WHETHER YOU WANT IT, OR NOT

The state is smarter than its citizens:

... all children have the right to the knowledge offered by the schools, "regardless of whether the parents like it or not."

Cool, so long as knowledge is the only thing being forced on the kids.

GLOBAL WARMING NOT BAD FOR ALL CREATURES

From New Scientist:

A species of starfish has confounded climate change doom-mongers by thriving as sea temperatures and acidity increase - a scenario that is likely as the world gets warmer.

The team therefore warn against assuming that global warming will have the same impact across groups of similar species.

Doom-mongers: an interesting description from a science magazine.

RECOGNITION SOUGHT

Jeremy justifies his Bolt-Blair obsession:

We only write about tim and Andy’s published work because they’re columnists whose vicious efforts to poison public discussion in this country are sufficiently prominent – in the tabloids, on news.com.au, on the television – that they really need some kind of public response.

Ironically, the above is in an update to a post noting Blair viciously poisoning public discussion in making fun of spelling errors by assorted Crikey bloggers.

What Jeremy's really after is recognition: he wants Bolt and Blair -- but especially Bolt -- to legitimise his obsession by engaging in debate. Exactly how this should happens is unclear; Jeremy presumably wants Bolt to post responses to Pure Poison's critiques.

Perhaps Jeremy, whose public writings show he pretty much regards Bolt as journalistic scum, should get on the phone -- “it’s Jeremy from Crikey” -- to explain to Bolt he's doing the wrong thing in avoiding debate. In any event, Jeremy shouldn't complain; he's reaching a mass audience via his popular Crikey site.

Update: On questioning Pure Poison's deviation from its stated goal -- “exposing intellectual dishonesty in the mainstream media” -- commenter Pedro is called a troll and told to piss off with his discussion derailing comments. An earlier totally irrelevant comment from PP-pal John Surname drew no reaction from PP moderators, however. Imagine Bolt trying to "debate" these clowns.

HERITAGE REVEALED

An enlightened lefty pulls a skeleton from my family closet.

Update: Despite residing in an urn for several years my mom is still having fun, apparently.

SEXY SOCIALISTS SOCKLESS

The premise of this video seems to be that the dull European Parliament will be invigorated if voters opt for Party of European Socialists (PES) candidates. It must lose something in translation.

DEATH WISHED

The person placing this ad in a Pennsylvania newspaper is in for some real legal hassles and could well end up in jail:

May Obama follow in the footsteps of Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy.

Who's dumber, the ad placer or the newspaper employee who failed to catch the implication?

BOLT NAILED

One of the PP boyz pounces on Andrew Bolt for linking to an earlier Bolt article containing an uncorrected error. Fair enough.

The most recent PP Bolt post prior to the one above -- also by Scott Bridges -- should itself be corrected, however. The post accuses Bolt of "smearing" Obama Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor through the "cherry picking" of a single short quote from a 2001 speech. Well, even the President now admits Sotomayor should have "restated" her controversial view. The PP post should be updated to reflect this development.

Update: Much of the Bolt-obsessed action at Pure Poison happens in the open threads. Here a little known fact is revealed during a discussion of a Bolt post on Sophie Monk's Prius getting pounded by an SUV:

The Big car Vs little car was the argument used by Ralph Nadar back in the 70’s to have the beetle banned in the US (I kid you not) I wonder if Andrew is comftable being on the same side as Ralph.

PP regular surlysimon is an idiot, I kid you not. By the way, Crikey's Guy Rundle, who probably can't remember the last time he saw a real live female breast, has issues with Monk's endowment (pick it up at 1:55).

ONCE THERE WERE FOUR

With the dropping of Ant Rogenous Pure Poison's roster of intrepid dishonesty-busters now stands at three. Jeez, you'd reckon his mates would let their readers know Rogenous has retired to the cozy echo chamber that is Grods, rather than just stealthily removing his name from the author list. Even better, Rogenous could have written a farewell post to, you know, perhaps draw one final lawsuit.

Update: Within minutes of this post going online a visitor lodged four rather rude comments across four threads. My personal favourite:

Beck is a pervert stalker, hence he writes about other peoples' sexual experiences.

Sex pest Beck.

Although, this is worthy of mention:

You see, when you blog about their personal lives, it's called stalking, you cheesedick.

So, posting on, and linking to, stuff available to everyone with internet access is stalking. Maybe in some parallel lefty universe that's stalking but not in this one.

Correction: Whereas one or more Pure Poison posts might have attracted threats of legal action, I am not aware of any actual court action qualifying as a "lawsuit".

TERROR HELLFIRE

Outrage at British forces in Afghanistan using Hellfire missiles with warheads that actually, you know, explode:

Human rights groups have serious concerns about the effect of these weapons in populated areas, and their legality seems to be a grey area. The last thing we need in this counter-insurgency campaign is the allegation that civilians are dying at the hands of some kind of terror weapon. Parliament must be reassured these are a weapon of last resort.

The AGM-114N replaces Hellfires specifically designed for use against tanks. It does make a nice kaboom.

PROMISED SEX NOT FORTHCOMING, POLICE CALLED

A Swedish man has gone to the police after a female friend promised sex but declined to deliver:

The woman told the 66-year-old that he could have sex with her on twelve occasions instead of getting back his 8,000 kronor [US$1,040].

At $87 a go it must have seemed a bargain. Caveat emptor.

PENIS SIZED, DOG FUCKED

Random Brainwave today honours me with two posts -- I'm also the subject of the five latest. It's more of the same try-hard adolescent stuff -- penis size and dog fucking -- from Chuck A. Spear and John "Pimples" Surname.

FUSSY GUY

Is a guy who dyes his hair particular about his eating? You betcha:

[Jeremy's] fairly fussy when it comes to desserts...

You assumed it, now didn't you?

BOLT NEGLECTED

Over the past three days Andrew Bolt has 35 posts, 15 today alone. On past form that should provide the PP boyz plenty to rave about but they managed only one Bolt post during that period, way below their 1.8 Bolt posts a day average. Have they mellowed, or did someone with authority perhaps tell them to broaden their horizons? Regardless, they're groping for material at the moment.

UPDATE YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF FEMALE SEXUAL ANATOMY

According to New Scientist, women have prostate glands -- or at least prostate tissue -- and some can indeed ejaculate. Miss Politics is vindicated.

LANGUAGE LOEWIED

Wordsmith Antony Loewenstein:

Is it fair to say that LA airport is systematic of the collapse in American infrastructure?

No.

TESTICLES BITTEN

A Swedish man convicted of stabbing his girlfriend received a reduced sentence because he was bitten on the testicles by the woman's Rottweiler. The man was bitten during his attack on the woman; the dog was also stabbed. The dog should get a medal and the stabber should serve his full sentence.

TRY HARD

PP-pal John Surname deems me one of "those with odious blogs no-one reads". My readership is indeed small but Surname obviously reads my stuff because his four most recent posts are about me -- the one above at Grods and three at Random Brainwave (here, here and here). I'm also featured in an earlier post hinting at a Blair-Beck romance:

Though I suspect Tim Blair, who is a noted dog-fucker*, is more interested in Beck's little mate.

