Halloween

Five year old kids wearing fancy dress, accompanied by their parents - cute.

Teenage turds, carrying iPhones, yet begging for food and chucking eggs at houses and cars - not cute.

Bulldozers be Unto Him

To make way for ever expanding number of pilgrims, it has been reported that in construction of a larger mosque, Saudi Arabia is to raze the Muslim Prophet Mohammed’s tomb.

The key Islamic heritage site, including Prophet Mohammed’s shrine, is to be bulldozed, as Saudi Arabia plans a $ 6 billion expansion of Medina’s holy Masjid an-Nabawi Mosque. However, Muslims remain silent on the possible destruction.

Well, it's not like Israel is involved. Muslims have a habit of staying quiet when their own rulers try to destroy ancient sites.

­Work on the Masjid an-Nabawi in Medina, is planned to start as soon as the annual Hajj pilgrimage comes to a close at the end of November. 

After the reconstruction, the mosque is expected to become the world’s largest building, with a capacity for 1.6 million people.

Hundreds of people get killed during the 'stoning of the devil' ritual of the pilgrimage. This is about to get interesting.

I also wonder if it's bringing us any closer to revealing the Hidden Imam.

Real Misogyny

The Pakistani schoolgirl targeted by the Taliban is ‘responding well’ to treatment in Britain for her gunshot wounds, doctors said last night.

Malala Yousafzai, 15, who was shot in the head and neck at point-blank range, is in a ‘stable and comfortable’ condition at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
She was gunned down as she returned home from school in the Swat Valley.  

She had been demanding education rights for women in Pakistan and the attack has provoked uproar around the world.  

 Really? Uproar?

At the time she was shot, I seem to recall many more words being dedicated to Labor accusations against Tony Abbott based on something someone else said.

Andrew Bolt notes:

There were widespread riots against the insult to Islam caused by some YouTube clip mocking Mohammad.

There have been very few protests against the insult caused to Islam by the gunning down of this astonishingly brave girl by Talibani convinced that education girls is unIslamic.

Her attack wasn't an insult to Islam. It was a monument to it. Islam's 7th Century views in the 21st Century represent the very definition of misogyny.

In 2002, Saudi 'religious police' prevented schoolgirls from leaving a burning building because they were 'inappropriately dressed'. 15 young girls died. Burned to death because of Islam.

Sale of the 7th Century

Al-Muslim is a barely literate Islamic Community newspaper distributed around Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane.

This month's issue features what could be the greatest bargain of all time. A 100% discount.

Idiots. Something to keep in mind next time you hear some apologist remind us of Islam's wonderful contribution to maths and science. The number 786 has some significance to Muslims. Not being content with mere innumeracy however, 786 Travel's logo describes them as "Your Tarvel Agency" [sic].

The editor of the newspaper, Muhammad Adil Bin Jamal probably didn't notice the error, considering the front page headline on anit-Muslim [sic] provocations.

The rest of the paper reads like any other Arab rag. The editorial insists recent Muslim riots are in fact caused by Western attempts to distract people from "What their governments have been doing". Page 30 reports that the "Mossad organised the attack on the US Consulate in Libya".

The "Marketing Manager" of the paper which prints this rubbish, a Mr Ahmad also advertises "Free Koran Classes for children and adults".

I urge you to read it and learn what's being spread around cafes and libraries within the Muslim community. It isn't good and it isn't a surprise... On the other hand, a barely literate anti-Israel rag means Antony Loewenstein may have found a new home.

Mine-e Mouse

Scientists have genetically modified mice to enable them to sniff out landmines and hope they might be in use within five years. 

More than 70 countries are contaminated by unexploded landmines.
''Long after wars have ended, communities are still impeded from going back to their normal, daily activities because of all these mines still affecting their land,'' said Charlotte D'Hulst of Hunter College, New York, who led the team that developed the GM mouse, known as MouSensor. 

One approach to clearing landmines is to use HeroRats, giant pouched rats that are trained to sniff out landmines by the Belgian non-government organisation APOPO.

