All Australian

Landcare and the bovine pedicure

2012-02-17T14:17:00.016+11:00

This was in our local glossy landcare quarterly newsletter. It raised some hilarity in our family. Twas written by the president who moved on to his little lifestyle block in 2000.

One unforeseen consequence of the softer ground however has been that the cattle’s hooves have grown to such an extent that they started to become lame so we got the vet in the trim their feet. Whilst this sounds simple it involved anaethetics, ropes, pulleys, hoof clippers, angle grinders, more injections to liven them up and finally antiobiotic injections and about an hour per animal.

Lucky he’s only got four or five beasts.

This is how farmers do it.

There was also an article about the macro-invertebrates that occupy our water systems and advice for when you are sampling water quality.

“When sampling, walk upstream so as not to disturb the critters in the water.... And...when the river runs dry...don’t forget the bugs may still be living there in the sediment of the hypoheic zone.”

Oh, and then there was the piece about the valuable role bats play in the environment.....must send that one to the Queenslanders under siege by flying foxes and doing their best to avoid the Hendra virus.

This new Landcare is all about biodiversity as opposed to environmental balance. However, once the balance is disturbed no amount of locking land away is going to restore it. In fact it may make the problem even worse, increasing the loss of biodiversity.

Landcare is for greens, not for farmers who are interested in production, sustainability and biodiversity, which is not necessarily concerned exclusively with native species. Not all introduced species are invasive and some can be beneficial. Some native species can be highly destructive when balance is absent.

It's a shame that Landcare has been hijacked by greens and hobbyists.

Must be those high cheek bones

2012-02-16T10:19:00.001+11:00

Whereas once female Green Senators embraced the catch cry "get your rosaries off my ovaries" judging by Senator Sarah Hanson Young's 'look who swallowed the cream smile' it might well now be "feast your eyes on these please".

Actually I think we'd better crop that.

Woops.....

Ah.....that's better! Or, is it?

Will the guilty please put up their hands?

2012-02-15T09:00:00.003+11:00

Hands up all those who are guilty of believing Julia Gillard was a honest woman?

Greek fire likely to spread

2012-02-14T14:10:00.010+11:00

There is a new reality playing out in the streets of Athens. God forbid it touches us. Greece has to pay the piper and sadly for the Greeks this piper is not Pan.

The generous benefits provided by welfare states and demanded by their loafers, layabouts and scroungers are running out of funds worldwide. It's been coming for a while but most of us chose to shut our eyes and ignore its existence. As MaggieThatcher said the problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people’s money.

The narcissist and hedonistic old Greek gods must be fretting in exile as great palls of smoke descend over the Acropolis and other ancient monuments fed by fires of greed lit by those who must now learn to provide for themselves.

It was the goddess Athena who first proposed the Trojan Horse that brought Troy undone. Now a Trojan Horse of a different kind has invaded her city and is busy bringing down doom upon the Greek nation.

Socialists have never recognised the term living beyond your means but it is the consequences of that practice that is the new Trojan Horse bolting across the Greek landscape bringing with it economic ruin and violent upheaval.

There's an old Greek saying about the three greatest evils being sea, fire and women. These days they can add debt to that and make it the greatest.

Failure to meet all the conditions laid down by Europe and the International Monetary Fund for new bailout funds would lead to to the expulsion of Greece from the euro zone

We in Australia can't afford to be smug. We are not immune from this and allowing huge numbers of migrants from cultural groups that create a massive burden on welfare is a growing problem.

We need to address this sooner rather than later. Do we want our new arrivals rioting on our streets when they discover we can no longer afford to pay for their food, accommodation, education and medicine.

We have to abandon the tax on CO2 and stop penalising the mining industry and to do that we have to free ourselves from the stranglehold of the Australian Labor Party.

We need to sack them before we awaken like King Priam of Troy to find our cities burning.

Meanwhile five Australian capitals have found themselves in the world's top 20 most expensive cities.

Melbourne's liveability increasingly comes at a price with new research ranking it the world's eighth most expensive city.

The latest World Cost of Living Survey, which compared living costs in 130 cities, found Melbourne is now almost 50 per cent dearer than New York.

Report editor Jon Copestake said a decade ago it was more than 25 per cent cheaper.

"The cost of a loaf of bread in Melbourne has almost doubled in the past decade in US dollar terms, while petrol prices have risen threefold and rice prices have almost quadrupled,’’ Mr Copestake said.

"Exchange rates have been the greatest influence for the Australian cost of living, with the Australian dollar seeing its value relative to the US dollar double in a decade, although local price inflation, especially last year, has also played a part.’’

Sydney, which ranked seventh, was the most expensive Australian city that was more expensive.

Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide also made the top 20.

Homosexual Szubanski demands "gay marriage."

2012-02-14T08:49:00.010+11:00

Quote from today's Herald Sun.

"MAGDA Szubanski is making an impassioned Valentine's Day plea for gay marriage to be legalised as she reveals her own sexuality.
The comic actor has dramatically thrown her celebrity behind the fight for marriage equality.
"I am 1000 per cent in favour of gay marriage," Szubanski said.
"We pay taxes, fight wars for this country, nurse you when you are sick, make you laugh, sing and dance for you, play netball for you, star in your movies, cook your meals, decorate your store windows."

Criminals do all those things too but does that win them the right to rob you? It's a fair analogy.

Gays are out to steal marriage - an institution which has never belonged to them and never will because gay marriage is an oxymoron.

Marriage defines an exclusive contract between a man and woman and if the legal definition is widened to include homosexual relationships it will no longer be marriage. The introduction of "gay marriage" would represent the abolition of marriage engineered by the self confessed subversive gay lobby.

Two private member's Bills seeking to change the Marriage Act 1961 to define marriage as the union of two people, regardless of sex, were introduced to Federal Parliament yesterday by flukey Independent Andrew Wilkie and Greens Member for Melbourne, the Brokeback Bandit.

A good old fashioned dressing down

2012-02-09T21:26:00.014+11:00

Frank Richards was a boy's story writer and the creator of the infamous larger than life Billy Bunter. He was an amazingly prolific writer and is estimated to have written about 100 million words in his lifetime.

He is featured in the Guinness Book Of Records as the world's most prolific author.

Over thirty years he wrote for the Magnet boys magazine and when it folded in the 1940's continued writing the Bunter books until his death in 1961.

He is not so well known for an essay he wrote in response to criticism from the highbrow leftist George Orwell but it is a pearler - a good old fashioned dressing down which is particularly pertinent today given the earlier post about two Australian homosexuals and a seven year old boy.

Orwell was amused by the absence of sexual activity in Richard's books. He was a convinced realist, you see. He saw homosexual overtones in Tom Brown's School Days. He was better suited to reviewing the writings of D.H. Lawrence. Frank Richards, however, was an easier target, or so he thought.

In contrast to Orwell, Richards thought that life was long enough to allow children to enjoy their childhood and early teen years unencumbered by the burden of sex.

I will let the following quote run its full course because it has much that is relevant in our day.

"Sex, says Mr Orwell 'is completely tabu.' Mr Noel Coward, in his autobiography, is equally amused at the absence of the sex motif in the Magnet series. But what would Mr Orwell have? The Magnet is intended chiefly for readers up to 16: though I am proud to know it has readers of sixty. It is read by girls as well as boys. Would it do these children good, or harm, to turn their thoughts to such matters? Sex, certainly, does enter uncomfortably into the experience of the adolescent. But surely the less he thinks about it, at an early age, the better. I am aware that in these 'modern days', there are people who think that children should be told things which in my own childhood no small person was ever allowed to hear. I disagree with this entirely. My own opinion is that such people generally suffer from disordered digestions, which cause their minds to take a nasty turn. They fancy they are 'realists', when they are only obscene. They go grubbing in the sewers for their realism, and refuse to believe in the grass and flowers above ground - which, nevertheless, are equally real! Moreover this 'motif' does not play so stupendous a part in real life, among healthy and wholesome people, as these 'realists' imagine. If Mr Orwell supposes that the average sixth form boy cuddles a parlour maid as often as he handles a cricket bat, Mr Orwell is in error."

Frank Richards is correct. Even in 2012 my sons have cricket bats in their hands far more often than they have their arm around a girlfriend. They are great fans of Jessica Alba, but there are no porno magazines hidden under their mattresses.

As for us adults, most of us are not writers or artists with the time and inclination to ponder every aspect of sex and sexuality. The majority of us are too busy making an honest living and caring for our families to indulge an obsession for sex, even if we were so inclined.

Most of us manage to integrate love and sex into our lives in a healthy and respectful way. We must respect the person we love and express that love both sexually and socially in a way that inspires us to live lives that satisfy us and make us happy. What is wrong with that? And more importantly what is wrong what raising our sons and daughters to believe in it?

You can read the full essay here. Frank Richards - A response to Orwell.

Boy removed from Australian homosexuals in Los Angeles

2012-02-09T10:17:00.006+11:00

A graphic warning against homosexual parenting and adoption.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that in Los Angeles a young Australian boy has been removed the from the custody of two Australian homosexuals while sexual abuse claims are investigated.

The report is written by homosexual journalist David Marr who has identified the two men as being openly gay.

One of the men fathered the boy by artificial insemination of his Russian mother in 2005.

The two men are suspected of being members of an international paedophile ring. The boy was taken from them last October after their house in Cairns was searched by members of Taskforce Argos, which works with international law enforcement agencies on chid protection cases. The matter has only now been revealed.

The FBI is also investigating allegations that the men have exploited the boy through child pornography and of obtaining the the boy for the sole purpose of exploitation.

The Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services is in possession of a video which shows the boy watching a pornographic film with another boy and speaking in an explicit sexual manner.

A second video shows him in public with a different boy "speaking in a sexual and profane manner" as they partly undress.

These men claim to be victims of prejudice against gay fathers in Australia and the US and have been garnering support for their cause in Cairns and in the homosexual media.

Of course, they claim they are innocent and just happened to have visited three men in three different countries, New Zealand, the U.S. and Germany who, to their absolute surprise proved to be collectors and producers of child pornography. The key figure was an American lawyer named Edward de Sear who coincidentally happened to be an old friend of the boy's father and who was later arrested in New Jersey and charged with distributing porn online.

The German and New Zealander were also arrested.

The two men met the New Zealander through Edward de Sear. He visited them in Cairns and they later took the boy on a visit to him in Wellington where he allegedly made a video of the boy without their knowledge. It is believed the video travelled to the U.S. with the men and was provided to the LA Department of Children and Family Services by police.

The third man was a German they subsequently met through the New Zealander. They claim they took the boy to him in October 2010 because he knew of some interesting castles. They travelled together around Germany.

That man was one of a number of alleged child pornographers rounded up in big raids in southern Germany in August last year.

