ABC for Palestine

On tonight's Q and A, an ABC Staffer saw fit to air a banal tweet from Moammar Mashni, of Australians for Palestine:

Why can't Don Watson be our PM?

Moammar Mashni's tweet hadn't been retweeted by anyone, so clearly whomever at the ABC saw fit to publish it on television 'followed' Mashni's Twitter stream and reads everything he writes. Such as:

zio-trolls like u make me laugh. Your fascism knows no boundaries. I'm comforted in the fact #BDS will defeat evil loons like u

Interesting stuff they're reading over at the ABC...

Nazis vs fascists

Likening anti-Israel activists to Nazis is over the top.

Calling Jews fascists is Okay, however.

They haven't learned...

The Daily Telegraph reports:

Muslim parents who allowed their young daughter to hold a racist placard at a rally did her a terrible injustice, the state's new anti-discrimination boss says.

The offensive placard was paraded at a city rally in 2009 to protest against Israel's invasion of the Gaza strip that cost more than 1000 lives, the Herald Sun reported.

In a reference to the Holocaust, it featured a swastika and the words "Jews haven't learn(t)"...It is believed the issue was raised with the equal opportunity commission but no formal complaint was made because the culprits could not be identified.
Related Coverage

Mr Searle, who is Jewish, said yesterday that the placard represented a disgraceful and outrageous threat.

" But there is also the terrible injustice that in reality is being done to this little girl," he said.

"Presumably her parents bear significant responsibility for educating her, giving her the message and teaching her in a way that most of our community would find unacceptable and offensive."

Asked if the commission should look at the matter again, Mr Searle said: "I'd need to think very carefully if anything could be done because no one knows who the perpetrator was."

Not true at all. There are plenty of Muslims who know exactly who the perpetrator was.

Failed Journalist Bombs

Antony Loewenstein sneers at a News Ltd employee:

Surely quote of the week:

Mr Murdoch has never asked any journalist to do anything improper.

Unless, of course, by “improper” you mean bomb Muslim countries in the name of “freedom”.

According to Loewenstein, Rupert Murdoch asked journalists to bomb Muslim countries.

Oh the things journos have to do, to avoid getting fired. Right Antony?

Language Loewied

No prizes for identifying the Australian author and journalist who wrote this:

I was recently spoke in Sydney at the University of New South Wales at the conference of the Australian Law Students’ Association on the issues of privacy and censorship in Australia and globally. Here’s extracts from that event (though my comments here are very brief and rest assured I said many other things, including citizens treating web companies such as Google with necessary caution, as their influence in the corners of the globe often involves complicity with repressive regimes).

Little wonder then that this wordsmith's services are in high demand.

Is there no limit to Serco's Evil?

Tryhard whistleblower Antony Loewenstein continues to try and turn Serco into a dirty word because it's all corporationey. Witness their latest atrocity:

Auckland’s Mt Eden prison operator Serco has been accused of bribing inmates with bigger helpings of food and televisions in their cells to encourage them to behave.

Those bastards!

Named and shamed

Crikey media analyst Jeremy Sear is aghast at the Herald Sun naming and shaming a Melbourne tram driver the paper accuses of "posting grossly offensive images and racist remarks on the internet."

This is a tad hypocritical coming from Jeremy, who in 2008 published the name, photo and employment details of a man who, in doing his job, riled the young barrister. Ain't it funny how Lefties think.

Update: Readers familiar with Pure Poison will no doubt note the irony in Jeremy titling his post "Herald Sun to start matching commenters’ IPs with their employment?" It was, after all, the Pure Poison crew of online sleuths who used a commenter's IP as "proof" for a bogus claim that Tim Blair was engaging in online skullduggery.

Jeremy now forbids mention of this screw up.

Only 18,102 years to go...

On the Australian Labor Party website, a transcript of the Prime Minister's comments:

I note today that Senator Brandis on radio was unable to explain when the Budget would come back to surplus under MR Abbott. He said he didn’t know, that they didn’t know. That Mr Abbott couldn’t tell you when the Budget would come back to surplus. Well I can: the Budget will be back in surplus in 20113 if I’m re-elected, if my Government is re-elected on Saturday.

Shouldn't be difficult to achieve.

Defamation Discontinued

Yesterday I wrote about Marilyn Shepherd's typically unhinged comment at Crikey's Pure Poison blog.

In a comment to PP, I observed that Marilyn was slagging off "Entitled brats" despite feeling entitled to collect the dole herself.

My comment was edited by Jeremy Sear, who wrote:

we don’t publish defamatory smears about people on our site. -Jeremy

This will of course come as pleasant news to certain people who have been well and truly defamed by Crikey/Pure Poison in the past.

By the way, the Crikey apology linked to by this post, seems to have been conveniently disappeared. Fortunately an archive is here.

It's nice to see Jeremy ensuring Crikey isn't sued by a dole bludging Holocaust Denier like Marilyn Shepherd.

Shepherd previously wrote:

Official figures for the Jewish populations of Germany in 1933 were 450,000, two thirds whom fled before the holocaust.

IN Austria it was only 180,000 and two thirds of them escaped. Where the 6 million comes from is obviously another load of bunkum.

What the US would do is take propoganda pictures with dead bodies, but they were the ones keeping them locked up by then and they were dying at the rate of 200 per day.

Posted by Marilyn Shepherd, Saturday, 31 May 2008 2:43:26 AM

Jeremy will protect her feelings. More sensible bloggers have sent her packing.

Boiler, Entitled.