You gotta give Surname credit, he really is trying... to do what, exactly? By the way, my less than impressive figures for the past year:


Update: Fellow Grods try-hard Bridgit Gread faults Andrew Bolt for praising Clare Werbeloff:

A blanket endorsement for a racist slur, no matter how commonly utilised or embedded in Australian culture it might be.

Gread is known to use the "wog" word, however, here in a post titled Time you carked it:

There’s no better advertisement for an Australian republic than wizened old wogboy Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...

When her use of the word is questioned Gread explains:

You’re right - ‘wog’ is almost a term of affection here now. I should have used ‘wanker’.

The whole Grods/PP crowd just makes up the rules to suit themselves as they go along.

Update II: Surname reckons the following nastiness must be funny because it appears at a "left-wing humour blog", that is, at Grods:

My friend and I came out of the bagel shop and there were these two hymies fighting. Anyway, the fatter kike said to the skinnier kike, “Oy vey, you slept with a goy on the Sabbath”, and the other one said, “No I didn’t you schmuck”. The other one goes, “I will call in my fully meshugeneh cousins and my constipated uncle Moishe”. And then they pulled out a cash register and went “chk-chk DING”, and claimed usury off each other.

Surname is confused about the true nature of Grods, categorising it at Random Brainwave as a "political blog". Everything with these guys seems to be "fluid".

Update III: Ant Rogenous, having some experience in such matters, does what Grods bloggers do best:

GrodsCorp withdraws the comparison and is deeply sorry for the trouble it has caused.

Everybody is good at something.

STEVE MARTIN ON BANJO




For comparison:

NEWSFLASH: JEREMY NEARLY CORRECT


Jeremy gets it wrong AGAIN as he tries to avoid admitting he was wrong in the first place. AP is Associated Press. The local arm is AAP. It’s an AAP story printed by News Ltd on news.com.au.

Jeremy doesn't seem to have noticed that the exact same story, with no News Ltd connection at all, also appears in The Age. I blame Bolt and Blair for Jeremy's stuff-up.

Update: Keri James defends her, er, significant other:

So hang on a second – As long as News Ltd didn’t write the story, that makes it okay?

The same organisation that consistently seeks to stir up populist rage against crime rates and sentences features a piece about the perception of crime rates. Surely that’s the point?

What the Hell is James talking about? The story summarises a study purporting to show Australians have misperceptions regarding crime and punishment. The study, which Jeremy does not link to, notes:

Individuals may use a range of sources in forming views about crime and criminal justice. Previous research has established that the types of media accessed (e.g. radio versus newspapers) as well as the forms of media (e.g. news versus entertainment) affect perceptions of crime and justice (Reiner 2002). The results from the AuSSA 2005 survey (Indermaur & Roberts 2005) indicated that people who rely on talkback radio, family and friends or commercial television have less accurate perceptions of crime than those who rely on other sources.

Notice that newspapers aren't mentioned. Jeremy might be surprised by this, had he bothered to read it.

WISHFUL THINKING

A Swedish politician rattles sabers:

“Eritrea and the regime there have chosen to kidnap a Swedish citizen; that is unacceptable. Therefore I think that we should consider a military strike to free Dawit,” Moderate Party youth head Niklas Wykman told the TT news agency.

Unfortunately, Sweden is unable to project military power that far from home. The military is like a handgun: it's always great to have one, just in case. Oh yeah, and some bullets.

UNFAIR COMPARISON

Do the two above have the same likelihood of pulling off this cunning stunt?

Tell a television news crew in amusing accents that I had witnessed the assault, that a fat wog and a skinny wog were arguing, and that one had shot the other one, like, chk, chk, BOOM.

Get an enthusiastic News Ltd. blogger to unquestioningly mythologise my performance
…
Profit!!1!

The well-spoken bogan babe wins.

Update: Ultra-creative John Surname -- think PP boy but without the multiple retractions and apologies, yet -- has taken to calling me B. O Dreck. Whoa.

Update II: Two of my last 100 referrals are from John Surname's Random Brainwave. Wow, maybe I should go for some adverts and make some real money.

GOVERNMENT CONJECTURAL

In an article highly recommended by Antony Loewenstein, Greg Barns has a Loewy-like language-mangling moment when criticising MSM journalists visiting Israel:

Why are they prepared to be the guests of any government, anywhere in the world, and particularly one that is as conjectural as the Israeli government?

An endorsement from Loewenstein is anything but.

RACISM REVEALED

Crikey's Guy Rundle imagines what Clare Werbeloff might say on a range of topics, if she were a hyper-racist lefty rather than merely a politically incorrect bogan:

AIDS: Some Africans fucked some monkeys and now we’re all fully sick.

Sol Trujillo: Some bloke who screwed up our telecoms goes and tells everyone we’re racist, the chubby little sister-selling, donkey-screwing wetback.

Rundle is probably relieved to get that stuff off his chest. The hymie-haters reckon he's a genius.

17 WORDS. TWO ERRORS

Highly trained attention-to-detail specialist Jeremy Sear:

News Ltd is surprised by the results of a recent study on beliefs about crime in Australia...

No surprise is evident in the article, which was by AAP, not News Ltd. Two errors in one sentence from Jeremy, who should be familiar with AAP, having been interviewed by the organisation in 2006.

WHAT IS IT?

Answer here.

DDT A HEALTH THREAT, AS IS WATER

Computer programmer and self-styled climate change and malaria expert Tim Lambert applauds the World Health Organization's efforts to reduce DDT's role in the fight against malaria. For support he links to a 2,548-word post by school teacher Ed Darrell, an extremely unreliable source -- he once claimed water is carcinogenic, refusing to admit his error.

Lambert could have linked to two Australians with public health qualifications expressing concern about the WHO's DDT-reduction plan but chose to ignore their considered opinions.

As an alternative to his 2,548-word craporama Darrell offers this condensed version at Deltoid (my bold):

DDT kills the songbirds, and were it just a question of sacrificing a few songbirds to save 50 million people, no one would hesitate to get out the sparrow tongue recipe and make the sacrifice.
BUT: 1. DDT is increasingly ineffective against mosquitoes. 2. At least one recent study shows that DDT kills as many children as it might possibly save; of course, DDT is generally less than 25% effective in preventing malaria. It's not much better than doing nothing. 3. There are much more effective means of preventing the disease than spraying with DDT -- bednets are 50% to 85% effective, for example, and cost about $2.00/year versus $24.00 per year for DDT. 4. The songbirds are part of the long term solution to bearing malaria. They eat mosquitoes and they are more effective at it than spraying, over time. 5. DDT can't eradicate malaria. There was a window when DDT could have been the lead pesticide in an eradication campaign. That window closed in about 1965 and it will never reopen. Spending money on DDT means money can't be spent on effective malaria fighting procedures.
Did I mention that DDT is now connected to cancers in the kids it's supposed to save? That's new knowledge, not available to Rachel Carson.
Greater danger, less effective, more expensive: DDT, the epitome of ineffective dithering that kills millions.