And now enters a fourth man. The boy and his father and the father's male partner travelled to the U.S. again in October last year. They took with them a friend who lives with them in Cairns and works with children. Curiouser and curiouser as Alice would say.

It was this fourth man who was driving down a Los Angeles freeway with the boy when he was pulled over by police. Only hours before Queensland police had removed computers, digital equipment and documents from their house in Cairns.

The boy has been placed in foster care.

Court to have a whale of a time!

2012-02-07T16:43:00.001+11:00

The mad members of the animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has asked a Federal U.S. judge to grant human rights to killer whales.

US District Judge Jeffrey Miller has heard arguments in a case where five Orcas have been named the plaintiffs.

Seems like madness to me. Has anyone communicated with the whales and been informed that that they would seek to make such an application.

PETA is essentially asking the court to determine whether animals enjoy the same constitutional protection against slavery as human beings.

If the case is successful the implications would be staggering. Farmers would no longer own their livestock,

meat would indeed be murder, you couldn't own a dog or any other companion animal and riding a horse would be a shocking abuse of its rights.

Of course it won't be successful. It's pretty plain that the U.S. Constitution was written exclusively on behalf of human beings.

What a waste of the court's time. Judge Miller should be censured for having decided in favour of hearing such an absurd application.

Whales in dry dock!

Gillard's troubles not due to sexism

2012-02-07T08:14:00.002+11:00

Most Australians emphatically disagree with Bob Brown's accusation that Julia Gillard is a victim of sexism.

It is hard to believe that Ms Gillard could have become Prime Minister if Australian politics is so rampantly sexist.

According to a Herald Sun poll nearly 77 per cent of Australians disagree with the idea that the Prime Minister's fall from grace has anything to do with sexism.

Indeed, why would it? Her incompetence in the job is plain for all to see. Her government lurches from one crisis to another and it has nothing to do with its minority status. The Independents promised Gillard their support and whatever else you might think of them they've provided her government with stability in the Parliament.

I dislike Gillard intensely, she is as bad if not worse than Whitlam. But even though she is a woman, and a leftist at that, I still prefer her to that green/gay icon, Bob Brown, who should be chained to a Tasmanian Oak in an old growth forest and left to vegetate.

What would I do to Gillard? Sentence her to 7 years hard labor down a Welsh mine and permanent exile from Australia.

There can be only one!

2012-02-06T21:22:00.007+11:00

Who will be Australia's next Prime Minister? The megalomaniacal legendary potty mouthed toff and comeback kid, Kevin Rudd; working class hero, Simon Crean; the Governor General's son-in-law, Bill Shorten or the everyday bloke's academic, Tony Abbott?

If Julia Gillard survives until the next election you can write off the first three. And on election night you can write off Julia about 10 minutes after counting starts. Tony Abbott is a shoo-in. The firefighting, lifesaving fitness freak has it all sewn up and about the only thing that will stop him is if a B double flattens both he and his bike sometime between now and election day.

What happens in the ALP will be largely irrelevant to Australia's immediate future but at least it's putting money into the pockets of our media moguls. Can Julia survive Bob Brown's rampant sexism and hold on till the nation goes to the polls?

I think she will, even in view of the tent embassy scandal. A leadership spill right now would most probably bring on an election with Independents Oakeshott and Windsor deserting Labor. After all, their pact was with Julia not with the ALP. Andrew Wilkie has already leaped overboard.

I suspect that after a month or two of turmoil Labor will unite under Gillard, try to appear as a stable government for the next 14 or 15 months and attempt to claw its way back into contention. It's a forlorn hope.

Of course, I could be right off the mark and Gillard might be gone next week. It will be a riveting few days in politics. But whatever happens in the caucus will only be an aside. Nothing Labor does is going to change the result of the next election.

Gillard incited riot

2012-01-31T09:24:00.013+11:00

Julia Gillard was unshod and is now uncovered.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her staffers incited the riot by Aboriginal tent embassy activists on Australia Day.

The following I believe is a fair re-construction of what happened.

In the lead-up to Australia Day the Prime Minister's office arranged for an ABC reporter to ask Tony Abbott whether the tent embassy should be moved and prepared to spin his reply in as negative a manner as possible.

The Prime Minister herself, for reasons that are now clear, overruled objections by her security staff to host an Australia Day function at the Lobby Restaurant, a mere stone's throw from the tent embassy.

She and her advisors were well aware that a significant number of people would be attending the 40th anniversary of the ramshackle camp and expected that they would be fired up for the occasion. It is possible they even arranged for a number of occupy type urgers to join the indigenous group celebrating the anniversary. How easy to set the pack on to Tony Abbott.

It was not simply a phone call from Gillard's press secretary Tony Hodges to ACT Union's Secretary Kim Sattler that set the occasion. Hodges and other Gillard staffers were observed speaking directly to protestors before the fracas occurred. They were lighting the fuse.

When the explosion went off it was way beyond anything they expected and the Prime Minister was caught in her own ambush. She was confident of her personal security but highly concerned for Tony Abbott given her involvement in his plight. She must have been relieved to get back to The Lodge and arrange for Mr Abbott to be dropped back at his Parliament House office.

Later that afternoon her staff members were in the Press Gallery briefing journalists and accusing Mr Abbott of inciting the riot through his allegedly intemperate comments. They were still misrepresenting

his statement the next day right up until Tony Hodges announced his resignation.

ABC News gleefully joined in the game continuing to blame Mr Abbott in report after report.

Of all ABC journalists only Chris Uhlman has had the integrity to call it what it was.

On the 7.30 Report last night in an interview with Attorney General Nicola Roxon he asked why the government was claiming there was no basis for a police inquiry.

"And all the things I’ve just described are the basis for criminal offences: incitement to riot or affray, causing public alarm and making false statements with the intent to cause public alarm, so why isn’t that worthy of a police investigation?"

There should be a police investigation. The Prime Minister herself should be interviewed. Australia has had enough of her deceitful mendacious political games. Australians want to see the back of her.

We want leadership!

And it all started with a big bang!

2012-01-30T09:49:00.007+11:00

Getting to the bottom of Australia Day's tent embassy riot is like trying to find a first cause for the universe.

Did the idea to misrepresent Tony Abbott's mild answer to a question about the "embassy" just evolve naturally or was it a big bang in the mind of a Prime Ministerial staffer?

Did the Prime Minister say something along the lines of "let there be light" and switch on her advisors? Or did the idea just arise out of the nothingness, transform itself from a chaotic thought into an ordered stratagem and then deteriorate according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics which demands that entropy, meaning disorder, increases as it did on Australia Day.

Who knows. But with the news that Shadow Attorney General George Brandis has formally requested an investigation it appears that the physicists in the Australian Federal Police are to be called on to develop and prove a theory which may hopefully result in the departure of this atheist Prime Minister and prove there is a God.

Always look on the white side of life

2012-01-29T18:45:00.011+11:00

The tent embassy debacle definitely has its funny side. You might call it indigenous women's business.

A couple of days ago "embassy" activist Barbara Shaw told Fairfax Media she learned of Mr Abbott's presence nearby when an unidentified non-indigenous female told her Tony Abbott was standing outside the Lobby Restaurant in an adjacent coffee shop. The woman told her Mr Abbott was making statements to the media about closing down the tent embassy.

The woman Shaw was referring to turned out to be Kim Sattler who is now said to be a Murri woman from Queensland and if tent embassy founder Michael Anderson is to be believed will now face retribution under Aboriginal law.

It's not known what form the retribution will take, whether Ms Sattler is happy to front her peers given she has been in hiding or if the retribution will take place in public. If so Tim Blair wants front row tickets. Tone Alone

Mr Anderson said that whoever promoted the set-up should be taken to the cleaners. If he's fair dinkum this could get really interesting. The "embassy" could sue Sattler for her role and Sattler could sue Shaw for saying she was not indigenous. She should have a good case seeing that Andrew Bolt went down for saying certain people did not look like Aborigines.

And guess who could be there handing out free legal advice? Why, Paul Coe, of course!

Obviously telling who is indigenous and who is not is an art that even the indigenous have not yet mastered.

I'd reckon there's a few participants in this affair who have since turned a whiter shade of pale!

Did Gillard lie about embassy protest?

2012-01-29T10:32:00.025+11:00

Today Julia's Gillard's honesty, integrity and fitness to lead Australia is not only under the spotlight, it is under a microscope.

She looks like a liar. In fact lies drip off this Prime Minister like the sweat off Black Caviar. But Black Caviar is a winner. Gillard is not.

The emerging facts behind Thursday's disgraceful events outside Canberra's Lobby restaurant point directly to her involvement in a hastily cooked-up plot to discredit Tony Abbott.

Here is Gillard's version.

Ms Gillard said journalists at the event had told Mr Hodges that Mr Abbott had made comments earlier in relation to the tent embassy and called for people to move on.‘’Mr Hodges in having received this information from journalists waiting at The Lobby restaurant formed the view that these comments should be responded to,’’ Ms Gillard told reporters in Melbourne.
The Prime Minister said Mr Hodges first contacted ACT Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Chris Bourke. When Dr Bourke was unavailable he was referred to ACT Unions secretary Kim Sattler…
‘’Mr Hodges accurately conveyed to her the statement made by Mr Abbott,’’ the prime minister said.
‘’At no point did Mr Hodges say to Ms Sattler that Mr Abbott had suggested that the tent embassy be torn down or removed in any way.’’
She said Mr Hodges suggested to Ms Sattler that it may be appropriate for a couple of Aboriginal spokespeople to go to the restaurant to respond to Mr Abbott’s remarks.

Note that Gillard said Hodges accurately conveyed Mr Abbott's words to ACT Unions Secretary Kim Sattler. If that is the case why has Hodges resigned? Abbott said nothing that could have provoked a riot if his words were conveyed accurately and in that case Hodges is a cleanskin, even if he revealed Abbott's whereabouts.

But the explanation doesn't wash. As a professional prime ministerial advisor if Hodges really wanted to pass on Abbott's actual statement for a response he would have sent Sattler a transcript via his smartphone which she could then have shown to the tent embassy people. But he did not.

What did happen was more akin to a deliberately set-up Chinese whisper.

Tony Abbott made his comments in Sydney before travelling to Canberra. Gillard and advisors had plenty of time to cook up a doctored version and spread it like a rumour, specifically targeted at the tent embassy activists right next door to the Lobby restaurant.

They did. And it went off like a bomb in Bagdad. And that is why Gillard was especially concerned for Tony Abbott's welfare. When it all got out of hand she panicked. It wasn't what she'd expected but perhaps she should have. There haven't been any reports of drinking at the tent embassy but there's a fair chance of a few tell-tale empty tinnies and stubbies lying around in the "embassy's" rubbish and that would help to explain the violence.