The Iranians just use children.

Quality versus Quantity

Andrew Bolt calls shenanigans on suggestions that 1.5 million hits on YouTube video of the Prime Minister's speech somehow proves something.

This in the same week that Gangnam Style is to hit 475 Million views.

There are techniques and even paid services that attention-whores can employ to increase their view count on Youtube or number of zombie Twitter followers.

Anyone with a bit of know-how can easily line up a few hundred thousand views, tweets, emails or poll-clicks to suit their agenda.

It is of concern that media outlets, panicking private companies and even governments seem to take seriously what can fairly be described as an 'empty vessel' not genuinely representative of anything much.

Bali

Prime Minister Julia Gillard will be taking a short break from her shrieks of "Misogyny" aimed at Tony Abbott today. She will join Australians and Indonesians commemorating the Islamist terror attack in Bali of 2002, ten years ago.

It was the work of a religion whose adherents murdered non-believers ten years ago and have tried every day since.  A religion whose misogyny sees young girls genitally mutilated, rape victims stoned to death, women covered from head to toe so as to disappear. A religion with leaders who say women can't work, can't drive and can't study but can be beaten.

There will be no frank discussion about Islam of course. Tony Abbott is a Christian.

Ugh.

Former Prime Minister John Howard was on Alan Jones' program this morning (no doubt because Julia Gillard wouldn't dare). He referred to terrorists who "perverted" Islam.

Can we please stop hearing that the terrorists have "perverted" the peaceful religion of Islam? It's a popular and politically correct myth. The fact is that Islam is a violent, murderous religion. Terrorists are not perverting it. They're following it to the letter.

Mohammed was a mass-murderer of unbelievers and yes, he slept with nine year old girls. Muslims are compelled to live in Mohamed's image.

You can riot all you want because of what I've just said, but it's the truth. Check the Koran.

The ones who have "perverted" Islam are the ones who don't want to kill non-believers. The ones who have realised it's the 21st Century, not the 7th.

We need more perversion of Islam. It's called reform and every other major religion has achieved this. Jews aren't smiting anyone. Christians aren't boiling anyone alive. Buddhists? Well. Yet Islam has not woken up and checked the calendar and our leaders refuse to call it for what it is. Nevermind Islamic leaders.

We will not forget.

In Honour of Peter Slipper

Someone really needs to write about these.

I nominate this guy.

If Speed Kills, the Autobahn Would Flow with Blood...

Brilliant article from Miranda Devine.

He said Australian authorities were “unusually obsessed” with speeding, at the risk of underemphasising the dangers of drunk driving or driving without a seatbelt. Speed cameras were “purely punitive, not educational” he said. “We need to ask those obsessed with speed cameras why Germany, with no speed limit at all on its autobahns, has a fatality rate of 0.7, which is substantially better than NSW’s 0.9 and Australia’s 0.8.” The NSW Auditor-General’s report into speed cameras last year was a “damning indictment of RTA incompetence and arrogance”. The report found 70 per cent of submissions viewed cameras as revenue raisers, and only 28 per cent of cameras produced statistically significant improvements in road safety.”

Will anything change?

Stewart’s ideas, backed by his experience at the front line, are well worth heeding. But Roads Minister Duncan Gay, who will open the conference this morning, did not respond to Stewart’s offer to view his paper. Gay went into office a champion of motorists, opposed to punitive fines and cameras. But like every minister before him, he is now captured by his department and addicted to the revenue.

Driving in Sydney is stressful and unpleasant. That's before you even meet other stressed, unpleasant drivers.

Inspiring Inspiration, Inspirational

The NY Daily News:

Fashion editor Kate Waterhouse found out the hard way when her interview with the red-hot “Mad Men” actress for Sydney’s Sun-Herald recently went awry.

Hendricks, 37, repeatedly refused to answer a question in which Waterhouse referred to her as a “full-figured woman.”