Number five above is correct; all of the other claims are incorrect, or are disputable or misleading, or both. Lambert blogs at scienceblogs.com but doesn't blog science; he blogs politics: everything he writes must be considered suspect unless proven otherwise.

TWO HYMIES WERE FIGHTING...

PP boy Scott Bridges highly recommends a Clare Werbeloff what if:

Here’s an interesting question: how do you think the rightardosphere might have responded to this same woman if she’d come out and said this instead.

“My friend and I came out of the bagel shop and there were these two hymies fighting. Anyway, the fatter kike said to the skinnier kike, “Oy vey, you slept with a goy on the Sabbath”, and the other one said, “No I didn’t you schmuck”. The other one goes, “I will call in my fully meshugeneh cousins and my constipated uncle Moishe”. And then they pulled out a cash register and went “chk-chk DING”, and claimed usury off each other.

Yeah, that's roughly the same as Werbeloff calling two guys "wogs".

Update: Enlightened commentary from PP-buddy John Surname:

Please note that because I am not a conservative what I have written above does not classify as "political incorrectness", and instead will be categorised under "leftist abuse", that is if Tim Blair gets his hands off his cock long enough to publish something.

Followed by this also anonymous comment:

Nevermind, Tim Blair will just go back to wanking over his niece now. Poor WB, stupid bitch that she is, doesnt have the slightst idea what kind of pig she got herself involved with.

What a lovely bunch, eh?

SPARROW SQUAWKS

Jeff Sparrow is unhappy with Quadrant for drawing attention to the launch of Overland 195:

Yesterday’s Overland session on climate change at the Sydney Writers Festival seems to have fanned the low-level cretinism normally gusting out from the Quadrant blog (cf the notorious Sally-Warhaft-is-a-dumb-blonde post) into a veritable tornado of idiocy. Take, for instance, this little item:

When the Sydney [Left] Writers’ Festival hold a phoney “forum” on climate change they ensure dissent is silenced by excluding Ian Plimer - writer of the best selling Australian book on climate change.

Though the entire sentence stands as a minor masterpiece of witlessness, particular credit should be given to the scare quotes around forum, intended, one presumes, to emphasise the phoney phoniness of this counterfeit deception.

In fairness to Quadrant, "forum" implies authoritative discussion, whereas the "discussion" participants were not experts. That is, none are climate scientists. The inclusion of computer scientist Tim Lambert in the discussion is especially problematic in that he has repeatedly rubbished the climate change views aired by those not trained as climate scientists.

A 486 word response from Sparrow to 33 words from Quadrant is a massive overreaction bordering on paranoid.

DEPTHS PLUMBED

An email notification this morning advised that I had again, without my knowledge, commented at An Onanous Lefty:

I masturbated over young Clare too. But to be fair, I was still kind of thinking of Tim at the same time.

When the comment disappeared I assumed Jeremy was tired of the fake Beck comments joke. Nope, the comment soon reappeared:

I VERBed over young Clare too. But to be fair, I was still kind of thinking of Tim at the same time.

EDIT BY SITEOWNER: Sorry, "J.F. Beck" – that mental image was one step too far.

And after further editing:

I *********ed over young Clare too. But to be fair, I was still kind of thinking of Tim at the same time.

EDIT BY SITEOWNER: Sorry, “J.F. Beck” – that mental image was one step too far. And while we’re on the subject – Jesus, man. The depths you’ll sink to get yourself “hits”.

As for masturbation fantasies, any red-blooded male will be aroused by that girly presence, the fashionably unkempt hair, those bright eyes, that crooked little smile, the glimpse of chest and the sculpted neck. Excuse me, I'll be back in a few minutes.

JEREMY NO SHERLOCK

Andrew Bolt -- Australia's most blogged about blogger -- has doubts about the upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie:

Sherlock Holmes has been waiting a long time for a stunts-and-all modern movie makeover. So this release for Christmas may seem promising - although Robert Downey Jnr? And will Holmes be retained as the aesthete, or are his manners to be trashed to suit these coarser times?

That last sentence drawing Bolt-obsessed PP boy Jeremy Sear's attention:

Holmes’ manners were notoriously brusque and inhuman. He was brilliant - but also cold, and arrogant. And he was well-known as a cocaine and morphine addict (in a less “coarse” time when such use was not criminalised). And I must confess to being surprised by this sudden preference for aesthetism - I thought Bolt was a critic of the impractical, elitist arts.

Which of these manners represent the Good Moral Values to which Andrew Bolt wishes we corrupt moderners would return?

There would be no need for speculation had Jeremy donned his cape, activating his Crikey-endowed journalistic super-powers whereby "unlike when I was just some guy with a blog, I can now actually ring the subject of a piece and say 'it’s Jeremy from Crikey' and they’ll answer the phone." Apparently a bit shy about using the "it's Jeremy from Crikey" ploy, Bolt was not contacted for clarification.

I therefore emailed Bolt to ask him what he meant by Holmes' "manners". His response:

I of course mean his mode of social conduct, embracing such things as his courtesy, self-control, courage, compassion and selflessness. As you'd agree, our ideas of precisely how such qualities are best expressed may change, but what is important is that a life is at least guided by such ideals.

And, contrary to what Jeremy would like his readers to believe, Holmes was unfailingly well-mannered despite being a recreational cocaine user.

REMINDER FOR SYDNEYSIDERS

Tomorrow at the Sydney Writers' Festival:

Bloggers vs Journalists, Round 378
Event 324

If bloggers are all wannabe journalists and journalists are all complacent hacks, why do so few manage to cross over? Rachel Hills talks to four blogger/journalists who’ve excelled in both fields: Erica Bartle, Tim Blair, Margo Kingston and Antony Loewenstein.

Four blogger/journalists who’ve excelled in both fields? Not at this event. Go to watch Loewenstein squirm.

LITTLE ANNOYANCES

Food that comes in resealable bags with an opening so small you can't get your hand inside to extract a portion of the contents and when you eventually do get the food out the bag refuses to zip shut. This is a variation of the savoury biscuit and breakfast cereal boxes with resealable flaps where a tab fits into a slot. Great idea except for the dollop of Boeing Dreamliner glue that welds the packet shut, making it impossible to open without ripping. Life wasn't meant to be easy.

SHE HAS TO BE TALKING CRAP, SHE'S GOOD-LOOKING

Australia's leftist elites find an attractive straight-talking female threatening.

Update: The hyper-intelligent have worked out that Clare Werbeloff is much more than a pretty, outspoken and quirky young woman:

This thread however is about News Corp and how they they knowingly promoted one crime scene television report only because the young person uses racial epithets and is a very good looking white girl.

They have done this because firstly and mainly it sells a shitload of papers and garners online hits and secondly because it fits totally within their on-going, unceasing culture war agenda. Whether a national media organisation should have promoted this footage is an issue, imo. It was News Corp’s choice to promote this now online hybrid of Pauline Hanson, Corey Worthington and Australia’s Next Top Model.