Marilyn Shepherd, Australia's most unhinged moonbat and occasional Holocaust denier is fed up. Again.

In a comment to the PP Blog post about the Edumucation Revolooshun laptops not being so flash she rants:

Who did they interview, some “I am entitled” brats.

I have changed computers 4 times in the past 9 years and upgraded internet from:

dial up in 2002 with 500 mb @ $30 per month @ 56kbs
to broadband in 2006 with 12 GB @ $60 per month
to $24 GB per month from $44
Now 100 GB per month for $60 with speeds of up to 20 mbs.

I have switched from Microsoft to Linux after a monster muncher got me 2 months ago and it is faster and easier.

I am sick to death of whiney brats and their entitlement culture.

Marilyn one of the biggest whiners on the Internet and there probably isn't a single major blog in this country which hasn't been peppered with her angry, hysterical rants over the years. Bloggers on all political sides have banned her. Quite an achievement.

As for entitlement? Marilyn feels quite entitled to the dole she collects as apparently she feels unable to work, despite obviously being able to sit at a computer for hours a day just like a person in a real job.

(H/T ICW)

Hardly Earned

A coalition of Useful Idiots have issued a statement calling on a Victorian Government official to stop trying to have Jew-hating boycotters investigated by the ACCC.

We urge elected officials to remember that their job is to protect rights and freedoms and to represent democratic values, not to waste our hard earned tax dollars on trying to appease a foreign state"

Antisemitic claim about politicians bowing to the Jewish state aside, check out some of the signatories:
Students for Justice for Palestine (UTS)
Students for Palestine (Vic)
Artists Against Apartheid (AAA)
etc.

How many "hard earned tax dollars" do you think that feral rabble contributed to the government this year?

NED

Further to Paul Sheehan's analysis of the London Riots' background comes this comment:

welfare? hoodies? teen pregnancy? wot a load of crap - like paul sheehan has an understanding of wots going on. Ive lived in london as was struck by one thing - it is a heirachy class society - with a tone of underlying racism. They look down their nose at anyone poor - which comes from the royals paradigm - so theres a second and third class in that society. The looting is opportunism not an uprising. Next you will be blaming rap music for it all...the reason the people on welfare are the ones doing the looting is coz they are poor so this riot is the only chance they have of getting those high end store goods - sounds like entreprenurs to me...it is wot is is - its not some sort of scorecard on the lifes of people on welfare in the UK.

grimotr | inner west - August 11, 2011, 8:21AM

I'm not sure if it's genuine or one of the truly great trolling attempts of the 21st Century. I pray it's the latter.

British degenerates

Theodore Dalrymple on the, for him, unsurprising British riots:

The riots are the apotheosis of the welfare state and popular culture in their British form. A population thinks (because it has often been told so by intellectuals and the political class) that it is entitled to a high standard of consumption, irrespective of its personal efforts; and therefore it regards the fact that it does not receive that high standard, by comparison with the rest of society, as a sign of injustice. It believes itself deprived (because it has often been told so by intellectuals and the political class), even though each member of it has received an education costing $80,000, toward which neither he nor—quite likely—any member of his family has made much of a contribution; indeed, he may well have lived his entire life at others’ expense, such that every mouthful of food he has ever eaten, every shirt he has ever worn, every television he has ever watched, has been provided by others. Even if he were to recognize this, he would not be grateful, for dependency does not promote gratitude. On the contrary, he would simply feel that the subventions were not sufficient to allow him to live as he would have liked.

Dalrymple should know, having for years provided medical care to Britain's downtrodden.

Update ABC News, via its analysis and opinion offshoot, The Drum, publishes this unique insight from antipodean observer Michael Brull:

One factor sparking the riot was the police murder of a black man called Mark Duggan.

Brull's qualifications for trying and convicting British police of a crime of which they are not accused:

Michael Brull has a featured blog at Independent Australian Jewish Voices, and is involved in Stop The Intervention Collective Sydney (STICS). He has written for Overland, the National Times, newmatilda.com, Mutiny, and ZNet.

In short, Brull doesn't know squat about anything, making him eminently qualified as a The Drum contributor.

Islamic Lawfare

Mark Durie reports:

Today the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Michael Smith, 2UE Radio Host, is being investigated by the Australian Media and Communications authority "over his assertion that the prophet Muhammad 'married a nine-year-old and consummated it when she was 11'".

It would be excellent if Australian authorities did look into Muhammad's marital arrangements with his young wife Aisha, because it is a significant human rights issue which will not go away.

Accuracy in reporting is always important, and all the more so because Muhammad's example is regarded as perfect by pious Muslims, and a model for all humanity to follow. The circumstances of Muhammad's marriages provide a fundamental point of reference for sharia law. They determine, for example, the marriage age for girls in societies which seek to comply with the Islamic sharia.

The fact of the matter is that Michael Smith got his facts wrong. The matter is worse than he said. According to the most authoritative Islamic sources, Muhammad married Aisha when she was 6, and he consummated the union when she was 9. He was 53 at the time.

Muslims are commanded to live their life in the footsteps of Mohammed - an illiterate with a penchant for young girls. I hope I don't get sued for saying so...

Update: Andrew Bolt has blogged about it. However he can't allow comments as he's tired of being sued. Lawfare works.

Green energy: lots of money for little return

Western Australia, with long hours of sunshine and reliable coastal breezes, would seem ideal for green energy generation. Not so:

The State's economic watchdog has warned that policies to encourage green power such as wind farms are badly flawed and may drive up household electricity bills without good reason.