At the end of the day Tony Hodges is no cleanskin. He's out of a job and deserves to be. Kim Sattler is no cleanskin either but so far she's escaped any sanction.

Julia Gillard is decades beyond being a cleanskin and her DNA is all over this one. If she refuses an official inquiry into her office's role in the events the government should face a motion of no confidence when Parliament resumes next week.

One would hope that even Oakeshott, Windsor, Wilkie and Slipper (if required) might support it in view of the circumstances but then hope springs eternal.

UPDATE: Kim Sattler is also an anti-Israel activist. Sattler speaks at boycott Israel rally

Thanks to Tim Blair for that update.

Family resemblence

2012-01-28T17:39:00.000+11:00

Is Paul Coe related to Kim Sattler?

If you asked the camera you'd have to reckon there's a chance!

Have a look!

That could almost be a family resemblence. What d'ya reckon?

In politics there's a fine line between pleasure and pain

2012-01-28T14:11:00.019+11:00

Tony Hodges and his ex boss, Julia Gillard

Prime Ministerial advisor Tony Hodges didn't do anything unusual for a Labor staffer. In fact his actions on Australia Day which incited the tent embassy riot were simply par for the Labor course. It was something his employers expect their staffers to do.

That being so Hodges could probably be justified in feeling a little aggrieved about his departure.

I'm certainly not. As a journalist and also as a former senior advisor for a political party with scruples I've seen Labor get away with this kind of nonsense on many occasions. This time it backfired with a vengeance and claimed its first casualty within a day.

There may be more casualties too but Tony Abbott won't be among them. The case against those who attempted to verbal him is watertight and he has emerged squeaky clean.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is a different kettle of fish. She has won a few plaudits for thinking of Mr Abbott's welfare calling out to him "you right, Tony?" and providing some security protection.

But frankly if it hadn't developed into such a frightening confrontation and had merely served to highlight the verballing of the Opposition Leader and cast him in the role of a villain yet again, Hodges would have been a minor celebrity within the government with Gillard proposing the toasts.

But, what goes around comes around as the saying goes and as The Divinyls used to sing "there's a fine line between pleasure and pain." That is particularly true in politics.

Tony Hodges is already feeling the pain and it may not be long before Julia Gillard feels it too.

Kim Sattler in her Sunday best.

Update: The go-between who was called by Hodges and revealed the Opposition Leader's whereabouts to the fired up mob was Unions ACT secretary Kim Sattler, a nasty piece of work if ever there was one.

On her Facebook page today she was castigating Tony Abbott and still blaming him for starting the trouble.

“Tony Abbott is like your typical bar-room brawler who starts a fight and then disappears like a coward when it is in full swing,” she wrote.

In fact Ms Sattler is your typical lying Labor urger whose glaring lack of morality and decency could well have resulted in someone being seriously injured.

Where did Coe get his Anglo-Saxon name?

2012-01-28T08:36:00.012+11:00

Activist Paul Coe

There's some charmers amongst the tent embassy people in Canberra.

Take activist Paul Coe who said yesterday: "Either you respect us as a sovereign people or piss off out of our country."

I'm just wondering where Paul Coe got his Anglo-Saxon name? Perhaps he's a relative of England's champion runner, Sebastian Coe, now busily helping London prepare for The Olympic Games.

Surely not, though. That might mean some of his ancestors arrived here by boat or maybe even by plane.

My advice to Coe is to take his tent and piss off back to the suburb he crawled out from. He wouldn't know a witchetty grub from a Gippsland earth worm.

Coe is no stranger to controversy. He used to be a lawyer until he was banned from practicing in 1997 for lying about his income. But that didn't matter much to him. He was later found to have been paid for offering legal advice. Read the link below.

Coe of the tent embassy is no diplomat

Oh, and by the way. The tent embassy is no Embassy. It's an ugly blot on the Canbera landscape!

Update:

It was a non indigenous woman who told another activist Barbara Shaw of Tony Abbott's alleged comments about the "tent embassy."

Ms Shaw told Fairfax Media she learned of Mr Abbott's presence when an unidentified non-indigenous female walked to the tent embassy from the Lobby to inform her Mr Abbott was standing outside the restaurant in an adjacent coffee shop.
''I asked her, 'what's wrong with Tony Abbott, what has he done now?'''Ms Shaw said.
''And that's when she said Tony Abbott was over at the coffee shop making statements to press about closing down … the Aboriginal tent embassy.''
Ms Shaw was unable to identify the woman other than that she was of non-indigenous descent.

Can anyone tell me how to tell an indigenous person from a non-indigenous person given that Andrew Bolt was done over for making assumptions about appearance.

As we now know the unidentified non-indigenous woman was ACT Unions Secretary, Kim Sattler. We don't know if she's upset about being called non-indigenous ( bet Andrew Bolt wouldn't be game to say that) and we don't know if she is indigeneous. But we would like to know what she was doing at the "tent embassy" on Thursday.

Leave Margaret Court alone

2012-01-16T09:58:00.001+11:00

Margaret Court is the greatest tennis
player of all time. Her match winning
percentage of 91.74 is an time record.

Spare a thought for our champion Margaret Court today. For having the courage to speak out against the idea of gay "marriage" she is being targeted by homosexual bullies who, among other things, accuse her of putting the lives of young homosexuals at risk through suicide.

That's rich. The practitioners of a frequently deadly lifestyle which deals death through its disgustingly immoral and unhealthy sexual practices accuse a Christian woman of putting their lives at risk.

Margaret Court has always been a courageous, forthright and caring woman. She is no bigoted activist like those who seek to condemn her.

To those who would attack her today I say this. Leave her sport alone and go back to the sauna and practice yours.

Taking the good with the bad!

2012-01-15T12:39:00.050+11:00

Recently I've found myself involved in conversations about physics, a subject I know next to nothing about other than a rudimentary knowledge of theories like Einstein's relativity and the Big Bang, which I consider a less than charming term to describe the birth of our universe.

I'm told the astronomer Fred Hoyle coined the term in derision because he didn't appreciate the theory first proposed by the Catholic priest and physicist Georges Lemaitre.

I'd heard of Hugh Everett 111 and his many worlds idea but I'd never found quantum mechanics and metaphysics appealing and the concept of the multiverse was foreign to me until introduced by a dinner guest over a few games of pool last week.

What followed was a fascinating and rather animated conversation involving String Theory, M Theory and the concept of parallel universes - an idea supported by Stephen Hawking in his most recent book, The Grand Design.

Reportedly Hawking also believes the universe can create itself from nothing, an impossible feat given it didn't exist before its creation. But it appears that impossible feats are standard fare in metaphysics.

I observed that I had always thought of Stephen Hawking as a serious character, not at all like Richard Dawkins, but this book proved he had a pythonesque sense of humour which observation aroused some mild vexation in our guests.

Indeed, such was the awe this legendary digit fiddler inspired in one fellow it put him right off his game and he sank the eight ball well before acceptances thereby losing the game.

Now I don't have the inclination nor the expertise to examine or debate M theory here on this blog but I'd like to take a brief look at some of the more obvious implications.

Our dinner party guests were fascinated with the idea of parallel universes populated by copies of themselves - their doppelgangers if you like. They were happily pondering the prospect of them being billionaires, presidents, kings or queens or even Nobel Prize winners in other worlds. One wanted to emulate the feats of Walter Lindrum which he was light years from doing in this universe.

But it was a one-sided discussion of the upside. No one even considered a downside until a wet blanket like me introduced the potential for them to be mass murderers, rapists or serial sex offenders.

Shock horror! As if that wasn't bad enough. But as I pointed out it gets worse. If every potential happening happens in an infinite number of other worlds then at some time and place you've actually killed every other human being in existence, including yourself. Not only that you've had sex with them all as well - the good, the bad and the ugly.

How many times have you screamed out something like "I'll kill you, you blanky blanky thing" never realising that somewhere else you've actually done the deed? And now you know!

If you think that's bad read on. In some worlds you'll be the victim! You'll be burned at the stake as a witch, deknackered by a jealous sultan, go down with the Titanic, be torn apart by a lion, swallowed by a whale, eaten by a shark and snatched by a crocodile. You'll be tortured by Topcliffe, murdered by Jack The Ripper and chewed to pieces by your beloved rotweiler.

At the end of the conversation our guests were having second thoughts about the desirability of parallel worlds except one who appeared quite relaxed about the whole thing.

"Ah well" he said as he chalked his cue. "You have to learn to take the good with the bad! And with that he calmly sank the eight ball and collected his winnings!

What is really behind the carbon tax?

2011-10-12T09:28:00.003+11:00

Gillard's carbon tax passed the lower house today 74 votes to 72 with the support of Independents, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott and The Greens Brokeback Bandit, Adam Bandt.

Windsor and Oakeshott defied the will of their electorates yet again.

Fortunately, the tax is likely to be short-lived. Tony Abbott has said he is more determined than ever to repeal the legislation and scrap the tax once he becomes Prime Minister.

“We will repeal this tax, we will dismantle the bureaucracy associated with it,” Mr Abbott said.

“I am giving you the most definite commitment any politician can give that this tax will go. This is a pledge in blood - this tax will go."

Most Australians will be very glad to hear that. Few of us are fooled by the trojan horse of climate change and we would like to know the real agenda behind the global move to tax CO2.

It's truly sinister whatever it is. It makes the by-product of breathing a pollutant. Every breath you take is harmful to Gaia. A good reason to reduce the population, perhaps.

Personally I opine that population control is ultimately behind this greatest scam of human history. You may have different ideas. If so, I'd love to hear them.

Pictures from our KOOL building project.

2011-10-11T08:05:00.004+11:00

Click to view full sized pictures

At work on the cladding

Construction crew

On the track constructing. Kees on the job.

New signs - evildoers beware!

A KOOL break down by the river

This beats the reality shows

2011-10-10T14:34:00.014+11:00

Now we can relax on deck and watch the Bundarrah rapids rush by.

I spent all of last week up at The Bundar (Mt Bundarrah) with a friend Kees Van Strijp and some lads from KOOL (the Knights Of Our Lady). Our purpose was to give the homestead a makeover.

In just six days the house was unrecognisable and the job all but completed thanks to Kees and the boys.

Above is the almost completed job and below is the before. The weatherboards were removed and the walls re-clad with colorbond to cheat the weather, a new room was added and a massive deck built at the front and side.

There's a little finishing off to do but not too much. A couple of deck rails, window awnings and a rock wall below the deck. That's a job for January and beyond - it's an on-going project.

After six days of hard labor on the seventh day they rested. Justifiably!