Now if only the elite lefties could figure out how to make money, other than by sucking off the taxpayer tit, that is.

Update II: Alternative modes of expression exposed:

Casey @ #88 overlooks the most salient point in the whole ‘Clare’ fiasco. And that is in how class is used by media conservatives in the service of sexism. In a near death experience i.e. the shooting, the textual construction of the interview denies Clare Werbeloff the correct means of expression. However, a closer analysis reveals a number of narratives concerning the bridge between reality and class may be discovered. Thus, several discourses concerning the Clare Werbeloff mode of expression exist. In this scenario we can use the term ‘power relations’ to denote the bridge between class and language. Therefore, a number of conceptualisms concerning the paradigm of sexual identity may be found in the behaviour of ‘Clare Werbeloff’ and that the media’s interpretation is fundamentally impossible.

Clare's "chk-chk boom" at least makes sense. (The comment above, while seemingly real, is apparently a parody.)

BALL-BREAKING A TRADITION

Antony Loewenstein has repeatedly denied he's anti-Jewish or anti-Israel claiming instead to be anti-Zionist. What then to make of this?

We can break your balls and nobody cares

Torture in Israel continues. A modern Jewish tradition?

Apparently Loewenstein thinks torture, like circumcision and the Bar/Bat Mitzvah, is something Jews do because that's what Jews do.

Update: An earlier Loewenstein piece appeared at Crikey and at his blog. In both places the piece remains online as written. This despite Daniel Pipes objecting to its content:

I attack Islamists and Islamism, not Muslims and Islam – a very important distinction. Here is one of many examples where I make this distinction, from an article titled “Islamophobia?” from 2005: “Despite writing again and again against radical Islam the ideology, not Islam the religion, I have been made the runner-up for a mock ‘Islamophobia Award’ in Great Britain, deemed America’s ‘leading Islamophobe,’ and even called an ‘Islamophobe Incarnate.” (What I really am is an “Islamism-ophobe.”)

I wrote that Obama was a Muslim as a child but is now a Christian – a critical distinction that your author misrepresents. For documentation of the falsehood of the second point, including a prior retraction by the American ABC News, see “Obama is currently a Muslim?“

Both Crikey and Loewentein have published Pipes' objection but neither has updated the original piece to note Loewenstein's errors. Anyone reading Loewenstein's piece will be unaware that Pipes posed valid objections to its content. This is unacceptable.

WINTER BLOWS

Today was no day for driving around rural Western Australia; the rain was intermittent but the wind, often gusty with cold fronts, was blasting in from the southwest all day -- just getting in and out of the car was an adventure. A severe weather warning remains in effect. But I really shouldn't complain; at least my house isn't under water.

Update: Perth is still getting hammered.

FOOTY FREAK

Some amazing kicking artistry from Daniel Motlop -- to fully appreciate his skills watch it full screen.

WIND FARM OF DEATH

A Taiwanese farmer has lost more than 400 goats, probably due to lack of sleep, after the installation of a noisy wind farm nearby. The farmer had previously warned the utility company that installing the turbines was a baaaad idea.

A NEW DAY, A NEW ERROR

Another Oops! moment for the PP boyz.

COUNTER CONSPIRACY ALLEGED

Commenter George Clinton alleges skullduggery:

Beck! No response as to why you blocked your stats from being public. What happened? Was it because Blair was caught sockpuppeting here? He didn't make any bogus legal threats so you know it's correct!

Or maybe it was because the statcounter showed at all anonymous comments were coming from the same 3 IP's? Big readership you got here.

In order to make my numbers easy to check for anyone wanting to have a look, my counter was for years publicly available. I restricted access when it became obvious that obsessives could use it to monitor commenter IPs, perhaps violating their privacy -- remember how Ant Rogenous incorrectly stated with certainty that he had caught Tim Blair sock-puppeting. Regardless, it's got to be obvious I have a small readership.

JEW CONTENT EXCLUDED

UNESCO explains its selection of the World Book Capital City 2009:

Beirut was chosen in particular thanks to its efforts for cultural diversity, dialogue and tolerance as well as for the variety and dynamism of its programme.

Dr Bill Anderson isn't convinced Beirut is worthy of the honour:

Earlier this year, when preparing a teaching unit on literature, academics at the American University of Beirut discovered that The Diary of Anne Frank was banned by the Lebanese government.

Researching further, they found that all forms of culture and the media were subject to the most horrendous censorship.

The list of banned DVDs, for example, included Schindler’s List, Life is Beautiful, anything with Paul Newman and/or Jane Fonda in it, the television show The Nanny, The Life of Brian, The Sopranos, Pink Floyd’s The Wall, The Battle of Algiers and Independence Day.

Analysing their research, the academics noted that the most shocking censorship categories/rationales operating in Lebanon are “sympathy for the Jews” and “Jew content” -– interestingly, there were separate categories for “sympathy for Israelis” and “publicity for Israel”.

Anderson further noting:

Everyone who values freedom of speech and artistic freedom should protest this outrageous decision.

Hey, it's not like a Jew has ever written anything worth reading.

FERRARI FUN

Video of an illegal high speed (up to 140 mph) dash across Paris. It's the sort of thing every male would like to do at least once.

REALLY FOWL

In perhaps the best succinct comment anywhere, ever, Jeremy Sear is described as the "cream of geese". Cryptic, but ever so evocative. (If the link doesn't take you straight to the comment, click it and then scroll down to anonymous at 1:00 PM.)

EVIL JEWS WILL DO ANYTHING FOR MONEY

According to Antony Loewenstein, "Israel will sell arms to pretty much any dictatorship", including Sri Lanka. Loewenstein is obviously unaware that Sri Lankans have "enjoyed democracy with universal suffrage since 1931". Accuracy-challenged Ant is a regular Crikey contributor. Surprise!

YEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE

Looking for more to life, PhD Matthew Crawford went from think-tanker to motorcycle mechanic. He found himself, and happiness.

WRONG, TOTALLY

According to Gerard Jackson, Professor John Quiggin "got it completely wrong". Well, duh.

KNIFE BARGAIN

A Henckels - Four Star Contemporary 7pce Knife Block Set reduced from AU$749.00 to $329.00. I prefer Wusthoff but Henkels is very highly regarded -- in my experience Henckels knives are less corrosion resistant. Then there is minimalist Global.

OUTCOMES PREDETERMINED

There's no doubt as to the course of this discussion at the upcoming Sydney Writers' Festival:

Stories from the Climate Change Front: A Forum and Launch of Overland 195

Event 253

David Spratt, co-author of Climate Code Red, Dr Sharon Beder, author of Global Spin: The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism, and Deltoid science blogger Tim Lambert discuss the state of the climate change debate today with Overland editor Jeff Sparrow.

Are the big polluters changing their ways or simply greening their public image? Who are the main climate denialists? What kind of action do we need, and how close are we to achieving it?

Presented by Overland.