"You have been an inspiration as a full-figured woman. What is the most inspiring story that you can remember where you've inspired someone?" Waterhouse asked the actress.

Who subsequently walked out. What an inspiration.

Early Eighties Twitter

Top letter in today's SMH:

Why is it OK when Mr Jones uses his bully pulpit to attack someone's reputation and career, but not OK when thousands of people react to his egregious remark about the Prime Minister by attacking him and, as a surrogate measure, those who provide his income (''Alan Jones hits out at 'gutless' Mercedes exec as broadcaster points finger at cyber bullies'', smh.com .au, October 8)?

Mr Jones claims it is cyber bullying (well, he would know about bullying), but social media have been merely the conduit for a demonstration of people power. The Philippines in 1986, when the detested president Marcos was removed by mass action, is an example.

While not wishing the same fate for Mr Jones, perhaps he should recognise that times have changed and that power has now switched from those with a microphone to those with a keyboard; the triumph of democracy over demagoguery.
Michael Robinson Cammeray

Social media in 1986? In the Philippines?

Swan Dives

Treasurer Wayne Swan:

And because of these disgusting comments, I’ll be boycotting Alan Jones’ show.
— Wayne Swan (@SwannyDPM) October 2, 2012

How terribly convenient. Especially after what happened the last time he went on the show.


Labor leaders must be hoping Andrew Bolt says something mean soon. Then they can feign outrage and (continue to) refuse to appear on the Bolt Report.

Hypocrites versus Alan Jones

Radio failure Mike Carlton is trying his hardest to lay the boot into Alan Jones in a way his ratings and career never could.

He is a hypocrite.

After the death of broadcaster Stan Zemanek Carlton stated on his breakfast show at 2UE that he hated Zemanek and would only attend his funeral to check that he was really dead. His comments were at least as offensive as anything Alan Jones said about Julia Gillard's late Father. Jones apologised personally. Carlton's apology was from 2UE management.

If nobody remembers this, it is only because nobody was listening to Carlton.

Earlier this week, newspapers reported that Mercedes-Benz was intending to recover the car they had gifted Alan Jones as part of an advertising deal.

For the Mercedes Benz company to question anybody's morals represents the height of chutzpah.

In 1944, almost half of Daimler Benz’s 63,610 employees were civilian forced labourers, prisoners of war or Nazi concentration camp detainees. (Source: The company itself)

Jones has hit back, hard.

"Now this bloke McCarthy has big noted himself on behalf of Mercedes-Benz and said: 'Well we want the car back straight away and if we don't we'll get over there and we'll repossess it and we'll take it away from him.'
"You big hero Mr McCarthy. How many phone calls did you make to me, you absolutely gutless wonder? None, none.

They are also liars.

Car company Mercedes Benz’s Sydney dealers gave notice they were ending support of the Alan Jones breakfast show on 2GB nearly a fortnight before controversy erupted over his comments at a speech about Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s father dying of shame, Mumbrella can reveal.

To its own shame however, Mumbrella are running this as a scoop:

Mumbrella has learned that the Mercedes Benz Sydney dealer group gave a month’s notice of ending their advertising arrangement, as per the terms of its contract with 2GB on September 19 – three days before Jones made his offensive comments 

Jones mentioned it on his own program this morning, several hours before Mumbrella's 'scoop'.[Update: See comments to this post, I may have been unfair on Mumbrella]

Mercedes are acting like a bunch of used car salesmen.

Look at the Scoreboard

Mike Carlton in the Silly:

Something to know about Alan Jones - the key thing, really - is that he's not all that bright. Far from it. Despite the artfully constructed public persona, there is no powerhouse intellect there, no vast store of wisdom. He is a crackpot muddle of prejudice and ignorance.

 Hands up everyone who still has a job at 2UE...

Carlton continues:

JONES is far from the only misogynist on radio. His breakfast competitor, 2-Day FM's oafish Kyle Sandilands, makes a daily meal of it. Sandilands's grotesque ''interview'' with a 14-year-old rape victim wired to a lie detector and his bullying abuse of a woman journalist as ''a fat slag'' and a ''piece of shit'' went lower than even Jones has gone.