We're looking forward to regular camps at Mt Bundarrah for the boys. New projects include building an obstacle course, teaching them some bushcraft and to saddle up and ride the bush safely.

A big thank you to all who contributed to last week's effort.

It was looking a bit old and tired 10 days ago.

Gone bush.

2011-10-02T07:52:00.002+11:00

Going bush today so no posts for a week or so. Doing some work on the house at the Bundarrah!

What if the Bra Shop employed salesmen like these?

2011-10-01T11:07:00.003+10:00

What do you get when you employ emotionally unstable young gay men and drag queens to sell fashion dresses to straight young ladies? A last gasp!

It was hidden behind all the drama of this week's political shenanigans but it is undeniably the funniest story of the year.

It wasn't a case of "are you free Madam Cilla?" but rather one of "Tantrums R Us".

The story has gone viral internationally highlighting the antics of the gay Basil Fawltyish shop assistants of Prahran's self proclaimed high fashion Chapel Street retailer, Gasp!

The last gasp!

It all started when Keara O'Neill and her friends went looking for bridesmaid's dresses and something a little different for a hen's night party! They didn't find the dresses but they could well have found the entertainment, although it didn't seem quite so funny at the time.

After Keara rejected Master Chris's advice on which dress to buy the "retail superstar" as he is referred to by his manager threw a tantrum screaming out as she left the store, "Have fun shopping at Supre... I knew you were a joke the minute you walked in".

We're not quite sure what his problem is with Supre as he didn't elaborate but he left the girls in no doubt what he thought of them.

The upshot as Basil would say was that Keara decided to write a reasonable letter of complaint to the store's management. It set off a chain of emails which Keara eventually decided to make public.

The responses from store manager Matthew Chidgey were amazingly rude but make hilarious reading, not only for their remarkable pretentiousness but also their appalling grammar and inappropriate use of words.

Cop this!

"Our range is worn by A list celebrities to the likes of Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez and Katy Perry to name only a few. Now, as one might appreciate, the style counsel for these types of celebrities are not ones to pick “run of the mill” type clothing, and they do so on the basis to ensure that the styles are cutting edge, and only worn by a select few. Similarly these items are priced such that they remain inaccessible to the undesirable....

Insofar as our employee goes; Similar to our product offerings, our employees are selected with a similar approach. Chris whom served you is a qualified stylist whom has a sixth sense for fashion, and Chris’s only problem is that he is too good at what he does, and as I am sure you are aware, people whom are talented, generally do not tolerate having their time wasted, which is the reason you were provoked to leave the store."

Just imagine if The Bra Shop employed salesmen like these?

Burnside slanders Tony Abbott

2011-09-30T13:30:00.016+10:00

Leftist barrister Julian Burnside went looking for trouble on Twitter today and he may well have found it after referring to Tony Abbott as a "paedo in speedos."

Although he has since retracted the gut churning slander it appears it was based on Mr Abbott's three years studying for the priesthood.

Once he realised the tweet had gone public Burnside, brother-in-law of former Victorian Attorney General Rob Hulls, switched into damage mode claiming it was a reference to paedophile priests and not to Tony Abbott, which was a transparent lie. The reference to speedos made it clear to whom he was referring.

This is a man who boasts of being a human rights activist. You know the type - a well heeled lefty who makes grand claims about being an advocate for displaced people when the truth is he works against the occupants of refugee camps worldwide by supporting unlawful arrivals to our country.

He's only recently arrived on Twitter and already he could be in more trouble than Andrew Bolt in a pub full of Geoff Clarke's.

Have a browse through his tweets here.

Would you hire him as your barrister? A man who opens his big mouth on a social networking site and feigns shock when his words are read by thousands. Fair dinkum! When you sign on with Twitter the first thing you'd surely read if you were a lawyer would be the terms of service which state:

You are responsible for your use of the Services, for any Content you post to the services, and for any consequences thereof. The content you submit, post or display will be able to be viewed by other users of the Services and through third party services and websites. You should only provide Content that you are comfortable sharing with others under these Terms.

Touche! Too smart by half is Julian Burnside.

If you haven't visited the above link yet here's a couple of his tweets that highlight his real character - the man behind the mask.

JulianBurnside julianburnside

'Sexist' Abbott blasted in new book theage.com.au/entertainment/…via @theage I have read this book. Abbott is a dangerous man with no moral compass

JulianBurnside julianburnside

The leader shapes the government. Abbott is seriously dangerous, not least because he is a massive hypocrite

JulianBurnside julianburnside

New book about #Abbott by Susan Mitchell. Great book; terrifying portrait of a truly dangerous, unprincipled person: a liar and a hypocrite

JulianBurnside julianburnside

@dxbooth no. Abbott is certainly not a pedophile. Comment was 1:1 reply to a remark about p. priests. Sorry for misunderstanding

Before I finish I have a couple of questions for our learned friend. What is a p. priest? He couldn't possibly mean paedophile priests because the vast majority of priestly offenders are not peds - they are homosexual rapists with post pubertal victims. He knows that but today presented him with what he took as a great opportunity to slander a truly moral man - the "paedo in speedos." He must have thought that a truly clever line.

Julian Burnside you are an evil slanderer and character assassin. Tony Abbott has his faults but when it comes to humanity and decency he leaves you for dead. I hope and pray you go down for this one - it goes way beyond the pale.

Last ones standing

2011-09-30T08:36:00.003+10:00

It's that "one day in September tomorrow" (okay, okay I know it's October 1 but I'm a traditionalist) and the Cats and Maggies will have the fur and feathers flying.

Sentimentally I'd like Mick Malthouse to go out with a premiership but I'd also love to see Eddie sucking on eggs and at the end of the day Collingwood already have 15 Premierships and I don't want them equal with The Mighty Bombers on 16.

For that reason I'm hoping it's The Cats and also because Fr Kevin Dillon will have great fun ringing all the Church bells in Geelong if they win.

I'm looking forward to the end of the season though....it might mean I don't have to listen to that interminably rotten song on my son's X Box AFL game........the one that goes....

We are, we are the chosen ones
we take our places in the sun
we are, we are the chosen few
we gave it all that we had to
we are the last ones standing
we are the last ones standing

Give me Up There Cazaly anytime!

The legacy of Bolkus

2011-09-30T08:02:00.000+10:00

Nick Bolkus was always a bit of a smarty-pants in Government but as a former Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs it can't be denied he left the nation a legacy.

Unfortunately it is not a happy legacy because apart from giving us the radically abusive to freedom 1995 amendment to the Racial Discrimination Act, he is also the man who brought you Adbul Nacer Benbrika, the would-be terrorist iman who plotted to bomb the MCG on Grand Final Day.

The Racial Discrimination Act is the legislation used to haul Andrew Bolt before the Federal Court for offending the sensitivities of several fair skinned people of part indigenous descent.

If I was the judge I'd have to consider whether the legislation was even applicable to this case.

The Act allows fair comment if it reflects a view that a fair-minded person could have held and if that person actually holds that view.

Now I've had my run-ins with Andrew Bolt and at times I've considered him a pompous ass but he could hardly be accused of not being a fair minded person.

The complainants in the case were obviously offended as Justice Bromberg stated but it appears that he barely even considered whether Andrew Bolt was a fair minded person and whether he truly held those views.

Professor of Comparative Nonsense

2011-09-29T20:04:00.012+10:00

Himself

In these dying days of the Australian Labor Movement thousands of orphaned left-wing ratbags, formerly known as academics, are touting for revenge on their perceived enemies - the newspapers, especially those owned by News Ltd.

Take for example Professor Robert Manne, the celebrated highbrow who occupies the Chair of Comparative Nonsense at BUB (Bullshit University, Bundoora), and, who this week expressed the opinion that newspapers should refrain from publishing the opinions of average Australians and only report the views of a core of experts in key debates. Key experts like himself, of course, who are apparently the be all and end all of any political or social discourse on this island continent of discontent.

Frankly I think newspapers should refrain from reporting the views of inane, fatuous inkhorns like this nutty Professor. After all, how many average Aussies are going to buy a newspaper or subscribe to it to read the views of idiots? How then would publishers make their money?

Of course, it may be that Robert Manne is a genius and has hit on a way to make newspapers extinct. But then, pigs might fly too and the nutty professor probably thinks they do.

It's my opinion that sanity speaks for itself but this mad pedagogue has shouted it down. Get some help, manne, for goodness sake!

To be or not to be Australians.

2011-09-29T08:26:00.002+10:00

The Australian's editorial today is critical of Justice Mordy Bromberg's decision in the Andrew Bolt defamation case.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/assault-on-free-speech-should-be-offensive-to-all/story-e6frg71x-1226149983139

A singular thought concerning the Judge's name occurred to me as I read the editorial. The name is obviously Jewish and suddenly I wondered if Jewish jurists are over represented in our courts given their percentage of our population?

And then, perhaps more importantly I wondered if I am even allowed to ask this question publicly? Well, too late to wonder now because I have and I'd like an answer.

I think the question is relevant because if we are going to divide ourselves into a nation of tribes it's disturbing to think that one tribe may have a monopoly on our legal system and judiciary. Of course, if we're all Australians in more than matters of citizenship, that is in our hearts, then it doesn't matter.

That is the heart of the question. Is being Australian passé these days? If it's more important to be Jewish, Moslem, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Asian or Teutonic then it is an important question.

It's time we made up our minds - to be or not to be Australians!

Abbott wrong on immigration act amendments.

2011-09-22T20:52:00.005+10:00

Tony Abbott has fallen back into mediocrity and opportunitistic politics.

With his refusal to support the Federal Government's amendments to the Immigration Act Australia has lost the best opportunity it's ever likely to have to secure it's borders and free itself from the irrelevant and outdated UN Covenant on Refugees.

In fact Abbott's position ties Australia even more closely to this treaty which has caused us so much trouble in dealing with people smuggling.

It's absurd that a person who is clearly an illegal immigrant can claim asylum and more often than not win refugee status because either the government is not prepared to fight appeal after appeal or because it deems our courts cannot keep up with the backlog of cases.

Abbott is backing the Nauru solution on the basis that it worked for the Howard government.

He shouldn't be so sure. Now that it's common knowledge that most of the Nauru detainees made it to Australia there will be plenty willing to holiday in Nauru en route.

Tony Abbott has proven to be a shameless hypocrite. Nauru was not a signatory to the UN covenant when the Howard government sent detainees there, nor was it when he first advised Julia Gillard to make use of it.

In addition he has promised, where possible, to turn boats back to Indonesia which is not a signatory to the convention.

What concerns me more than anything else is the big question which is rarely asked and never answered. Why is Australia obliged to treat illegal immigrants as refugees?

The Covenant on Refugees should not even be applicable to the people smuggling problem. This is not the same as the Vietnamese boat people which had people sailing direct to Australia from Vietnam.