As Prime Minister Julia Gillard last night talked up the carbon tax at a community meeting at Perth Town Hall, the Economic Regulation Authority dropped a politically explosive report on the real cost and impact of renewable energy sources.

The authority called for a rethink on the subsidies enjoyed by the green energy sector and backed a price on carbon as an efficient way to influence markets.

Energy Minister Peter Collier rejected the finding on the efficiency of a carbon tax but conceded the rush for wind farms and rooftop solar panels was costing the State a fortune for negligible environmental rewards.

All West Australians pay for this green energy folly through increased electricity bills.

Loewocracy

"The U.K. Border Agency is prohibiting fundamentalist Rabbi Yosef Elitzur, co-author of the controversial book “The King’s Torah” (“Torat Hamelech” ), from entering Britain".

Antony Loewenstein, the author of another controversial book (so popular Amazon are now letting you read it online free) couldn't be happier.

About time Zionist extremists are barred from robust democracies

Bravo.

He really doesn't 'get' that whole "robust democracy" thing, does he?

Having written plenty calling for the destruction of the Jewish state, were Antony ever to be prevented from entering Israel it's entirely predictable that he would throw a giant tantrum.

Slow Thinker

The Melbourne Age has published an opinion piece by Mark Stevenson who is the director of the Monash University Accident Research Centre. Stevenson's achievements include the lowest speed-camera tolerances (less than the width of the typical speedo needle) in the world. Naturally Stevenson supports speed cameras.

As soon as I read the words:

"There is no debate among scientists, bureaucrats or the public"

I wondered why there would still be any need to write the article.

Stevenson blames public dislike of speed cameras on government policy:

"One of the main reasons for this is that the public has come to see them as measures driven by revenue rather than safety. Governments need to change this perception by using the money from cameras and other speed enforcement practices to support national and state/territory road safety interventions."

and his research facility... Katching!

"Speed" has become the convenient all-purpose excuse for any road accident in much the same way South Koreans blame electric fans for unexplained deaths (yes, they're that nuts). It prevents the need for any critical analysis.

If a driver has a head-on collision with oncoming traffic, clearly he was travelling too fast. Never mind that he had his eyes off the road (was watching the speedo instead of looking out the windscreen) and was playing with his phone at the time...

Every long weekend it's another double-points bonanza for the Police and RTA. Every time you will see lengthy convoys of cars travelling mere inches from each other at high-speeds. The danger of tailgating is well known, but the drivers are far more terrified of getting caught for what the RTA believes is more dangerous- "speed".

So instead of daring to put their foot down in the overtaking lanes, they stay nose to tail as a living monument to hopeless road safety programs.

When I last drove in America, I was travelling at far higher speed, experiencing none of the anxiety I do on Sydney roads. The prevailing speed was 15-30kmh over the posted limit but everyone was moving similarly and everyone seemed to know what they were doing.

At one stage I saw a highway patrol car cruising the area. My Sydney driving instincts made me slow down immediately, to the annoyance of traffic behind me who started flashing their lights at me.

I will never forget what my American passenger told me: "They won't pull you over for driving quick. Only for driving stupid".

In this country it's the exact opposite.

Lefty laughathon

The latest Pure Poison podcast is a veritable yukfest with PP boyz Dave and Jeremy giggling, chortling, cackling, guffawing, sniggering and belly-laughing non-stop for over an hour. Most annoying of all is the radiant smarter-than-thou tone, so commonly adopted by smarter-than-thou Lefties, throughout.

Jeremy's happiness is understandable, however: he didn't strike out on his own until well into adulthood:

I didn’t end up moving out properly from my parents’ house until 2000.

By which time private school educated Jeremy was, what, 30?

England's consumer revolt

Last night while doing some after hours work I happened to hear an expert analyst on one of the post-evening news programs describe England's wave of rioting, arson and looting as a "consumer revolt". According to this reasoning, deprived English youths are rising up so as to secure the consumer goodies – mobile phones, trendy clothing and flat screen TVs – they can't hope to obtain in the current economic circumstances.

This nonsensical theme is echoed at The Drum:

Britain is a materialistic society, and young people the target of heavy marketing campaigns. High visibility brands dominate the high streets of every city, suburb and town; in the absence of any social means provided to achieve status, status is attached to the mere possession of these omnipresent, socially-hyped materialistic things. With their aspirations impoverished by a system that limits their access to cultural learning, cheapens their school experiences and makes university education financially unthinkable - not to mention enforces their deprivation through new controls on public housing and the removal of benefits – it is unsurprising that the rampaging underclass presently on the streets are seizing stolen sneakers with exultance. This moment, and these things, are all they have to enjoy.

This is utterly absurd, of course: lots of people grow up in less than ideal circumstances without finding it necessary to take the streets looting, burning and robbing.

Smug Europe Burns

Greg Sheridan in The Australian:

Anarchy and chaos in Athens one week? Cars beyond number burned in Paris in another season? And now this terrible, senseless, causeless violence in London and many other British cities?

And everywhere across western Europe, governments bankrupt or nearly so, living beyond their means, unable or unwilling to tell their people the truth about their finances.

And yet many European states are more than willing to tell other countries how to operate. The best example is presuming to tell the Jewish state what to do, as though they have any sort of moral authority on the subject since that exercise.

Meanwhile, when it comes to public transport, roads, electricity or government, any number of Australian lefties sneer and wonder why we can't be more like Europe.

