, Pacific islanders and Asians, and maybe this is the way the government combats it.

"We aren't playing the race card because we are not talking about Asian immigration." (Emphasis added)

-- Nick

Guilt By Association

Women have a special, protected role under Islam:

A Saudi woman has been sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison after she was the victim of a gang rape. The ... 19-year-old Shia woman ... was in the car of a man who was not a relative at the time of the attack, which contravened strict Saudi laws on segregation..."

But men pay for their crimes too:

... a group of seven Sunni men kidnapped them and raped them both (emphasis added)... The former boyfriend was also sentenced to 90 lashes for being with her in private.

-- Nick

1972 Redux

Not all journalists have their eyes closed to the disaster of a looming Rudd Government.

The Courier-Mail's Des Houghton knows.

And remembers.

Democracy will be quietly dispensed with in favour of rule by a distant bureaucratic tyranny.

Rudd says he will set up no fewer than 67 taskforces, committees and departments, plus 96 policy review teams. This will create an immense and overpowering government sustained by a parasitic class of government employees.

Industry and individual effort will be stifled.

Rudd showed us his style as the director-general of cabinet in the Goss Labor government.

Even cabinet ministers were prevented from speaking unless they had clearance from Kevin.

Does anyone have the sense that Kevin Rudd will be another Gough Whitlam? (And the comparison is not meant kindly)

-- Nora

Foto Fun

Sometimes it's not so bad getting stopped at traffic lights. It gives one a chance to snap a gem like this:



One of the ubiquitous Australian Education Union signs spruiking 'Public Education, Australia's Future' was affixed to a fence further along the road. If only it had been close enough to get in shot, the irony would have been complete. As it is, one had to make do with insetting a copy.

Click for a larger size - and if you don't get it, perhaps you went to a public school.

Then there's Kev, snapped at the Melbourne Cup, pretending to be a genuine bloke:



... but really only demonstrating his expected future role with the unions.

-- Nick

Fool Brittania

The UK Telegraph asks why so many Britons are leaving their country. The answers make you want to cry.

Maybe it's because of this and this and this and this and this:

Under legislation introduced by Labour in 1998, parents can ballot to get rid of existing grammar schools (schools that cater to brighter students) but cannot set up a new one.

-- Nick

A Chicken In Every Pot

A thought about KRudd's announcement that by 1990 no Australia child will... sorry wrong Labor bloke. That every Australian high school child will have their own computer.

It's an announcement that will have the IT department in every school shuddering in fear: Lap tops, lots of laptops. Lots of stealable lap tops. Networks that need to be built and maintained, software to be purchased and maintained, hardware to be maintained in a rapidly superceded market.

The fact of the matter is school children already have very good access to computers and don't need to be lumbered with aging hardware and schools don't need to be lumbered with trouble shooting virus infested hard drives.

Andrew Bolt's commenters have additional reasons why Kev's idea is a dud.

-- Nora

International Sign Of Distress

Google runs a doodle competition for school kids to mark Australia Day 2008. Some junior PC victims include an Aboriginal flag in their design.

But there's a problem.

-- Nick and Nora

Attack Of The Killer Bundits!

Cripes!

JUST weeks after New Delhi's deputy mayor toppled to his death fending off a pack of monkeys, the animals have gone back on the attack.

One woman was seriously hurt and two dozen other people were given first aid after monkeys rampaged through a neighbourhood in east Delhi over the weekend, media reports said.

-- Nick(!)

Suffer The Children

A female teacher sexually abuses a female student:

Prosecutor Tony Elliott said the case was unusual because it involved two females...

No, it's not:

A leading woman tennis coach has been convicted of molesting one of her 13-year-old students. Claire Lyte, 29, a former Wimbledon competitor, had been accused of embarking on a torrid lesbian affair with the schoolgirl player.

Interesting that in both cases, the abuse is referred to as 'an affair'. It's not; it's abuse, both sexual and of trust.

In the second case, the girl's mother joined in harming her daughter for ambition's sake:

The jury had heard how the victim's mother found Lyte and her daughter having sex in the teenager's bedroom, but did not report the incident to the police for more than six months because she did not want to harm her daughter's tennis career.

Meanwhile, more child abuse:

AL-QAEDA is actively "grooming" children and young people to carry out attacks in Britain, the head of the country's domestic intelligence service says... “This year, we have seen individuals as young as 15 and 16 implicated in terrorist-related activity.”

-- Nick

Repentance Not Required

From the UK Telegraph, linking to their obituary:



So why exactly should Brigadier-General Tibbets have repented?

-- Nick