Goodbye, Good Men

2011-09-21T18:21:00.006+10:00

I've been reading a book this week which has disturbed me greatly.

Goodbye, Good Men is a tome about the progressive as opposed to traditional Catholic Church and having read it I'm now wondering if we should we rename it The Church Of Gay Preference?

If this book is true, and I believe it is a pretty accurate assessment of seminary life, until very recently anyway, it Is clear The Church is in grave danger from radically gay priests, nuns and bishops. The facts are damning.

The author, Catholic journalist Michael. C. Rose, describes a crisis of massive proportions from which it appears the only way out is a massive schism.

The alliance of gays and progressives within the Catholic Church has made it unrecognizable to those who remember the pre-Vatican days or have grown up in a traditionally Catholic family.

Goodbye Good Men is not an easy read. It reveals that what has been sold to Catholics as a shortage of vocations was only ever a shortage of the right kind of vocations, i.e those who suit the progressive and gay vocations directors of many orders and dioceses.

Many, many conservative heterosexual Catholic men have been prevented from from following their vocation because they were perceived to have been too traditional, too pious or homophobic.

Goodbye, Good Men delves deeply into the vocations crisis and shows how many American seminaries have actively attempted to screen out candidates who voiced loyalty to the teachings and discipline of the Church, or who showed an attachment to traditional expressions of piety such as the rosary or Eucharistic adoration.

It describes a booming homosexual subculture and the denigration and deconstruction of Catholic doctrine, liturgy, and devotion.

No wonder there is a sexual abuse crisis in The Church.

Lessons not learned on homosexual assaults.

2011-09-13T04:40:00.001+10:00

The gays were out in force yesterday defending homosexual fostering and adoption of children after it was revealed two lesbian fosterers dressed a six year old boy as a girl and posted pictures on Facebook.

The defense, of course, relied on how bad some heterosexual parents are, defying the age old adage that two wrongs don't make a right.

Such arguments do nothing for children trapped in the custody of gay abusers.

Society has learned nothing from the abuse of boys by priests and others. The lesson to be learned, however, is clear. The offenders were gay men. That should be enough to set the alarm bells ringing but sadly more attention is paid to their profession than to their sexual proclivities.

Respecting the victims and heroes of 9/11

2011-09-12T06:41:00.003+10:00

No postings today in respect of the victims of 9/11 2001. May God bless the American people.

Withdraw from UN Convention

2011-09-08T12:14:00.006+10:00

Paul Sheehan has a good idea in today's National Times - an idea I've been touting for years. Australia should abandon the UN Convention on Refugees.

"The legal quagmire in which the federal government and the courts are stuck could be escaped at a single stroke. The root cause is the United Nations, the majority of whose members are not democracies, and specifically Australia's signature on the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.

"Australia should withdraw from the convention, citing its increasing unworkability, impossibly loose language and unlimited impositions. An entire theatre of ideological lawfare would be laid to waste, and after changes to the Migration Act to pre-empt such lawfare, Australian democracy, security and sovereignty would be strengthened."

Wouldn't it be marvellous if The Opposition adopted that proposal as policy? And wouldn't it be excellent watching other western nations vindicating our action by withdrawing from it themselves. All they need is a leader.

Sheehan also points to the problem of what he calls "lawfare." That is ideological warfare waged by judicial ideologues who should never have been appointed to senior judicial roles.

I've already addressed that problem in my previous post proposing that all appointments to the High Court be vetted by the electorate. Naturally there would be public discussion about the merits or otherwise of the proposed candidate before any approval was given. It would assist in preventing the appointment of activists to our highest court of appeal.

The absurdity of the boat people drama means that for every illegal boat person granted refugee status a genuine refugee is put back on the waiting list because the illegals are counted among our refugee intake.

That is neither fair nor just and demonstrates how effectively the UN Covenant on Refugees works against those it was designed to assist.

Read all of Sheehan's column here.

High Court damaged democracy - Sheridan

2011-09-08T07:22:00.002+10:00

Greg Sheridan has added his voice to those who believe the High Court got it wrong on the Malaysian solution. He also says the court has damaged our democracy by reversing the intention of the Parliament.

High Court went too far and damaged democracy

Concerning asylum seekers he says:

"What we have in northern Australia is an illegal immigration problem in which people get the fabulous prize of permanent residency in Australia simply by arriving on our shores."

The solution here is to recategorise illegal non-citizens who arrive here via people smugglers as illegal immigrants and amend the immigration act to make people smuggling an offence covering both the smuggler and the human cargo.

The present laws are absurd insofar as while people smuggling is illegal it is not an offence to arrive here aboard a people smuggling vessel.

Concerning the High Court it has become critical that the appointment of judges be approved by the people to limit judicial activism. While I would still have the Attorney General recommend appointments he should have to refer his choice to the Electoral Commission which would submit it to the electorate for approval.

More fake asylum seekers on the way

2011-09-07T13:36:00.003+10:00

The asylum seeking tourist types

Do these two young men match your image of a genuine asylum seeker - a person fleeing from persecution and possible death?

Or would you more likely identify them as reasonably well heeled young tourists?

Rohallah Gharibyar is pictured at left wearing sun glasses pushed back on his head.

He comes from Pakistan but at the moment he's in Jakarta looking for a boat to transport him to Australia.

He is not a genuine asylum seeker but he is an would-be illegal immigrant.

The Australian ran his tale of woe today. Another alleged asylum seeker

True refugees

I say again there are people in refugee camps throughout Asia, Africa and the middle-east who will be forced back in the queue to Australia if Gharibyar and others like him arrive in our country illegally and are allowed to stay.

I say Gharibyar should go home and apply to come here legally. I also say admitting men like him is not fulfilling our international obligations to genuine refugees.

What can Julia do for an encore?

2011-09-04T08:23:00.001+10:00

After the High Court debacle what is Julia Gillard going to do for an encore?

I have a suggestion that would bring the house down - call a general election!

Although like most Aussies I'll be voting for Tony Abbott next time around I'd be happy to help unseat the Brokeback Bandit in the formerly blue ribbon ALP seat of Melbourne before sitting down to watch the election annihilation unfold on the ABC.

Watching their commentators squirm as records tumble would be first class entertainment.

This would end people smuggling

2011-09-02T14:50:00.006+10:00

How about we look after people in real need!

The boat people issue has to be solved one way or another.

As the High Court didn't like Labor's latest solution I am going to make a suggestion. Make the Migration Act consistent in law. People smuggling is an offence so make travelling to Australia on people smuggling vessels an offence.

Remove the possibility of refugee status from the clients of people smugglers. Categorise them under the Act as illegal immigrants and deport them. Provide jail terms for those who attempt to hide their true identity.

Reserve refugee status only to those who come to Australia direct from their country of origin. Increase our intake of processed bona fide refugees.

These measures would be just and welcomed by everyone who cares about genuine refugees now languishing in dreadful conditions in camps throughout Africa, Asia and the Middle-East.

May Ned Rest In Peace

2011-09-01T10:18:00.001+10:00

Ned Kelly's remains have been identified more than 130 years after they were buried in an unmarked grave at Pentridge.

Inevitably there will now be a fuss as to what becomes of them but as Ned died a believing Catholic with the full Sacraments of the Church human decency demands he be reburied in Catholic consecrated ground in keeping with the wishes of his family at the time.

The State Government has said Ned's family will be consulted on the most appropriate resting place. I believe that would be in the Greta Cemetery close by to his mother and brothers Jim and Dan.

My song about Ned. SUCH IS LIFE!

If you want the musical version I'll upload to YouTube if there's enough demand.

Below is Ned's last letter written from the condemned cell on November 10, 1880, the day before he was hanged.

November 10, 1880

His Excellency the Marquis of Normanby.

I have again taken the liberty of placing before you the remaining facts of my case which have never been placed in a true light before you. It has been represented that I took up arms in April, 1878 for the purpose of shooting police.

But as six months have elapsed between this alleged shooting of Constable Fitzpatrick on the 15th April and the Stringy Bark tragedy on the 26th October, 1878, and there neither was robbery or any other offense during that time reported of having been done by me or my companions and has also been stated that I was at the shooting of Constable Fitzpatrick, but as the Police knew I had witnesses to prove my whereabouts at the time, they did not put it in as evidence against me, therefore I could not call any witnesses.

Even Constable Fitzpatrick’s own evidence clears me of the first charge, as he swears that I neither murdered him nor had any intention of doing such. After my mother was convicted of aiding and abetting in shooting with intent to murder Constable Fitzpatrick, I came back with full intention of working a still to make whisky, as it was the greatest means to obtain money to procure a new trial for my mother.

I tried every legal means to obtain justice, therefore it never crossed my mind for revenge. If I have had went looking for the Police or shot them in any of the towns, then there may have been some excuse for saying I shot them for revenge. Where the tragedy occurred is quite sufficient to show that I never went to seek for the Police, but that they came right onto the place where I was at work. There are many members of the Police Force who will swear that they came with the full intention of shooting me, not arresting me. McIntyre’s evidence is quite sufficient to show that I did not intend to murder, because he swears himself that I could have often without saying a word, and it stands to reason four men with the intention of murdering two men would have shot them at the first favourable opportunity. They would never have called upon them to bail up and throw up their arms.

McIntyre’s evidence shows that I had him covered when he threw up his arms and surrendered, so if my intention was to take life I should have shot McIntyre when I had him first covered. But according to his evidence, I took my rifle off him and covered Lonigan as he was in the act of running to a tree and drawing his revolver.

It was also stated in court that I shot Lonigan for revenge, but McIntyre’s evidence will show neither me nor my companions knew who it was at the time. But it stands to reason, I should have done so, and never called upon him to surrender. Any man who calls on Police or armed men to bail up and surrender does not intend to take life, or he would not have attempted to give them warning, as it would be utter stupidity if I intended to commit murder to call upon them to surrender.

Both for Kennedy’s and Scanlon’s deaths McIntyre is the man most accountable, because he told them a falsehood when he said they were surrounded and therefore placing them in a wrong position, which can be seen by referring them to the photo of the place and the positions of the men, also not telling them who they were surrounded by. But as they were not surrounded, what he should have said to his Sergeant was ‘ don’t move. You are covered by Ned Kelly and three other men and if you attempt to fight, you will be shot, but if you surrender your arms you won’t be shot.’ Then the men would have known their exact position.

It is, as Judge Barry said, unlawful to disarm the police, but then I wish to know the difference between disarming them and with the full intention of murdering them.

Even to take the police evidence all through and the two years career of me and my companions will show that we were anything but blood thirsty, and likewise in the whole of our career we never ill-treated nor maltreated man, woman or child and always refrained from doing a cowardly act.