Newsflash: Europe is stuffed. Nothing works and the best parts of Europe are those that are thousands of years old and nice to visit on a holiday. Can we please start learning from their mistakes.

Rooting for Looting

Despite a documented history of polemics, lies and journalistic incompetence, Antony Loewenstein has remained good enough for 'our ABC'. His latest 'achievement' is cheering for the London rioters.

The rioting in Britain has shocked Britain and the world but it really should not. Is this about payback for years of police mistreatment, a powerful statement from those who feel ostracised from mainstream England or criminal looters? A little bit of everything.

The incessant stupidity that comes from Loewenstein's mind has shocked intelligent readers (albeit very few) but it really should not.

(H/T Mango at The Carthaginian Solution)

In an earlier post Loewenstein states:

"Don’t tell me the Zionist lobby hasn’t bought the entire US Congress"

Remember, as long as you use the word "Zionist" instead of Jew, nobody will ever accuse you of spreading ancient antisemitic conspiracy theories about secret Jewish control of world governments.

XYZ has posted a comment to Loewenstein's heavily 'moderated' blog calling him on it. Chances of Loewenstein approving the comment?

The score so far:
Supports terrorists who kill Australians? Check.
Supports terrorists who murder Jews? Check.
Supports rioters who are burning London? Check.
Spreads antisemitic conspiracy theories? Check.
Good enough for the ABC and Fairfax? No need to check...

Heard every day

Just try to recall a political discussion in which this didn't pop up, drawing general agreement: "A lot of people say that politicians are underpaid...". Really.

The Great Lie about BDS

Of the anti-Israel BDS movement, Antony Loewenstein dishonestly claims:

Ignore the shameful spin; this has nothing to do with targeting Jewish businesses because they’re Jewish;

Oh really?

The Australians for Palestine website specifically called for a Boycott of Westfield due to its Jewish owner Frank Lowy.

At the time their website stated:

Information on WESTFIELD
National sponsor of Israeli Chamber of Commerce. Co-founder Frank Lowy is the Chairman of the Institute for National Sceurity [sic] Studies at Tel Aviv University and fought as a Golani commando in Israel. The Golani Brigade is renowned for its murderous assaults on Palestinian civilians and its involvement in the 2006 invasion of Lebanon. A group of ex-Israeli soldiers has spoken out and documented numerous cases of Golani Brigade involvement in human rights abuses

No doubt since I exposed their rank antisemitism they've edited the page which now simply says "Boycott Westfield" as a "National sponsor of Israeli Chamber of Commerce" [sic].

Antisemites and liars. Or is that a tautology?

Severe Blinkers

Antony Loewenstein is furious that dirty anti-Israel activists have been arrested for breaching their bail conditions. He quotes a sooky activist media release which claims:

Raids carried out at dawn this morning by police have seen several pro-Palestine activists arrested, in the most severe crack-down on civil liberties in decades.

FYI the Syrian Government rolled in tanks to shoot at protesters earlier this week. Pales in comparison to this outrage of course.

The bail conditions, which prohibit arrestees going within 50 metres of a Max Brenner shop, are themselves a serious curtailment on the right to protest.

Rubbish. These clowns remain welcome to hold their protests in a park, or in their home or perhaps the local Communist bookstore where they can swap tales of freedom.

What they are not allowed to do is crash private property, harass businesses and get into fights with police. Listen to these precious fools complain about their rights.

These idiots are the reason that mainstream Australians seldom protest against anything. Protest has become a dirty word because of the feral rent-a-crowd who have practically dominated every protest I can remember. Except for elections every few years, the silent majority will continue to be silent on most issues and the government know it.

Those Wacky Arabs...

Fun scenes from the trial of Hosni Mubarak.

11.32 Surreal moment as a lawyer calls out that Mubarak died in 2004, and that this court appearance is a conspiracy on the part of America and Israel. He is calling for a DNA test to prove that it's the real Mubarak and not a lookalike.

Nosepicking ensued causing the Twittersphere to erupt. Clearly also a Zionist conspiracy.

Hackers Asked

A pertinent question is asked in a recent Hackers Awards ceremony:

"How many national nuclear programs did your worm disrupt?"

Five-Star Flotilla

Great news for would-be Gaza Flotilla participants.

While you are completely ignoring Syrian calls for genocide and instead carrying on about "Israeli genocide" (which curiously has resulted in the exponential growth of the Palestinian population), now you have somewhere to stay.

Introducing Gaza's first five-star hotel.

The Gaza Strip's first five-star hotel gleams with marble floors, five luxury restaurants and a breezy cafe overlooking the territory's white sandy beaches and sparkling blue Mediterranean Sea.

Why it's just like Auschwitz!

Nearly all of the newly opened hotel's 222 rooms, decked out with ornate metal-worked lamps, flat screen televisions, oversized beds and sea views, sit empty. The tourists whom the developers expected to flood to Gaza when they launched the project 13 years ago are nowhere to be seen. Local residents, most of them living in poverty, can only dream of staying in the gleaming complex.

Join them in condemning Israel while sitting around the hotel pool sipping cocktails.

Women cannot swim in the pool, in a nod to conservative Gaza tradition. There is no alcohol banned by Hamas in line with Islamic law.

Or not...

The tale of the $47 million Al-Mashtal has mirrored the plight of the Gaza Strip over the past decade.

Padico began construction of the hotel in 1998, a time when Gaza was awash with optimism. The Palestinians had signed interim peace agreements with Israel, and a final deal to end decades of conflict appeared to be in reach.