The sorry truth is that Australian radio is a sludge pit of male supremacy. I cannot think of any commercial talk station that has a female voice in a prime slot.

Really? Carlton is an idiot.

Alan Jones should Convert to Islam

Further to the Alan Jones comments scandal, a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald asked:

Can you imagine the uproar if a Muslim cleric had expressed these views?

We now know the answer. Not much.

In today's Oz:

LAWYERS for a self-styled Muslim cleric and his co-accused, charged with sending offensive letters to the families of slain Australian soldiers, have told the High Court the mail could be classified as political communication designed to convert bereaved relatives into protesters against the Afghanistan war.

Man Haron Monis, also known as Sheik Haron, is fighting for the High Court to quash charges of using a postal service in a menacing, harassing or offensive way, after he posted a series of letters to the families of diggers killed in Afghanistan.

One of Haron's letters was allegedly hand-delivered to the late Brett Till's widow Breeanna at his funeral.

In a letter to the late Gregory Sher's family, he allegedly wrote: "I feel bad that you have lost your son but I don't feel bad that a murderer of innocent civilians has lost his life."

Apparently that pales in comparison to what Alan Jones said about Julia Gillard's late Father. Because today's Australian (which according to the luvvies stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Jones and the AbbottAbbottAbbott) devoted about 300 words to the Muslim cleric and several thousand to Alan Jones.

Italy is not Iran

Tragic footage on television this morning of four young girls being forcibly deported to Italy.

THEY cried for their mother, cried for home and begged uniformed officers to let them go.

As the four sisters at the centre of an international custody ruling were last night dragged screaming onto Emirates flight EK 433 to Dubai, uniformed officers were forced to lift and drag the girls to get them to the plane.

Passengers at gate 75 watched on in alarm as up to a dozen federal officers were used to move the girls to the nearby Emirates lounge to await boarding.

"Let me go, I want my mum, I want my mum," one of the younger girls wailed, each arm held securely by a federal officer.

...

"It's been emotional turmoil for the kids and for their mother. They don't know whether they're Arthur or Martha.

"What do you expect from little kids being taken away from their Mum?"

The friend said the girls loved their father but didn't want to live with him.

Their mother had "never once influenced her kids in any single way or brainwashed them against their father", she said.

"This whole thing is unfair.

Earlier reports tell a different story altogether:

Justice Forrest found the girls had been significantly influenced by the mother and those around her, including "extremely inappropriate and bizarre" views of their maternal great grandmother.

He told the hearing that when Queensland police found them in hiding, the great grandmother declared in front of them, "How exciting. Who is going to play you in the movie? They will have to find a good little dark-headed actress to play you".

A JUDGE sending four Italian girls home against their wishes "sincerely hopes" their distraught mother will return with them after their father agreed not to lay criminal charges.

Handing down his long-awaited decision, Family Court judge Colin Forrest said the "sporty" siblings were all "born in Italy" and "did not know life in Australia" before being wrongfully retained here.

The woman broke the law and acted against the wishes of courts in two democracies. She's no Betty Mahmoody by any means. Televising the anguish was unhelpful and unfair.
 

Time to go, Jenny...

A letter in today's SMH by Jenny Green:

When I read Alan Jones's comment on John Gillard's death I felt ashamed to be Australian.

Doesn't take much these days, does it?

Poor Israeli Girl Needs Help

Bar Refaeli's Sex Tape Kickstarter from Bar Refaeli

ABC Values

Several weeks ago, Antony Loewenstein disgraced himself.

during the Q&A Jonathan Hoffman asked Loewenstein how many people Loewenstein thinks should die for this one-state solution, that Loewenstein wants so much, to come into existence. The idea being that Israelis are not going to vote themselves out of existence, so presumably such a state could come about only by force involving more bloodshed.