The next thing I wish to mention is the Crown Prosecutor’s trying to point out my blood thirstiness in wearing steel armour. This is quite contrary, for without armour I could never have possibly robbed a guarded bank and disarmed Police without taking life, but with armour I had not occasion for taking life. I can solemnly swear now before God and man that it never was my intention to take life, and even at Glenrowan I was determined to capture Superintendent Hare, O’Connor and the blacks, for the purpose of exchange of prisoners. While I had them as hostages I would be safe. No police would follow me.

In lieu of taking them, I thought it might be as well to leave them surrounding their Police Barracks at Glenrowan and get possession of their train and horses without an encounter, and get a civilian to claim the reward so when the police obtained their horses they would have no enticement to follow me as the reward would have been obtained, so they would not interfere with me until such times as there was another reward issued, and if they did not give the reward to the man that claimed it, no person would inform against me again.

I know now it is useless trespassing on your valuable time because of the expense the Government has been put to which is not my fault. They will only be satisfied with my life, though I have been found guilty and condemned to death on a charge which, of all men in the world, I should be the last one to be guilty of.

There is one wish, in conclusion, I would like you to grant me, that is the release of my mother before my execution as detaining her in prison could not make any difference to the Government now, for the day will come when all men will be judged by their mercy and deeds; and also if you would grant permission for my friends to have my body that they might bury it in consecrated ground.

Edward Kelly
His X mark.

Witness: William Buck, warder.

Malaysian solutions sinks on a sea of incompetence

2011-09-01T07:13:00.001+10:00

Australia's border protection is now officially non-existent with the High Court's decision to crush the Malaysian solution.

Right or wrong the decision highlights the tragic incompetence of the Gillard government with our immigration policy in a shambles and our national security compromised. Now we await a flood of new boats over the coming weeks unless the government acts immediately to prevent them.

At least one constitutional and administrative law expert agrees with Justice Heydon who dissented from the court's majority decision.

Margaret Kelly of Macquarie University believes the decision amounts to the High Court making policy.

Let it be clear: this is a result of six judges taking a view. This is not because the policy was wrong - the Government had acted on the policy the elected representatives had passed into law. The intention of the Parliament has yet again been scorned by the court majority. They said that the legislature's "intentions do not bear upon the curial determination of the question of construction of the legislative text". Well, why not?What makes the court a better determinant of the intention of the legislature? What makes the court the final arbiter of the state of human rights protection in Malaysia, rather than agreements between Australia and Malaysia? If the Minister cannot make a declaration on the basis of bilateral agreement and understanding, on what basis can he make it? Send High Court judges to Malaysia to scrutinise the legality of its protection?

High Court got it wrong

Ms Kelly may well be correct but the decision is an excellent example of this government's disingenuine approach to dealing with the problem.

In the first place the excuse not to send detainees to Nauru was that Nauru was not a signatory to the UN Covenant on Refugees. Nor is Malaysia.

Now we are bound to accept 4000 of Malaysia's refugees without removing a single one from this country.

What the government must do is create a strict set of criteria to define an asylum seeker, primarily that they must come to Australia direct from their country of origin.

End it now, Julia!

2011-08-31T10:26:00.007+10:00

Politicians who find themselves in trouble of one sort or another have a terrible habit of making matters worse. Julia Gillard is no exception.

When bad personal news is doing the rounds and has fallen into the hands of the media there is only one sensible thing to do - have the courage to face it. Attempts by politicians to stifle matters of public interest always have a bad outcome. It's even worse when the politician is the Prime Minister.

The question many of us are asking ourselves today is whether Julia Gillard tried to kill a story based on a statutory declaration by a former Australian Workers Union state president which details frauds committed by Gillard's former boyfriend, Bruce Wilson, between 1992 and 1995. It appears that she did.

And did she do so by resorting to threats of an inquiry into the media, specifically News Ltd?

Andrew Bolt says he doesn't know whether the Prime Minister specifically mentioned the threat of an inquiry in multiple calls to News Limited executives but you can bet your life he wants to know. So do I. Wouldn't that be tantamount to blackmail?

There has been no suggestion so far that Gillard has done anything illegal but she certainly showed bad judgment in her choice of boyfriends.

She is obviously very angry, explosively so, at the focus on her personal life especially before she entered politics. But she should know that once a person enters public life much of their personal life becomes public property.

The statutory declaration by former state AWU President Bob Kernohan is public property. He has made it so and the Prime Minister has no business trying to bury it.

As Andrew Bolt has pointed out today the issue as far as it concerned Gillard was her judgment in having a "professional and romantic relationship with a man who is now exposed as a conman" and further whether she could afford such scrutiny when she was up to her ears defending Labor Member for Dobell, Craig Thomson, from serious allegations.

From the moment she lifted the phone to her ear and dialled John Hartigan she made it a whole lot worse. It's clear that her judgment hasn't improved with age and the question that now needs asking is whether she can any longer be trusted with the Prime Ministership?

For mine she has driven the last nail into her political coffin. Her actions over the weekend were stupid and quite possibly far worse.

As as result of her interference and following a call to The Australian's Editor in Chief, Chris Mitchell, The Australian pulled a column by Glenn Milne and apologised to Gillard stating that the Milne report was untrue. Just what Glenn Milne thinks about this we don't yet know but I suspect it won't be long before we do.

What did Milne write that caused Julia Gillard to go into meltdown? Just this:

''What the lawyers would not allow to be reported was the fact that Gillard shared a home in Fitzroy bought by Wilson using the embezzled funds. There is or was no suggestion Gillard knew about the origin of the money".

It must be mentioned that Gillard has denied ever living in the house but I don't see that it would make any difference if she had if she was ignorant of Wilson's crimes.

Personally I think Julia Gillard was badly educated politically when she entered Parliament. She should have known that people who have lived in glass houses should be wary of entering a profession that requires them to throw stones at others. Meaning that if there are incidents in your past that you wish to to keep out of the public domain politics is not for you.

Again there is no suggestion that she ever did anything illegal during her relationship with Bruce Wilson.

But the attempted cover-up and the implied threats to News Ltd have destroyed her political career, not simply her term as Prime Minister.

If today's revelations have not killed the Government's thoughts of an inquiry into the media it will be confirmation of its political insanity. But then, maybe it shouldn't surprise. This is a government with a death wish.

How much longer will Julia Gillard continue to make a sad spectacle of herself? She should end it now!

The Bolter back on the track

2011-08-31T09:45:00.002+10:00

The Bolter is back blogging on politics today after yesterday's mysterious and melodramatic announcement.

Turns out it was all a big misunderstanding. Andrew Bolt was barred by News Ltd chief John Hartigan from writing about Julia Gillard's relationship with former State Secretary of the AWU, Bruce Wilson, pending legal advice.

For that he even considered resigning from his post at the Herald Sun. But all's well that ends well. According to Bolt today Hartigan told him that: “At no stage is my job to stop stories getting into papers.”

The situation was prompted by a phone call from Julia Gillard to Hartigan which appears to have been an attempt to kill reporting and discussion of a a statutory declaration from Bob Kernohan, a former AWU state president, detailing Wilson’s frauds from 1992 to 1995.

If I was as cynical and hardbitten as some of my old journo mates I might be tempted to think the Bolter's antics yesterday were intended to ensure a record audience for today's column. But, if that was the case who would blame him. It's a ripper of a story and something I want to talk about in my next post.

Tree of life

2011-08-30T17:15:00.002+10:00

I have just congratulated myself. My first attempt at cloning a tree from a cutting has succeeded and leaves are beginning to sprout.

Of course, nature accomplished it under God's creative rules but I did the propagation and therein lies my sense of satisfaction and achievement.

Nevertheless, my satisfaction has been tempered by the knowledge that science has gone far beyond propagating plants and is on the verge of cloning people.

What a moral, ethical and legal nightmare awaits us when some reproductive scientist somewhere announces the birth of the first cloned human child.

Sometimes we just can't see the forest for the trees.

The bolter has been stabled.

2011-08-30T09:46:00.008+10:00

Andrew Bolt. Silenced?

Andrew Bolt blog contributors were stunned by this cryptic message on his blog this morning.

"No politics until further notice. Principles to weigh up. Faith to keep. Sorry.."

No politics on Australia's favourite political blog? Has he been silenced by Rupert and co or have constant threats of litigation succeeded where abuse and mockery could not?

As the Bolt blog poster called Sherro of Templestowe said: "What on earth are you talking about?"

I want to know what principles are to be weighed up. What faith is to be kept? Is there going to be an explanation from Andrew Bolt or is the rumour mill going to be worn out grinding out gossip, hearsay and speculative canards?

Bolt's readers can legitimately demand an explanation. He is after all a professional political commentator.

UPDATE: Andrew Bolt now says that after discussions (with whom?) he now feels free to speak his mind.

"So I shall. In tomorrow’s column. I apologise for the mysteriousness, but I did not want to act in anger or before matters had been resolved. I had to be fair to my employer and to my readers, and I apologise if you think I’ve had the balance wrong over the past 24 hours."

What a farce! A case of much ado about nothing, it appears. Well, I certainly won't be waiting with baited breath for tomorrow's column.

MP's divorced from "gay marriage" push!

2011-08-27T17:16:00.005+10:00

The media's constant references to "gay marriage" reveal a love affair with an oxymoron. There is no such thing as gay marriage, never has been and never will be while marriage retains its true meaning.

So it was interesting to read Paul Kelly's piece in The Weekend Australian today.

In a conspicuously under-reported event this week 30 MPs reported to parliament on the earlier motion moved by Greens MP Adam Bandt for community consultation, with 20 signalling their rejection of same-sex marriage and only seven MPs giving support to change the marriage law.

Obviously there is not much support for a change to the marriage act among Parliamentarians or or their constituents. Adam Bandit won't be at all happy.

MP's won't jump on same sex bandwagon

This could be the end of the present push to redefine marriage to include homosexuals. It won't be achieved in this Parliament and hopefully The Greens will be wiped out along with Labor at the next General Election. If so we can all sit back and relax for a while.

2011-08-26T17:53:00.003+10:00

Dear Julia,

We do feel sorry for you. But not sorry enough to endure your government any longer. You are destroying Australia through incompetence, stupidity and dishonesty.

Under your government border security is non-existent, national security is compromised, the carbon tax is a nation killer, the mining tax could provoke a revolution and the Craig Thomson affair is revealing shameless corruption.

Surely you can admit, Julia, that the position of Prime Minister was well beyond your abilities.

I can scarcely believe that as Prime Minister of my country you are so ignorant that you referred to the Taliban as the Taliband, referred to "high dungeon" when you meant high dudgeon and pronounced hyperbole as hyperbowl. And then of course there's your famous ne-goshee-ate, um, negotiate that is.