More info on the participants:

[David Spratt] is a researcher for CarbonEquity, an activist network advocating carbon rationing and personal carbon allowances as a fair and effective response to global warming. Recent CarbonEquity reports include Avoiding catastrophe: recent science and new data on global warming and The two degree target: how far should carbon emissions be cut?

Sharon [Beder] initially trained and worked as a civil engineer before becoming interested in the social, political and philosophical aspects of engineering and then environmental politics. She completed a PhD in Science and Technology Studies at the University of NSW in 1989 based on research into the process of engineering decision-making using a case study on the development of Sydney's sewerage system.

Before joining the University of Wollongong in 1992, Sharon was Environmental Education Co-ordinator at the University of Sydney where she produced educational resources, ran continuing education and professional education courses, and designed postgraduate degrees and diplomas. She has also been Chairperson of the Environmental Engineering Branch of the Institution of Engineers, Sydney, President of the Society for Social Responsibility in Engineering, and a director of the Earth Foundation Australia.

Tim Lambert is, in his own words, "a computer scientist in the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. I don't blog about computer science very much but rather about areas of science with political implications such as global warming, the relationship between guns and crime and the use of DDT against malaria."

[Jeff Sparrow's] PhD in Creative Media included an exegetic examination of Australian communist biography and autobiography. A section of it appears as a chapter in Sheila Fitzpatrick and Carolyn Rasmussen (eds) Travellers from Australia to the Soviet Union in the 1920s-1940s.

His research interests include labour history, political theory, creative non-fiction and the politics of literature and writing.

No climatology -- or even relevant science -- qualifications in that bunch. Oh well, activism isn't about science.

By the way, Tim Lambert can find time to blog and participate in political discussion at writers' festivals but can't find the time to update the research projects page at his place of employment, which was last modified in August 1999.

JEREMY SEAR'S INSINCERE "APOLOGY"

Owing to some changes at work my afternoon into early evening blogging window is smaller than ever. It's fortunate then that all I need do is go to Pure Poison to find something to blog about -- the PP boyz are the gift that keeps on giving of Australian leftist blogs.

By now everyone with any sense -- left and right -- has realised Scott Bridges and Jeremy Sear are intellectually bankrupt, as well as sneaky and dishonest, so it's really pointless for me to keep making fun of them. The thing is, I owe these guys: on their fourth day online the now infamous Ant Rogenous (Sear and Bridges' good mate) included me in a scatter-gun attack, even attempting to intimidate an innocent bystander into removing me from her blogroll:

As far as bottom-feeders go, little-known blogger J.F. Beck was the most unctuous to weigh in to yesterday’s Pure Poison attack. Beck’s blog has for years been little more than an exercise in ingratiating himself to Tim Blair with creepy personal pot-shots Jeremy Sear and ham-fisted attacks on Antony Loewenstein. Not surprisingly for someone of Blair’s ego, it seems to have worked — the two exchange links (and cuddly emails) with almost the same loving frequency as Blair and Bolt.

I won’t bother posting a link to Beck’s site because it (like the man himself, who all those years ago stalked Jeremy until he’d uncovered his identity) truly is a steaming pile of shit. But if you really must have a look at it, you can find a link in Legal Eagle’s blogroll at (gasp!) anti-bullying-humour-authority Helen Dale’s site.

Now I couldn't care less what names the PP boyz call me but Rogenous told a whooping great lie in claiming I stalked Sear. Until that nasty slur is retracted I'll keep after them.

Today Jeremy posted another Pure Poison "apology", akin to the now removed almost-apology to Tim Blair. Let's take a close look at the blogging-barrister's overly-nuanced waffle.

Jeremy says:

Pure Poison sets itself up as a site to tackle intellectual dishonesty in the media. And we recognise that part of doing our job here is holding ourselves to the high standards we are trying to encourage in others.

There have been two unfortunate incidents here over the past few days for which we would like to apologise to our readers.

Glide past the first paragraph's "high standards" nonsense to the second paragraph's "two unfortunate incidents" crapola. That might as well read "two unlucky insignificant events". A real apology from Jeremy would refer to "my regrettable lapses in judgment". Jeremy clearly can't see that he screwed-up.

Jeremy continues to avoid taking responsibility:

The first was an incident on Friday, in which the post “Consent is not a furphy, Andrew” was taken down because we wanted to make very sure that no-one could conceivably draw implications from it that were not intended. It was amended and then reposted - unfortunately without an acknowledgement that changes had been made. This was not an attempt to conceal the changes (they were mentioned in the comments) but we agree that, as we’ve advocated to others, we should have made those changes clear on the post itself.

Jeremy refuses to admit to making a mistake in writing what he wrote; rather claiming he withdrew and rewrote the post so his readers wouldn't misread what he wrote. Jeremy's reposting without acknowledging changes wasn't "unfortunate"; that's how he operates: he refuses to accept reponsibility for his mistakes and errors in judgement.

Jeremy's responsibility avoiding non-apology continues:

The second was an incident yesterday morning, in which I posted on the subject of professional journalists using minor blog sites to do their attacks for them. On reflection, we decided that this post was too close to engaging in “blog wars” - mainly because the example used to illustrate the post was not exactly one in which I was a disinterested observer - and was therefore not appropriate for this site. We’re not interested in getting involved in those sorts of childish blog spats, and we doubt our readers are interested in reading about them, either. I therefore withdrew that post.

The withdrawn Pure Poison post linked to a Tim Blair post linking to me so Jeremy obviously thinks Tim Blair is attacking Pure Poison via me; imagining Blair is all worried by the rantings of a couple of fringe-leftists who deludedly see themselves as a major force in the Australian blogoshphere. In any event, Pure Poison's preoccupation with Bolt and Blair is all about "childish blog spats", as evidenced by ongoing whining about Bolt and Blair refusing to link to their PP nitpicking.

Jeremy's apology isn't sincere because he can't see where he went wrong: he just doesn't get it, and never will. His days as a pro-blogger are numbered.

ANOTHER INTELLECTUAL DISHONESTY-DEBUNKING PURE POISON POST DISAPPEARS

Crikey's homepage displays links to recent posts at in-house blogs:

Clicking the HELP GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED link leads to a blank page, however. That's because the Jeremy Sear post was up only briefly before being quietly consigned to oblivion, a shocking fate for the finely-crafted intellectual dishonesty-debunking of the PP boyz.

Jeremy's now gone effort cryptically reads:

If someone could fight News Ltd columnists’ battles for us - in lowdown, misleading and dishonest ways that we almost certainly couldn’t get away with ourselves - we’d be ever so grateful.

It seems Jeremy thinks -- but it is hard to know for certain -- I'm using "lowdown, misleading and dishonest" strategies in supposedly fighting Tim Blair and Andrew Bolt's battles for them. Well, here's a newsflash for Jeremy, there have been no battles: the overwhelmingly lightweight nitpicking leftist nonsense cranked out by the PP boyz is no threat to any mainstream journalist and is a reflection of the sad state of the left in general and Crikey in particular.