As Loewenstein wasn’t quite answering the question he was pressed further by Hoffman as to how many people Loewenstein thinks should die. First, Frank Barat, the Chairman, answered “200,000″ (here is more on Barat). Then Loewenstein answered “Six million. That’s my answer. Write that down.“

Andrew Bolt observed that this career-long fool was still treated as an honoured guest by the ABC.

Last night, Loewenstein was invited to appear on the ABC once again, discussing.... Wait for it.... Some offensive comments that Alan Jones made.

In quite possibly a first for Antony, he has offered the most qualified, insincere apology ever.

During the Q and A, a Jewish man, Jonathan Hoffman, co-Vice Chair of the Zionist Federation and alleged ally of the far-right English Defence League, asked me how many people had to die to create one-state in Palestine and Israel. Initially, the chair of the event Frank Barat dismissed the question as being from a known Zionist provocateur but Hoffman insisted I answer. Eventually I said in frustration: “Six million. That’s my answer. Write that down”.

Yes. Antony's stupid comment was really a result of the galloping Zionist conspiracy.

It was a stupid comment, ill-advised and said without proper thought. I unreservedly apologise. A number of friends and colleagues have written to me expressing concern about it and they’re right.

Don't worry Antony. You'll still get calls from the ABC. Your 'career' isn't over yet.

I should never have said it as it goes completely against my beliefs. I do not advocate violence against civilians.

Loewenstein's beliefs certainly have no problem with Australian servicemen and women being killed.

What Colour was the WTC?

The Arab Emirates' National's always helpful "Ask Ali" column:

Dear Ali: I am six years old and live in Al Ain. Can you tell me why mosques have green lights on them? Thank you. AN, Al Ain

Dear AN: First of all, you're the youngest person ever to send me a question via AskAli.com. Thank you for your question, it's a good one. It's true that many of our mosques are illuminated in green at night but there is no significance to the colour and it's not obligatory that mosques should do this. I believe green is used from an architectural point of view since green is the colour that represents Islam, such as in the flag of the Kingdom of South Arabia.

It may well be that green lighting is used to make mosques easier to see at night, as well as providing a marker for low-flying aircraft. However, the colour has nothing to do with Islam directly.

70,000 Non-listeners Attack Jones

Media attacks on Alan Jones are nothing new. Prior to the Cronulla riots, large sections of the media were convinced that a bunch of Cronulla waxheads were sitting in their cars listening to AM radio being motivated by Alan Jones to attack Lebanese-Muslims. As if.

The double-standards on show regarding Alan Jones' inappropriate comment about Julia Gillard's late Father have been captured nicely by Andrew Bolt.

Today's SMH reports:

Early this morning an online petition calling for several companies to stop advertising on Jones's program had attracted over 70,000 signatures.

 Oh noes! An online petition containing such comments as:

Helen Healy

I think a great deal of the vitriol aimed at our PM is not because of her policies, leadership but because she is a women. Enough is enough. Alan jones comments are appalling and his employer should take a stand

You would think a woman would know how to spell woman.

Other comments from obvious non-listeners:

Why is it not ok when someone makes this kind of comment on twitter, but these 'shock jocks' think it is ok that they abuse people on the airwaves? It is time Australia stood up to this sexist, ignorant, destructive kind of behaviour and make Alan Jones responsible for his disgusting comments.

Jones' offending comments were not made on the airwaves.

Advertisers are likely to be buried in emails, made easy by sites such as this and GetUp. The less savvy recipients of such email barrages are likely to react to them, to the neglect of a frequently silent majority. Thanks to FM broadcaster Kyle Sandilands, Advertisers have also learned that they can get free publicity by cancelling a few paid ads.

On the new era of 'slacktivism:

Everyone knows you can't solve problems in the third world by sending money. You can only do it by clicking "Like" on Facebook pages. #qanda
— Joe Hildebrand (@Joe_Hildebrand) October 1, 2012

Or filling in a form on an online petition site while true freedoms and democracy are under threat.