Surely you can see that the Thomson scandal has cast a shadow over your honesty, just as your betrayal of Rudd highlighted your lack of loyalty.

Yes, we feel some sympathy for you but we don't like you and we don't approve of you as Prime Minister. The time has come. Resign as leader of the ALP and leave the parliament.

Thomson sinks deeper into the mire.

2011-08-25T07:36:00.001+10:00

Craig Thomson is sinking deeper into the pit of political quicksand he has dug for himself.

Allegations of fraud, embezzelment and theft to the tune of $100,000 have been referred to NSW Police by the Health Services Union.

And the Union's National Secretary Cathy Jackson has demanded Mr Thomson publicly address the financial irregularities found after he left his position as Ms Jackson's predecessor.

There is no way the government can survive this scandal and hanging on in such a disgusting, pitiable fashion will ultimately cause further long term damage to the Labor Party.

The best thing Thomson can do for Labor is make a full public accounting of his time and actions as HSU secretary and resign as Member for Dobell.

If the Union is indeed missing $100,000 it would seem that the government was hugely mistaken in assisting Mr Thomson with his legal bills. It would have been money better spent repaying the union and reimbursing its members.

Pressure on Craig Thomson

Labor MP's told what to say about Thomson

2011-08-24T18:10:00.000+10:00

Federal Labor MP's are being coached on how to avoid answering questions about beseiged MP Craig Thomson.

Daily Labor Talking Points obtained by The Australian Online instructs MP's on how to block questioning on the controversial member for Dobell.

You can read it all here.

Desperate Mum resorts to shaming her son

2011-08-24T09:18:00.002+10:00

A Townsville mother who forced her 10 year old son to wear a sign identifying him as a thief says it was a last resort.

What do you think? Was it excessive punishment or did it fit the crime?

The mother claims she has tried everything to stop her son shoplifting from visits to courthouses, chats with police, visits to police cells and a youth detention centre.

Frankly I'm inclined to think that if none of those drastic measures worked, making him wear a sign in public won't work either. What may work, however, is the massive publicity the punishment has generated.

I don't consider it a cruel punishment. If the boy was charged with shoplifting, appeared in court and scored a few paragraphs in the local paper the result would be much the same.

It is a punishment born of desperation. I hope it works!

Government going down - Explosive new allegations against Thomson

2011-08-22T07:07:00.003+10:00

We are witnessing the last undignified days of the Gillard government as it slides to an ignominous end.

Explosive new allegations and a police investigation against the member for Dobell, Craig Thomson, has ensured the end of his Parliamentary career and with it the end of Labor.

It's too late for this government to leave the scene honorably - the bailing out of Thomson saving him from bankruptcy has seen to that.

Was it really worth it? The latest allegations that Thomson breached electoral laws after spending nearly $40,000 on his 2007 election campaign using his union credit card are extremely serious.

In addition court documents show he also spent $2050 on sporting memorabilia, $1893 on whitegoods, $175 on Margaret River wine and $354 at a handbags and luggage retailer while heading up the Health Services Union.

New Thomson claims

Telstra rips us off yet again.

2011-08-21T09:03:00.001+10:00

I've finally got with the times and bought an iPad. It gets delivered tomorrow and I'm waiting with true anticipation.

I know all the apps I want and I'm looking forward to being connected anywhere I go. It's a 64 gb iPad 11 with WiFi and 3g connectivity.

Which brings me to my subject. I went into the Telstra store yesterday to buy a prepaid 3g card which I wanted because my son loves watching the footy replays on AFL.com.au which we believed was an unmetered site for Telstra customers. Unmetered means the mg used in streaming the replays are not counted.

Alas, when I explained why I wanted 3g I was told that the unmetered facility was only for Bigpond customers, not Telstra pre-paid card users. Two separate companies I was told with separate deals. There are are no BigPond 3g cards available.

I objected that Telstra and BigPond are not separate and that in fact there is an entity known as Telstra BigPond and what BigPond users are entitled to should also apply to Telstra users. To no avail, of course. Nothing the local Telstra Shop can do about it.

However, it left a sour taste in my mouth and highlighted the fundamental dishonesty of this company which own all the telecommunications infrastructure our taxes paid for and makes its money by ripping us off for the use of facilities we ourselves paid to build.

The great inconvenience of course, is that I'll have to dump my son off at the nearest McDonalds Restaurant to make use of their free WiFi internet to watch the footy replays.

I'll have to relieve him of any money before dropping him off though, or I might end up with the fattest kid in the district!

The feud of bleeding hearts

2011-08-20T11:55:00.007+10:00

Basil and Manual AKA Paul Keating and Don Watson

Paul Keating was never going to be remembered for his smile or his good humour.

In fact you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who can remember a smile on the generally grim face of the old Parliamentary tiger.

That includes his Prime Ministerial speechwriter Don Watson who has been engaged in a one-sided feud with Keating since the publication of a book covering their working relationship.

For those of us who don't approve of Keating there's a strong vein of humour in the bizarre tale that unfolded in the wake of the release of the book titled Recollections Of A Bleeding Heart.

The tale is now told for the first time in the afterward for the 10th anniversary edition of the book.

Watson describes in the afterward Keating's performance at the original launch of the book in

May 2002. Keating left the audience in no doubt about his loathing of the book which makes one wonder why he was invited to launch it. Was Watson unaware of his feelings in the lead-up to the launch. Had Keating deceived him so that he could shoot the book down before it took off.

He began by likening the book to the black box recorder of an airliner.

''It starts in February 1992 and it stops when the plane crashes, but the interesting thing about this recorder is that it only records one conversation - and that's with the pilot, not the crew or the passengers.''

And in yet another classic Keating trope he said Watson had the inclinations of a fruit bat - "he always heads back into the darkness to feed."

Here I might throw in a metaphor of my own. If Watson was a fruit bat Keating was the Hendra virus. He made people sick.

For Watson the one-sided feud didn't become apparent until a year or so after the launch when he was visiting Sydney and rang Keating to suggest getting together for a drink.

"There was a long pause. And then I felt a bit like Manuel in Fawlty Towers: 'Mr Keating, he go crazy!' And he stopped half an hour later. I don't know what he said. It sounded insane to me. He just shouted, ranted. Then his battery went down and he hung up and that was it. Haven't heard from him since."

Love lies bleeding: The PM and the pen.

Gillard tottering on the brink

2011-08-20T07:53:00.001+10:00

The Gillard government is tottering on the brink. While the Convoy of No Confidence wends it's way to Canberra New Zealand born member for Dobell, Craig Thomson, increasingly looks like going down in history as the man who brought it down.

Labor can't possibly survive a by-election in Dobell if Thomson is forced to resign. They hold the seat by only 4000 primary votes.

The Opposition is quietly preparing to take the reins of government and call a general election which they would win in a landslide. They will also be preparing a strategy to deal with a hostile Senate where the balance of power is held by The Greens.

As Prime Minister Tony Abbott will not be able to afford to mess around with The Greens. If they attempt to frustrate his legislative program he will need to threaten them with electoral annihilation in a double dissolution and mean it.

He could do so under section 57 of The Constitution which provides that:

If the House of Representatives passes any proposed law, and the Senate rejects or fails to pass it, or passes it with amendments to which the House of Representatives will not agree, and if after an interval of three months the House of Representatives, in the same or the next session, again passes the proposed law with or without any amendments which have been made, suggested, or agreed to by the Senate, and the Senate rejects or fails to pass it, or passes it with amendments to which the House of Representatives will not agree, the Governor-General may dissolve the Senate and the House of Representatives simultaneously. But such dissolution shall not take place within six months before the date of the expiry of the House of Representatives by effluxion of time.

Power doesn't come cheap - or does it?

2011-08-19T09:58:00.011+10:00

Craig Thomson meets Bill Posters. No one has yet been prosecuted!

They say power doesn't come cheap but for the ALP a cool $150,000 to remain in government is not a high price to pay - cheap at twice the price.

Thus no one is shocked that the ALP bailout of Craig Thomson, Federal Member for Dobell and former National Secretary of The Health Services Union, could be more than $150,000, according to The Daily Telegraph.

New questions for Thomson

Although Prime Minister Julia Gillard has refused to reveal how much the party paid to allow Mr Thomson to avoid bankruptcy it is believed that Federal Minister Mark Arbib brokered a $150,000 deal.

That's about 10 times the cost charged up to Mr Thomson's credit card by someone with a love of call girls and massage parlours.

Still, it's not as though the kindly ALP wouldn't help anyone else, even someone outside the party.

Chewing over the future. Mark Thomson.

Suppose Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott, Douglas Wilkie or even Green Adam Bandit were in danger of bankruptcy? Wouldn't Mr Arbid be on the phone in an instant with total reassurance......."Yeah, no worries at all, mate. It's under control...... all taken care of."

Strike me pink, though. If it was good old Bob Katter he wouldn't have a hope! The locals would be raffling croc skins at Cooktown to bail Bob out!

It might all be a waste of money, though. Thomson is now facing a new investigation over whether he misled the industrial umpire, Fair Work Australia.

Here are a few of the incidents in which Thomson has denied any involvement. On April 5, 2006, someone, not him he says, made a call from his hotel room at Melbourne's Grand Hyatt to Young Blondes escort agency and later to Confidential Models escort agency.

Two days later on June 7, 2006, another call was made from his room at Pacific International Suites in Melbourne, this time to an escort agency called Bad Girls.

Another bill shows that on May 15 2006 Thomson spent $805.50 on lunch at the Melbourne restaurant Langton's, paying half in cash and half on credit for a meal for five people.

Here's the rub. It seems only $102 was spent on food, with $540 paid for four bottles of wine from the Dutchke vineyard in the Barossa and the remainder on beer and coffee. That's not much for members of the Health Services Union to pay for toasting the good health of their National Secretary is it?

If Thomson is forced to resign a by-election in Dobell could well force a change in government and lead to a general election.

A swing of only 5.1 per cent would spell the end of the Gillard government.

Conservative white men dismiss leftist alarmism - so what's new?

2011-08-19T07:36:00.006+10:00

Recent flooding in Bairnsdale.

We didn't need a study to tell us this.

"A US-based study has found that white men with politically conservative views are far more likely than the rest of the population to doubt the science of human-caused climate change.
In the US researchers' paper published in the journal Global Environmental Change, Dr Aaron McCright and Dr Riley Dunlap analysed data from 10 annual US opinion polls on environmental issues.
They found 58 per cent of conservative white males - or CWMs for short - thought recent global temperature rises were not caused mainly from human activities, such as burning fossil fuels. This compared with 31 per cent of other adults."