Picking apart the PP boyz' drivel is even easier than dissecting Antony Loewenstein. Really, you guys embarrass the whole of the Australian left and should stick to what you're good at; like whining about the RACV and cell phones, and imagining Pepsi bottle penises. Crikey made a mistake in hiring you lot and it's likely its reputation, such as it is, will never recover.

Finally, if Pure Poison's readers had an ounce of sense between them they'd be insulted that posts are removed or modified without explanation. It's the height of dishonesty.

WORLD'S BEST ILLUSION

Curve ball

CYNICAL AND SHAMELESS

Not content with only one massive screw-up Jeremy Sear today returns to the group sex issue. He misleads from the outset:

I’d thought responses to the “group sex” issue currently being discussed couldn’t get much worse than Andrew Bolt’s idea that consent is, rather than the critical issue, a “furphy”. But I was wrong.

Bolt's use of "furphy", while unusual, does not mean that consent in regard to sexual activity is a "furphy" -- such use of the word is nonsensical. A "furphy" is a false report; if you will, something that misleads. Bolt's point is that the granting of consent can be misleading in that consenting to participate in an activity does not mean that participating in that activity is the right thing to do. This is obvious in the context of Bolt's article:

The ABC’s Four Corners program on Monday tracked down Charmyne Palavi, who collects footballer lovers. One NRL player had shown her a film he’d taken on his phone.

Said Palavi: “He goes, ‘we picked up this one girl and there was like seven of us on her and everything’ . . . and he goes ‘we just filmed her to say that she consented to it’.”

All good, then, right?

Wrong, of course, yet how often this “consent” furphy is used to dodge uncomfortable debates on morality.

Take the excuses made last year for not damning Melbourne photographer Bill Henson for stripping and taking soft-porn pictures of a 13-year-old girl, posed moodily with her breasts exposed.

But she’d agreed, Henson’s many defenders protested. She’d consented, the girl’s giddy parents insisted. So what’s the problem?

The problem is that trusting to consent means - for a start - trusting that people are smart enough and strong enough to work out all by their uncertain selves what’s good for them.

Notice that rather than quote Bolt in context Jeremy merely cites Bolt's use of the word "furphy" with an attached link to the earlier Pure Poison group sex post. Follow the link and you'll find Jeremy cites "furphy" four times but makes no effort to put the word in context as used by Bolt. Anyone wanting to know what Bolt was getting at must therefore click the link to his article. It will be immediately clear that Bolt is not saying what Jeremy nebulously claims he says.

This is, according to Jeremy, unacceptable:

A link is provided under the text needing support, and it is implied that it backs up the assertion made - and it is only if the reader clicks on it that they will discover that it does no such thing. Everyone else - at some sites, probably the majority - will automatically assume the linked content says pretty much what the linking text says it does. You can see the opportunity this technique, if more widely-adopted, would provide the cynical and shameless.

And:

I’d have thought the rule was fairly simple: if you’re going to quote an enemy in order to attack him THEN QUOTE HIM. Don’t quote your earlier paraphrasing of him.

Which is, of course, exactly what Jeremy does. He's not real big on following his own rules our Jeremy. It's all rather cynical and shameless.

Update: Work commitments prevented me looking at the rest of Jeremy's latest self-embarrassment, in which he also attacks sportswriter Margie McDonald:

On Friday, the Australian published a frankly appalling piece by someone named Margie McDonald, entitled “Women need educating too”.

A 1,000+ word assault on McDonald follows. As with the Bolt article, Jeremy applies his razor-sharp lawyer brain to twisting McDonald's intent. Jeremy, ostensibly male -- ignore the girly arms, narrow shoulders, dyed hair and cat infatuation -- even likens McDonald to a "misogynist dinosaur", finding her female point of view "offensive".

McDonald's point is that females should perhaps be educated as to the possible risks associated with casual sex:

Not too long ago, the national TV advertising campaign "Violence Against Women -- Australia Says No" sent powerful messages. How about a campaign "Going to Hotel Rooms With Several Men -- Australia Says Think Again"?

Education should also come at home, between parents and children and between siblings. If kids are not taught respect, dignity and courtesy by seven or eight, how will they respect themselves, or others, when they are 17 or 18?

For those not fortunate enough to have a good family home, the education must happen at school.

McDonald noting that a female captured on a -- now seemingly all-pervasive -- camera apparently willing participating in sexual activity might be something more than embarrassed:

If I go into a hotel toilet or up in the lift with a player/players to a room, there's a good chance I'll be filmed on CCTV or a mobile phone and, if something goes horribly wrong, I have no recourse in the courts. Maybe we need to start teaching teenage girls that.

Jeremy summing up:

The attitudes expressed by the Margie McDonalds and Andrew Bolts of the commentariat actually make things worse for young women who find themselves in a private room with any man, let alone a few of them. They are effectively saying to them: sorry my dear, you shouldn’t have gone in the first place - you only have yourself to blame for whatever happens. You’ve already consented - you have no rights from here on in.

WRONG. Bolt and McDonald both advocate women thinking carefully about groupie-sex before become involved in a situation they might later regret. As always, lefty Jeremy is opposed to individual responsibility.

Update II: A PP commenter accepts Jeremy's summary of McDonald's argument:

Hell, this is the old “the uterus is public property unless the girl is kicking and screaming argument‘
So girls don‘t get delusional and think you have 100% control over your own bodies, cause if it goes to court you‘ll be proved otherwise.

I surprised Margie didn’t say something about uncovered meat.

Geniuses, the lot of them.

Update III: South Park promotes gender equity.

Update IV: The latest is here.

SUICIDE BY (PURE) POISON

Crikey's editorial staff have again screwed up in allowing a Pure Poison "intellectual dishonesty' debunker to work unsupervised; barrister Jeremy Sear publishing a Matthew Johns post that was stealthily pulled, rewritten and eventually republished.

The original Sear post is here; the reworked effort, with mulitple disclaimers, is here -- notice that nowhere is it noted this is a rewrite. (In the event that the original is updated to reflect stealthy changes, screen grabs are avilable here and here.) The rewritten post does bear this warning in comments from Scott Bridges, however:

Some commenters have noted (in still-moderated comments) that this post was taken offline for a period of time. Alterations have been made to this post and no comment or speculation about the changes made or the reasons behind those changes will be published.

Thanks for your understanding on this matter.

Thanks for understanding the PP boys write unsupportable nonsense that has already seen them apologise to Andrew Bolt and Tim Blair, with a number of posts deleted owing to possible legal complications.

The post's author, Jeremy Sear, has a well deserved reputation for posting without due regard to the facts, even accusing me of criminal activity:

Beck is a shameless liar, smearer, and stalker.

Sear subsequently trying to intimidate me by demanding via emails from his Victorian Bar account that I provide him with my address so that he could serve unspecified legal documents. Strangely, these documents never arrived.

In short, Pure Poison is a joke as are its bloggers.

Update: Despite Jeremy's massive screw-up PP regular commenter Toaf reckons the post is outstanding.