But the area had collapsed into violence by 2001. Despite fierce fighting with Israel, the hotel's shell was in place by 2006. But it was badly damaged during a brief civil war the following year as Hamas battled the rival Fatah faction and seized control of Gaza.

Palestinian militants smashed some 180 windows during the fighting, Agha said.

Clearly also Israel's fault.

What is it with Jew-murderers and smashing windows?

Something Something, Alarmed.

Tim Blair reports on Climate Alarmist Tim Flannery's refusal to disclose the seeeecret location of his new waterfront property.

While his place was, he admitted, “very close to the water”, the issue was how far it was above the water – something Professor Flannery would not reveal because, he said, it could help identify the location and subject him to a Norway-style attack by conservatives.

A person who is genuinely afraid of being killed would usually not have a web page listing their forthcoming appearances. They would probably also ask others to be a bit more discrete about their appearance.

People who are genuinely in fear of their lives seldom make a big deal about it. Those who carry on about it are usually just fools who want a bit of PR.

Bear Attack

Climate change!

A polar bear mauled to death a British teenager and severely injured four other Britons in an attack on a camp site in the Norwegian Arctic before being shot dead, officials say.

This is not the first time.

Polar bear attacks are not uncommon in the archipelago, and according to its unique signs warning about the animal it is illegal to leave a human settlement without carrying a gun.

It is however unusual for so many people to get hurt.

Human settlement?

(Hat tip: Foxy)

Low Rent

Last week, the Wentworth Courier reported Waverley Council's intention to start charging operators of "car share" companies for the reserved parking spots they have enjoyed on parking scarce Eastern Suburbs streets.

Needless to say, the owners of these car share companies were unexcited.

A WAVERLEY Council plan to charge parking fees for car share companies will lead to fewer spaces for shared vehicles, GoGet director Bruce Jeffreys claims.

Mr Jeffreys has been seeking permission for 15 extra spaces but after the Courier told him about the plan - mooted at Waverley Council’s last meeting - he said he would revise this to five.

Why should they have to pay? They're umm... Saving the Planet!

In this week's Wenty, Arnold Kluck, director of Bayswater Car Rental offers a challenge:

Further to your article in last week's Courier, we attach our current rate notice ($175,000) and land tax bill ($480,000). We have a fleet of 1,200 Corollas which we run from our Kings Cross office and have invested many millions of dollars to provide clients with alternate car use. These rental cars provide similar economic, environmental and social advantages as a car share scheme.

On average, we pay $2,600 per space, per annum in council rates and land tax for each of our 250 car spaces that our Kings Cross office holds. Car share companies pay $46 for each of their street car spaces.

We do not whinge about the slump in tourism, the spluttering economy, or carbon tax, but we do object to our council rates subsidising our competitors on flimsy ideological grounds.

If the state and local governments agree to reduce our annual taxes to $46 a car space, we undertake to offer car sharing from our office at half the rate of the present operators. This will return street parking back to the Community.

Bring it on.

Chances of the State government or local council reducing rates are, of course, zero. Waverley Council, despite rates and collecting tens of millions of dollars annually just in parking fines, is nearly broke.

Local councils wasting huge amounts of money "on flimsy ideological grounds" is standard practice, be it enforcing nuclear free zones or getting involved in Middle Eastern Politics. If they were a business, they would be out of business.

Bubble Bubble...

The Australian's Chris Kenny observes:

Nice to read SMH called extortion girl's mobile and reports her "bubbly" message.

After phone hacking scandal that is all class.

ZOMG Fighting Crime LOL

The NSW Police are launching the 21st Century Neighbourhood Watch.

Finally, an excuse for Police Officers to spend all day on Facebook.

Look who's back!

In today's Australian:

IN our names, the migrant in charge of this country and its so-called security is about to enter the darkest period of human trading since the days of the kanakas, aided and abetted by a worthless media with its incessant lies and abuse of innocent human beings.

Asylum-seekers have legal status in this country and I hope to hell the first innocent person illegally deported and traded like a bale of wool goes straight to the UN.

We do not treat mass murderers the way this bunch of putrid trash are treating people who have fled wars we started just to win redneck votes.

Australia, I hate your guts. I suspect as well that tourists, students and migrants will be averse to a country that tortures innocent people in this manner and I hope the entire place collapses in a deep, dark depression brought on by a lazy, racist moron.

Marilyn Shepherd, Angaston, SA

Marilyn has posted similar unhinged rants on any number (and I'm talking thousands) of blogs over the years.

She has engaged in Holocaust denial and continually produced such offensive bile she is one of the only people I can think of, to have been banned from numerous blogs at both ends of the political spectrum

As she now claims to hate the country's guts, I have a simple message. Marilyn: Leave already.

Of course she won't, as despite her obvious ability to sit at a computer 10-12 hours a day, Marilyn has been claiming unemployment benefits for years.

Age Heart Hicks

Letters in today's Age elevate David Hicks to new levels:

WHAT do Nelson Mandela, Paul of Tarsus, Bertrand Russell, Oscar Wilde, Xanana Gusmao and David Hicks have in common? Quite a lot actually.

I'm pretty sure Oscar Wilde didn't have a penchant for girls with "big tits" as David Hicks seemed to.

Thank heavens Age Readers aren't yet running the judicial system:

Who's the guilty party?

THE government is lucky David Hicks hasn't sued them for complicity in his long, totally discredited incarceration. If his assets from book sales are to be frozen, perhaps John Howard and Tony Blair's profits should also be frozen - both have been found guilty by world opinion of mass murder.