Update II: Another thinly veiled threat from Jeremy. Funny how Jeremy, who wants to be able to download free of charge movies, games and music, is suddenly all concerned about the integrity of his intellectual property.

Update III: Some inspirational music for bagpipe lover Jeremy who, having yet again made a complete ass of himself, must be feeling a bit down at the moment.

Update IV: Jeremy, who for years ignored copyright by hot-linking images belonging to others (a practice described by Blogger as "stealing bandwidth"), objects to Iain Hall's post comparing the new Johns post to the original:

Iain, you’re a thief. Crikey pays me to print my work. You’re just taking it for free, without permission.

Good thing you only have a Noddy car to your name, or you’d be at risk of someone doing something about it.

Jeremy is, believe it or not, an intellectual property specialist.

Jeremy offers the following explanation -- at Hall's blog, rather than at Pure Poison -- for his post's removal, rewrite and reposting:

The original also referred to the allegations with “allegedly”. It did not say there was a rape – it said there was a question in the media about it. Crikey wanted to make it even clearer that we were not alleging anything about what happened, so we did. I dispute that the original was defamatory of Johns either – it was, and is, about Andrew Bolt’s ridiculous idea that consent is a “furphy”.

Here's an excerpt from the original, alleged by Jeremy to contain allegedly:

But the main thing Johns is in trouble for is for NOT following Lumby’s subsequent advice, that “informed consent” is vital. It’s that there’s an open question as to whether he stood by as the girl was effectively raped by the other team mates. Because - and it staggers me that a prominent newspaper columnist doesn’t seem to get this - consenting to sex with two men does not equal consenting to sex with any man who happens to walk into the room. And standing by while a woman is raped is itself a crime.

The disclaimer-rich rewrite:

But the main thing Johns is in trouble for is allegedly NOT following Lumby’s subsequent advice, that “informed consent” is vital. It’s the allegation - which may be untrue* - that he stood by as a girl was effectively raped (again, only an allegation) by his team mates. Because - and it staggers me that a prominent newspaper columnist doesn’t seem to get this - consenting to sex with two men does not equal consenting to sex with any man who happens to walk into the room. And standing by while a woman is raped would itself be a crime. (If that was what in fact happened, in respect of which all we know is that the NZ police have investigated those allegations and decided not to prosecute.)

Anyway, it's funny how the PP boyz operate. After drawing Andrew Bolt's ire an apology was posted not by the PP boyz but by Crikey editor Jonathan Green. When Ant Rogenous's "Tim Blair uses a sockpuppet" post backfired on him the apology came from Sear. Now the only comment concerning Sear's rewrite is from Scott Bridges. The PP boyz obviously refuse to accept individual responsibility for what they write.

Update V: Someone at Crikey belatedly updates Jeremy's post:

There have been some minor changes made to this post to make the above note doubly clear. Obviously, this post is about the general issue, not the specific incident in question. It is responding to Andrew Bolt’s thoroughly disturbing suggestion that consent is merely a “furphy” - and his ridiculous attempt to use the incident to try to get a “culture war” opponent sacked.

Here's the "above note" referred to above:

We have no idea what occurred on that night, and are not alleging anything. We are commenting on the general issues raised by the subsequent discussion. Mr Johns has not been charged with any offence, and the allegations against him that are being widely discussed in the national media are just that - allegations. We know nothing more on the specific incident that prompted the debate than that.

The note was not in the original post so it is incorrect to claim the post was rewritten to make the note "doubly clear" -- the note was added during the rewrite. And the changes weren't "minor"; the post was rewritten. The PP boyz do not like owning their screw-ups.

GREENPEACE TRANSMOGRIFIED

A British peer calls it like he sees it:

"Much of the green movement isn't a green movement at all, it's a political movement," said Lord May, who is a former government chief scientific adviser and president of the Royal Society. He singled out Greenpeace as an environmental campaign group that had "transmogrified" into one with primarily an anti-globalisation stance.

Greenpeace: true to its leftist roots.

PURE POISON, THE NUMBERS

Pure Poison's stated mission:

Exposing intellectual dishonesty in the mainstream media, across the political spectrum. We’re looking at you, Bolt, Blair, Marr, Akerman, Albrechtsen, and whoever else wishes to stray onto the path of fatuous opinion.

The numbers are interesting. In the 53 days through 11 May, the PP boyz lodged 189 posts directed at "fatuous opinion" expressed by individuals. Of these, 96 are Bolt posts with 30 for Blair (this includes two Blair posts removed after publication). The remaining 63 posts are spread over 28 individuals, with seven on Janet Albrechtsen. So according to the PP boyz 67% of Australia's mainstream fatuous opinion is generated by Bolt and Blair, with Bolt accounting for 51% all by himself. Thus the remaining 28 "whoever elses" produce only 33% of Australia's fatuous opinion.

Looked at another way, the PP boyz average 1.8 Bolt posts a day, close to Jeremy's singlehanded 1.88 post average. As Roy and HG might put it, "too much Bolt is never enough", apparently.

BLACK PAWNS

Antony Loewenstein asks:

Ever wondered why so many Jews and supporters of Israel seem so “concerned” about Darfur?

The answer: Israel and the U.S. are inflating the Darfur death toll to create "humanitarian' cover" for "imperial ambitions to control Africa’s oil and other resources" via eventual military intervention. In pursuit of this goal Jewish organisations have supposedly grossly overestimated the number of Darfur deaths, which, according to Loewenstein's link, amount to an insignificant "50 to 70 thousand". It's truly sad that nominal-Jew Loewenstein is so keen to smear Israel that he ignores reality:

Former U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said in a recent AP interview there is no question that tens of thousands more people have died since he made the 200,000 estimate in 2006. He cited the dramatic increase in the number of people affected by the conflict and the recent upsurge in fighting, and said 400,000 dead is probably closer to the truth.

Anything to score anti-Israel points.

PURE POISON ROUNDUP

Two of three of today's PP posts are on Andrew Bolt by Jeremy Sear (how unusual) with the third, just for something different, a critique by Scott Bridges of a Miranda Devine article on the departure of Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty:

You see, according to Devine, Keelty did good things for Australia (true enough) but “mistakes were made” regarding Mohamed Haneef and the Bali Nine cases. And — catch this — those mistakes were “trivial by comparison with the security benefits of his reign”. Trivial! Try telling that to Dr Haneef and the Australians now serving life sentences in Indonesian prisons.

Not "trivial", "trivial by comparison". A doctor inconvenienced and drug smugglers jailed overseas are indeed trivial when compared to the disruption of terrorists convicted of plotting to kill as many innocent Australians as possible. In any event, Bridges doesn't bother to explain what he's complaining about, including no links that might bolster his case.

Bridges continues:

Miranda’s argument seems to be that Australians should accept “trivial” threats to their liberties and rights because it’s a small price to pay to “[push] terrorism down the threat list”. And what example does Devine use to prove her case? Why, the Herald Sun’s favourite MCG Terror Threat beat-up.