Alan Inchley, Frankston

There are huge sections of the world, whose population are illiterate and backward, and in whose opinion I should be murdered. Mr Inchley will have to forgive me if I don't much care for their opinion.

Sleepy Mosman

Early thoughts on the Mosman 'bomb' incident last night:

1) If you are unfamiliar with the story, do not search for "18 year old girl strapped to device". You won't find what you are looking for.

2) Police officer Mark Murdoch was a good old fashioned walloper. Quite a contrast to Christine Nixon. Even before her Victorian Bushfire failure, she always seemed like the sort of cop who would struggle to catch a criminal running up a flight of stairs.

The Force needs more like him and fewer like her.

3) Murdoch was fairly clear about what he could and couldn't say, but left the door open to further questions from journos on scene. They seemed to completely miss the openings and ask unrelated banal questions instead.

4) That poor 18 year old girl couldn't get onto Facebook or Twitter for over 8 hours. The horror. Still, it's one way to get out of studying for your HSC exams.

5) Speaking of Facebook, it's interesting the number of media outlets who have been laying the boot into News Corporation lately, yet have no problem using Facebook images of the victim, Madeleine Pulver. Facebook is owned by News Corporation.

6) Idiots on Twitter are already attacking Rupert Murdoch (personally) because some News Corp papers are daring to show the outside of the house where it took place or give background on the family. Pathetic.

Correction: Facebook isn't owned by Newscorp. Myspace is.

Hotel haram

Australian racism is again in the news with a female Muslim soccer player refusing to attend a disciplinary hearing held in a function room at a Perth hotel. So, where's the racism? The player chooses not to attend the hearing because the hotel bar serves alcohol and Football West refuses to change the venue to accommodate her, noting that the function room can be accessed without going through the bar. Thus the whole building is obviously out of bounds for Muslims.

Refusing to enter buildings where alcohol is served or consumed must make life rather difficult and travel nigh on to impossible.

Silence

This compelling testimony was captured by a livestream from the beleagured city of Hama, in central Syria, where president Bashar al-Assad’s troops have launched a sustained military onslaught that has already left over a hundred dead.

In case you hadn't heard about it.

The backdrop is dark, and a lone voice is audible against a soundtrack of gunfire. “Hama is being attacked for the third day in a row, and the Arabs are silent, the world is silent,” says the male voice.

What about outspoken Middle East expert and bestselling author, Antony Loewenstein. Of his last two dozen blog posts, exactly zero were about Syria. Young Antony had plenty to say however, about News Corporation. Oh, and Israel.

At least News Corp bothered reporting what's happening in Syria. A little. Antony couldn't care less.

Loewenstein repeats conjecture that David Hicks likely profit from his memoirs was around $10,000. Which raises the question how much Antony stood to make from his no doubt less popular 'bestseller'. How does this guy afford to eat? I smell a conspiracy! Follow the money!

Or his Mother cooks a lot of meals for him...

Crossing Over

In a rather bizarre case:

The fiancee of a man killed at a level crossing successfully applied to have his sperm extracted from his corpse so she can still bear his child...She said she had the support of Mr Jarvis's mother and family

Touching. But how was he killed? Did his car break down? Was he pushed? Unaware there was a train approaching?

The level crossing, depicted below, has boomgates, flashing lights and bells.


View Larger Map


Despite all this, according to an earlier report:

"It appears the man has darted across the crossing," a police spokeswoman said.

That is, the man decided to duck across the tracks... in the path... of an approaching train.

As tragic as it is, it would seem his demise well and truly qualified the man for a Darwin Award. Experts in evolution by natural selection may wish to ponder the pros and cons of extracting genetic material from the deceased...

The Darwin Awards website helpfully notes:

Few people are unaware of the three most important facts about trains:
1) Trains cannot stop quickly.
2) Trains cannot swerve.
3) In any collision, the train always wins.

A point apparently also overlooked by stupid Indonesians lying on the railway tracks as a medical treatment. Seriously.

Gas dispute

Ben Cubby writes in the Sydney Morning Herald:

The coal seam gas industry has conceded that extraction will inevitably contaminate aquifers.

The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association [APPEA] told a fiery public meeting in Sydney that good management could minimise the risks of water contamination, but never eliminate them.

''Drilling will, to varying degrees, impact on adjoining aquifers,'' said the spokesman, Ross Dunn. ''The extent of impact and whether the impact can be managed is the question.''

The admissions came before the start of the first public hearing in NSW, held in Narrabri, of a Senate inquiry into the effects of coal seam gas mining.

Not so, says the APPEA:

The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) rejects outright the blatantly incorrect comments on aquifer contamination attributed to it by the Sydney Morning Herald in its article: ‘Coal Seam damage to water inevitable’.

Contrary to the paper’s claims, neither the coal seam gas industry, nor APPEA’s CSG Director, Ross Dunn, said: “(Water) extraction will inevitably contaminate aquifers” or “.. Good management could minimise the risks of water contamination, but never eliminate them”.

The coal seam gas industry, the processes of gas extraction, and evaluation of environmental impacts are open to public scrutiny and fair media critique. However such misrepresentation by the Herald falls well short of the professional standards expected by the public.

Someone has to be wrong here. Perhaps the "intellectual dishonesty" and "distorted data" debunkers at Pure Poison might want to pick this up and run with it. Don't hold your breath.

(Via reader ICW.)

Nice country...

This is what doctors get up to in Iran.

An Iranian woman blinded and disfigured by a man who threw acid into her face stood above her attacker in a hospital operating room as a doctor was about to put several drops of acid in one of his eyes in court-ordered retribution.

The man waited on his knees and wept.

"What do you want to do now?" the doctor asked the 34-year-old woman, whose own face was severely disfigured in the 2004 attack.

Columnist Burt Prelutsky observed of Barack Obama: ""Surely something must be terribly wrong with a man who seems to be far more concerned with a Jew building a house in Israel than with Muslims building a nuclear bomb in Iran ."

And once again, the SMH had to rely on a wire service. Their man on the ground, was probably sitting in Tel Aviv pub.

Difficult to verify, but the below attempts to describe the judicial blinding process in Iran. Even if it's completely false, the end-result is similarly barbaric so I post it here for an insight into justice, Sharia style.

I know someone from Iran and he told me a wealth of information on how these type of punishments are often carried out. In the case of blinding punishments, the prisoner is most likely to be carried in to the punishment room because as you mentioned in your question, he is likely to be so scared that he will not be able to walk. In fact, it is likely that he will not have slept any the night before (or several nights before) because of his anticipation of the punishment.

He will likely have a diaper placed on him because it is very likely that when the punishment is carried out, he will lose control of his bodily functions. The prisoner is brought into the punishment room and placed in a chair like a dentist chair. This chair will have many arms on it with scissors, knifes, drills, electric saws, and other implements that are used in judicial mutilation punishments carried out in Iran. The mere sight of this contraption would be enough to send chills down anyone's bones. It would look like something out of a Frankenstein or Saw movie.

Due to the excruciating pain that is experienced from blinding punishments, the prisoner will be encased first in a metal suit like armor so that his arms and legs will be completely immobile. A metal helmet will be placed over his head with three hooks attached to each eyelid. A ratcheting device will raise both eyelids wide open so that the acid drops can be dripped into each of the prisoner's eyes. Only the prisoner's eyes will be visible. The rest of his body, including his face will be completely covered by the metal suit that the prisoner is wearing. This is to protect the rest of his body from getting the acid. The prisoner will be firmly fastened to the dentist like chair and his head will be tilted back so that the drops can easily be dripped in his eyes. A heart monitor will be hooked up so that the prisoner's heart can be monitored during the entire punishment. Upon hooking up this monitor, there will be a fast beep beep beep sound coming from the monitor measuring the increasing heart rate of the prisoner as he is anticipating the punishment.

Entire preparation of the prisoner for the punishment will take about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. All during this time the prisoner will be begging and pleading for mercy, but his cries will fall on deaf ears. Two men wearing bright orange radioactive suits will come in to the room carrying a bottle of sulfuric acid. The men will let the prisoner see the jar with the word sulfuric acid written on it (both in English and Arabic).

Two titration looking devices will be used to suck up enough acid for 10 drops in each eye (20 drops total). These titration devices will be placed about 2 centimeters over each eye after being fastened to two arms on the dentist like chair. The whole apparatus will be rigged up to a red button that one of the two men wearing the radiation suits will press at the signal given by the warden of the prison. The woman will get to be present for the carrying out of this sentence, although she won't see anything because she is blind.

After the prisoner is completely prepared to receive his punishment, the prison warden will hold up a scroll and read aloud the sentence to the prisoner that he is to receive 10 drops of sulfuric acid in each eye for throwing acid on a woman. The prisoner will be asked if he would like to say anything.

Then the punishment will begin. Once the signal is received, the red button will be pressed and the first drop will slowly start to drip out of the titration device. The prisoner will see the first drop start to form and get bigger and bigger. He will have extreme difficulty breathing as he anticipates the drop falling into his eye. His heart beat will go faster and faster as the first drop continues to form and break away from the titration device and fall into his eye making a sizzling sound like the sound of eggs frying. The prisoner will let out an extremely loud cry that could be heard for 5 miles away (except the punishment room is padded with sound barriers).

After the first drop, his vision will have deteriorated greatly in the first eye. The next drop will start to form in the titration device over his other eye. The same process will repeat itself. The drop will fall into his other eye making a sizzling sound and the prisoner's scream will be louder than ever. The drops will be alternated between each eye and one drop will fall about every 10 minutes.

By the second drop, in each eye, his vision will have deteriorated to just shawdows. As the third drop falls in the first eye, the prisoner will lose control of his bodily functions and urinate and defeciate. After the third drop has fallen in each eye, the prisoner will be completely blind and unable to see the subsequent drops fall. During this entire time, the prisoner will be screaming and yelling in pain. If the prisoner passes out during the punishment, the red button will be pressed again so that the punishment can be temporarily halted. Smelling salts will be used to revive the prisoner so that he can feel the whole pain of the punishment. After the prisoner is completely revived and awake, the red button would be pressed again to resume the punishment.

It will take about 4 hours to complete the punishment (factoring in the time that it would take to revive the prisoner each time he would pass out). After the punishment is completed prisoner will be completely blind and his eyes will feel like they are on fire. It will feel as though his head is swollen by 10 meters.

The prisoner will be unfastened from the dentist like chair and his metal suit will be removed. He will be unable to walk because he is in a state of shock but he will be taken to a shower to be cleaned up after losing control of his bodily functions. He will then be taken back to his cell, blind and unable to see anything. (Source)

Book, Bombs.

Prominent literary critic, Antony Loewenstein reviews Paul McGeough's new book, in the SMH.