The Hun loves this story because it really hits readers where it hurts: football. The thing is, there was never a scrap of credible evidence led in court that Benbrika and his associates had picked the AFL grand final as a target. One prosecution witness said it, and then that same witness was so thoroughly discredited during cross-examination that the judge warned jurors that it would be “dangerous” to convict anyone on the basis of this witness’ evidence.

Now I could be wrong, but the way I read it, the sole source of the MCG terror threat evidence was not discredited during cross-examination; rather, the presiding judge, Mr Bongiorno, warned the jury that the witness's testimony must be regarded as possibly suspect owing to the fact that he was part of the conspiracy but had decided to cooperate with the prosecution.

Bridges continues:

When the men were arrested they were in possession of precisely zero explosives equipment and the terrorists’ equivalent of pocket change in cash. Were Benbrika and co. a future threat? Possibly. Were they an imminent threat? No.

That those ultimately convicted of a terrorist conspiracy had little money and no explosives is irrelevant: the 9/11 terrorists also had little money and no explosives.

Bridges also objects to this from Devine:

But such is the current climate that when the Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, praised the police taskforce for “the most successful terrorist prosecution that this country has seen”, he was howled down by a toxic combination of civil rights groups, defence lawyers and an opportunistic Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull.

Bridges swerving off on a tangent:

And the judge, Miranda. McClelland made the above comment during the trial, which any grade eleven legal studies student can tell you is a really dumb thing to do. Justice Bongiorno said the comment was unnecessary and said it had the potential to cause problems with the trial.

Defend Keelty all you like but don’t diminish his mistakes in the process. And try to get across the facts of court cases before you use them to bolster your argument.

There's no getting around the fact that the Attorney General praised praised the AFP for an investigation resulting in a successful prosecution. It's irrelevant that McClelland's comments came after 10 terrorists were convicted but one trial remained to be conlcuded -- Mr justice Bongiorno rejected the defense's request that McClelland's remarks warranted the trial being stopped. Bridges shouldn't criticise Devine when he's the one who misrepresents the court cases. Another fail for Pure Poison.

REAL DDT EXPERTS DISAGREE WITH DDT "EXPERT" TIM LAMBERT

Anti-DDT activist computer programmer Tim Lambert will be disappointed with two Australian academics with actual expertise in public health opposing an imminent ban of the chemical:

A lot of the ban that came about from the late '60s through the '70s was because of quite a legitimate concerns in relation to environmental contamination associated with its use in agriculture, where there was widespread distribution of DDT.

And it does have long persistence and I'm not sure that all the claims about it are necessary valid, but there were legitimate concerns about that.

However, in public health usage particularly in malaria control, the amount of insecticide that's actually used is very small, and it applied to the inside of houses… inside walls of houses, as I mentioned. So the potential for environmental contamination almost doesn't exist.

And:

There's a lot of concern that if we don't have a couple of other insecticides up our sleeves in addition to pyrethroids, that we'll very quickly get resistance to one of the few insecticides we have that we can use against the anopheline mosquitoes.

Many specialists have said that it has been the indoor residual spraying [with DDT] that really turned around South Africa from being a malaria endemic country to being able to now one of the countries identified as being on the road to eliminating malaria from its disease profile.

Lambert rejects the notion that DDT is indispensable, with pyrethroids and bed-nets able to control malaria unassisted. The experts disagree.

EUROPE'S LOW BIRTH RATE EXPLAINED

An EU official describes the problem.

GERMAN ARMY TO BE MORE AGGRESSIVE

German forces in Afghanistan, accused by NATO allies of avoiding dangerous confrontations with the Taliban, have been directed to be more aggressive. Under new rules of engagement they'll even be allowed to fire on retreating "militants" who heretofore have been able to halt fighting by calling "time out".

WHAT WAS IT PRE-PIMPING?

More photos and the identity here.

ALL JEWS ARE EVIL

West Australian shoppers beware: camouflaged Judaic oranges (scroll down to video) discovered in local shops. Eating just one will make you want to kill babies.

OLDEST HUMAN LIKENESS

It is a statue of a woman, of course. The desirable female form has evolved somewhat over the years.

FRINGE LEFT BIGOT

Blogging lawyer Jeremy Sear examines beauty contestant Carrie Prejean's opinions on gay marriage, concluding her impromptu statement was far more than merely politically incorrect:

Let’s be clear here: what she said on that podium was just as oppressive and nasty as if she’d stood up and declared that “marriage is between a man and a woman of the same race”. Or stood up in defence of “traditional slavery”.

Really? Prejean's opinions are as "oppressive and nasty " as defending slavery? Let's take a look at what she said:

Well I think it's great that Americans are able to choose one way or the other. We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. You know what, in my country, in my family, I do believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, no offense to anybody out there. But that’s how I was raised and I believe that it should be between a man and a woman.

Prejean doesn't oppose same-sex marriage, on the contrary, thinking it "great". She is not an advocate of gay marriage, however, viewing marriage as the union of a man and a woman; her view reflecting the traditional definition of marriage:

The legal union of a man and woman as husband and wife.

The issues having become muddled in Jeremy's normally razor-sharp analytical lawyer brain, he deems anyone not sharing his views -- Obama included -- to be bigots of the nastiest kind. In reality Jeremy's the bigot as shown by his refusal to recognise the validity of those not sharing his view. It's no surprise then that Crikey -- his current employer-- once chacterised Jeremy as the most extreme of Australia's left-wing bloggers. It's difficult to know how indicative of his thinking his blog post really are; for a pro-blogger like Jeremy -- and for his employer -- attention seeking through confected controversy is a source of income.

OBSESSIVE HOUSING DISORDER

City Journal's Steven Malanga provides a fascinating and informative history of the U.S. government's disastrous efforts to encourage home ownership.

HEARSAY IS NOT EVIDENCE

Lawyer Jeremy Sear looks at the evidence -- TV news reports -- and decides an American teenager has been railroaded under the Patriot Act for nothing more sinister than having an "internet connection that someone had hacked":

Is this really acceptable? Could this be enough to make Americans finally realise what it is that they lost in October 2001 when the state used the nation’s grief to withdraw its citizens’ more basic rights? Or will they still feel confident that it “couldn’t happen to them”?

Kevin Poulsen at Wired claims the teenager's plight has been misreported and that the 16 year-old, far from being held without due process under the provisions of the oppressive Patriot Act, "has been formally charged, has a court-appointed attorney, and has already made appearances in front of a judge."

Gee, all that paranoid whining from Jeremy over nothing. I blame his cat.

Update: Lawyer Jeremy is concerned that "partially nude" photos of Miss California might violate her beauty contest contract. Funny that a noted progressive so enthusiastically embraces the nebulous concept "partial nudity", which is akin to thinking someone can be "partially gay" or "partially pregnant".

UPDATE II: Jeremy updates his post but refuses to admit he got it wrong about the teenager's plight because, you know, the kids treatment by the U.S. justice system just doesn't seem right.

RUSSIAN WRECKS

Fascinating photos of derelict Russian equipment and buildings of all sorts. Click the link and scroll down for links to further photos.