Reading this fascinating collection of McGeough's dispatches reminds us the past decade has been filled with spurious claims of spreading democracy, torturing in the name of security and backing Zionism in the misguided belief that occupying Israel is a reliable ally. McGeough bravely tackles all these myths.

If they're "myths", why is tackling them "brave"? Myths don't chop journalists' heads off.

Loewenstein continues to fawn over Brave McGeough:

McGeough isn't afraid to document the endorsement of suicide bombing that existed in Palestine many years ago - hearing the stories of young martyrs wanting to die for the cause is both heart-breaking and tragic

People usually don't become 'martyrs' until after they die. What's tragic (besides Loewenstein's writing), is that someone would feel sorry and heartbroken for a person willing to blow themself up in the name of Allah, killing unarmed men, women and small children in restaurants, cafes, buses and discos.

It's no secret that Lowenstein backs terrorists. He once wrote that “the defeat of America and its allies in Iraq is vital”.

Whether McGeough did weep for suicide bombers or not, I can't say having not read his book. I'm not in the habit of buying books by proven liars, which would include Loewenstein and McGeough.

The glowing review also doesn't note that McGeough is Fairfax's senior foreign correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald, which published the review. Standby for Loewenstein to demand more media transparency...

Update: Via comments, Antony's bringing in huge traffic for SMH online's foray into social networking.

Perhaps this might inspire his next bestseller: "My Friends Question".

A Tale of Two Demonstrations

The SMH reports:

TEL AVIV: Tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets in 10 cities to protest against the high cost of living and to demand ''social justice, not charity''.

It's unclear why anybody in Sydney should care, unless they're considering migrating to Israel in the near future.

Meanwhile, here's news from the Middle East that the SMH didn't think anyone in Sydney would care about.

Syrian tanks stormed the city of Hama early on Sunday, residents said, after besieging it for nearly a month in response to some of the biggest demonstrations against Syrian President Bashar Assad's rule.

One of the residents, a doctor who did not want to be further identified for fear of arrest, told Reuters that at least one civilian, a youth called Fares al-Naem, was killed in shelling by tanks in Bab Sbahi, in the northern quarter of the city.

"Tanks are attacking from four directions. They are firing their heavy machine guns randomly and overrunning makeshift road blocks erected by the inhabitants," he said by phone, the sound of machine gun fire crackling in the background.

"Lots of casualties have been taken to Badr hospital. There is a shortage of blood," he added.

There are more international journalists per square mile in Israel, than any other place on Earth. It's a nice place to hang out. You can drink, you can write what you want, and nobody is going to cut your head off a la Daniel Pearl.

You would think however that some issues deserved a bit more coverage. Don't hold your breath though. As Dan Gillerman observed: "It’s nearly as if we live in a world where if Christians kill Muslims, it’s a crusade. If Jews kill Muslims, it’s a massacre. And when Muslims kill Muslims, it’s the Weather Channel. Nobody cares. "

Update: An article appeared in the print edition of the SMH. Word count and accompanying picture is equivalent to the article about the Israeli protest. Article attributed to a wire service. I mean, it's not like the SMH would have anyone on the ground there.

The accompanying online photo is of a cheerful, chinless dictator. Wouldn't want to upset anybody.

Delinquent Factories

A letter to The Age argues:

IT IS a great irony that Victoria can find billions of dollars to build a ''super jail'', yet the Education Department has to strip its already limited resources down some $481 million (''Job cuts feared in education revamp'', The Saturday Age, 30/7).

When will governments wake up and understand that instead of a super jail, we should put those billions into super education. The result would be a greatly reduced prison population. Giving kids a good education and social values means that crime would be a less likely career option.

Ilana Leeds, Caulfield North

It's probably time to start discussing the social values imparted on students while at school.

When I was a lad, the sight of the Headmaster strolling down the corridoor would fill me with terror (even though I was usually sure I hadn't done anything). A police officer, even more so.

When students from a 'good school' in a 'nice area' have no hesitation at all in telling a police officer to "get fuc**d", as I frequently observe when drunken schoolkids are chased away from my local park, it's pretty safe to assume the teachers and Headmaster Principal don't fare better.

Students can't be taught the difference between right and wrong, if there are no consequences for doing the wrong thing. Whether it's a teacher who can't give them a flogging, or a police officer who can do little more than give them a lift home to their parents, kids today are on a fast-track to criminality, thanks to social engineering exercises over the last 20 years which have failed. Worst, the very same 'experts' who got us in this mess, are now the ones charged with 'fixing' teenage drinking and drug problems.

Mass Destruction

A letter in the Sydney Morning Herald smugly declares:

By this reckoning, Tony's a lightweight

A few nights ago I heard Tony Abbott describe carbon dioxide as an ''invisible, odourless, weightless, tasteless substance''. A letter in the Herald on Saturday confirmed this. According to my chemistry, carbon dioxide is not weightless: 22.4 litres of it has a mass of approximately 44 grams. If Mr Abbott can get such basic chemistry wrong, how can we trust him on climatology - it being an infinitely more complex matter? By the way, no gas on earth is weightless.

Damien McCrudden Toongabbie

If you read The Australian, you'd know:

CO2 in the atmosphere has mass but is as weightless as astronauts in space.

Don Catchpoole, Apple Tree Flat, NSW

There's a whole Wikipedia entry on Mass versus Weight which notes:

In everyday usage, the mass of an object is often referred to as its weight though these are in fact different concepts and quantities

According to my chemistry, Mr McCrudden's chemistry, and the SMH is (ahem) massively wrong.