Well, well, well. This is supposed to be surprising. Actually there is a very good reason for it. Anthropogenic global warming or, if you prefer, climate change, is a pet project of left-wing white males led by a big fat man who was once Vice-President of the USA.

Naturally enough anyone who is familiar with the left and its brazen lies, plots and conspiracies is going to be a sceptic especially when the alleged scientific consensus has evaporated and is rarely mentioned these days because of the laughter that accompanies it use. No self-respecting leftist likes being laughed at.

People in East Gippsland are not laughing though. It's not so long since former Victorian Labor Premier told us East Gippsland had seen its last flood due to critical warming.

Look at the picture above and tell us why we should believe anything global warming activists tell us.

If you're anxious to read the original rubbish you can find it here. Conservative white sceptics

Coalition to introduce "govmail?"

2011-08-18T12:43:00.001+10:00

An email idea from the man who made a fortune from internet correspondence.

Malcolm Turnbull, the Coalition Communications spokesman, who made a cool $20 million from the sale of his Ozemail company, wants government correspondence to go online via a personal account which would function like an ordinary email address.

I don't see the point. Why couldn't the government simply send to your existing email address, just as they post to your letterbox?

Some government departments are already doing so, in addition to sending hard copies by snail mail.

However, if "snail mail" was scaled back to service only those without email it could save billions of dollars, not to mention paper.

When a father is not a father

2011-08-18T05:55:00.014+10:00

A lesbian who shares no biological relationship with a child and who is no longer in a relationship with the child's mother has succeeded in having the father's name replaced by hers on the birth certificate.

Her application in the NSW District Court succeeded even though the child, a 10 year old girl, knows and has a good relationship with the father.

The judge stated that the "man and the child obviously had a strong emotional attachment", however, the fact that he failed to refer to them as father and daughter proved ominous.

The lesbian took the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages and the father to court in May.

Father removed from birth certificate in favour of lesbian

This is an absurd set of circumstances. Let's consider a hypothetical complication.

The child's biological mother splits with her lesbian partner, falls in love with her daughter's father and marries him. The ditched lesbian comes along and in a fit of gay pique proclaims that the birth certificate does not reflects the social circumstances of the child at birth, sues the Registry and the father and obtains the same result.

According to NSW District Court Judge Stephen Walmsley there was no agreement between the parties before the birth that the father would be on the register when he agreed to donate his sperm.

Why should that make any difference? Obviously there was no agreement that the lesbian's name would be recorded on the certificate either, otherwise the question arises of why it wasn't.

In any case what is the justification for replacing the name of a father on a birth certificate with a female non-relation? Merely because she happened to be in a homosexual relationship with the child's mother at the time of birth is not justification.

Under the scenario I just described it would be possible for a biological father, married to a child's mother, to be removed from the birth certificate. Has the law gone mad? Outrageous!

It's not known if the Registry of Birth, Deaths and Marriages will appeal.

To sum up it is a shocking judgement for the little girl, her father and the community. It is an insult to her biological inheritance and a clear breach of her human rights. She has a father, she knows him, she loves him and she has a right to have him acknowledged on her birth certificate. Let's not forget whose certificate it is. It is a scandalous judgment.

If the decision goes unchallenged by the NSW government it will not surprise if the daughter appeals it herself

Tobacco, tele, time and death

2011-08-17T10:34:00.001+10:00

Every single hour you watch tv after the age of 25 reduces your lifespan by 22 minutes according to a new study by Queensland University's School Of Population health.

One hour of tv a day equal to five smokes in reducing life span

Obviously that's because watching tv means you're sitting doing nothing. If not, why is it so?

If so, well, it must be the same for reading but no one is claiming books are as dangerous as cigarettes.

Lifetime academics like those responsible for these atrocious alarmist conclusions have also observed that noses never stop growing.

I've observed, however, that theirs grow at a faster rate than other people's.

I wonder if they are planning to reduce their reading.

Forget Guy Fawkes - on November 5 kill Facebook!

2011-08-10T12:25:00.008+10:00

Mark Suckerberg

A group calling itself Anonymous wants to kill Facebook on November 5. I can't think of a better idea. I despise Facebook and its pasty-faced creator, Mark Zuckerberg.

Killing Facebook a great idea!

I've hated it ever since I discovered my 13 year old son had a Facebook account, tried to delete it and discovered that it could not be deleted. It was almost the end of internet access in our home.

In a video posted to YouTube which has already attracted the attention of half a million viewers Anonymous points out that everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your privacy settings and deleting your account is impossible.

It's all true. I hope Zuckerberg goes broke!

Tony Abbott will have to make a stand on illegal immigration

2011-08-10T11:16:00.003+10:00

After the next Federal election Australia will have a new government. Tony Abbott will be Prime Minister.

As Opposition Leader Mr Abbott has pledged that his party will "stop the boats" and that objective is supported by the vast majority of Australians.

Sadly it is a promise more easily made than fulfilled.

Today Labor's Federal Cabinet Secretary, Mark Dreyfus, has confirmed that the High Court injunction stopping the transfer of asylum seekers to Malaysia will apply to all detainees, not just those scheduled to be transferred this week.

"We're going to treat it as applying to all the people who were to be transferred to Malaysia, even those who are not participating in this court case," he said.

This was predictable.

Australia is a victim of the 1951 UN Covenant on Refugees which was drawn up to deal with the displaced refugees of Europe following the worst war in history.

The covenant was an appropriate response to the refugee problem followed World War 11 but it is now well and truly outdated.

It has destroyed Australia's orderly immigration program, it discriminates against genuine refugees and it prevents to country from securing its borders against illegal immigrants who claim asylum seeker status.

It has placed control of immigration to this country in the hands of criminal Indonesian and Arab people smugglers.

As Prime Minister Mr Abbott will have to make a stand. He will have to demand amendments to the Convention on Refugees to address issues such as people smuggling activities and illegal immigration disguised as asylum seeking and if that fails have the strength to repudiate Australian recognition or, if possible, to suspend recognition until the UN comes to the party.

That is the only way Australia's government will be able to stop the boats without being stymied by a High Court controlled by leftist judges.

QUEENSLAND: Beautiful one day - batty the next!

2011-08-09T22:00:00.007+10:00

Fruit Bats in Queensland Picture: Trek earth.com

Southport residents who used used air horns to drive away a colony of fruit bats have been threatened with fines of up to $100,000 or 12 months jail merely for trying to protect the health of their families.

According to news reports Wildlife officers raided one woman's home and a decision to prosecute her is pending.

Robyn Burgess, whose home was raided by DERM officers last week, says the noise and stench is so bad she has had to remodel part of her home. I'd like to see a magistrate or judge game enough to convict her.

Tony Barlett reports that home owners along Gardiners Creek at Southport estimate their colony numbers up to 200,000 and say property values have fallen since the bats moved in.

As scandalous as it is it seems that public health and welfare is fairly low on the list of Queensland's government's priorities although it wouldn't be surprising to see Premier Anna Bligh shed a few crocodile tears over sick horses.

Forgetting horses for a moment though, imagine what might happen if a high profile Gold Coast footballer came down with Hendra virus.

Claims of Wong's impending motherhood are wrong!

2011-08-09T17:02:00.002+10:00

Federal Minister Penny Wong released this statement today.

My partner, Sophie Allouache, and I are delighted to be expecting a child in December.

Like any expecting parents, the prospect of welcoming this child into our lives fills us both with joy.
We are extremely grateful to our IVF service and staff, and to our donor, for giving us the opportunity to raise a child together.
The biological father of the child is known to us, and will be known to the child. We have agreed with him that his name will not be released to the media.

We have chosen to make this statement about Sophie’s pregnancy as we understand there may be public interest due to my position. This is, however, a very private matter and we ask for our privacy to be respected during this time.

That statement is nonsense. Miss Wong is not an expectant parent. She has had nothing to do with the conception of this child and may not even be associated with the mother when it is born. What if the relationship breaks down between now and the birth? Will Miss Wong still be a parent? No! Will the biological father still be a parent? Yes!

The fact that Wong is a Federal Minister makes this a national issue. Many Australians will regard this as a form of child abuse

The deliberate denial of a child's right to be raised by two parents of either sex is an abuse. The rights of children are not abrograted by a homosexual partner's false claim to parenthood.

Faux conservative columnist and gay apologist Andrew Bolt has already issued Miss Wong with congratulations. It appears his conservatism does not extend to the legitimate rights of children.

bin Laden used wife as shield after all

2011-05-07T07:07:00.000+10:00

Reports today support the initial statement of American counter terrorism expert , John Brennan, who said on Monday Osama bin Laden hid behind his wife when confronted by US Navy SEALs.

bin Laden thrust wife at Navy Seals

UPDATE 2.40pm: A PANIC-stricken Osama bin Laden shoved his wife toward the Navy SEAL who ultimately shot him dead, sources claim.The terror chief was said to have been "scared" and "completely confused" in the moments before he was gunned down inside his Pakistan compound.
A source confirmed to FOX that the SEALs first took aim when bin Laden poked his head around the door of his bedroom -- but the bullet whistled past the al Qa'ida chief.
After darting back into the room, bin Laden shoved one his wives toward an advancing SEAL in an apparent attempt to save himself. He was quickly dispatched with shots to the chest and forehead.

Terror threat is diminished with bin Laden's death

2011-05-05T14:13:00.002+10:00

The threat of organised international terrorist strikes and revenge attacks following the death of Osama bin Laden don't appear to be great in the short term.

"If al Qaeda operatives begin planning retaliatory attacks, their communications could pop them on to the U.S. radar, even if they use couriers to avoid more easily detected electronic communications, US officials say."

Massive intelligence haul

The knowledge that America is possession of a wealth of material seized in the deadly raid including computer disks, hard drives and thumb drives is likely to unsettle the Al Quaeda network and drive its members further underground.

At this moment terrorism is on the back foot. Doubtless the hunt for bin Laden has turned up a veritable treasure trove of information, quite apart from that recovered in the Abbottabad operation.

Bin Laden was evil and malevolent and although many people claim to feel no safer in the aftermath of his death the fact is that the west, especially the USA, is now looking infinitely more competent and confident of victory in the war on terror than it was just a few days ago. Such are the fortunes of war.

Confidence is catching just as pessimism is contagious. The global jihad has suffered a massive blow this week and won't recover any time soon.

Vice-President's Rosary Crusade

2011-05-04T15:11:00.001+10:00

On Sunday afternoon, as the helicopters raced over Pakistani territory, the president and his advisers gathered in the Situation Room of the White House to monitor the operation as it unfolded. Much of the time was spent in silence. Mr. Obama looked “stone faced,” one aide said. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. fingered his rosary beads. “The minutes passed like days,” recalled John O. Brennan, the White House counterterrorism chief.

October 7 is the Feast Day of Our Lady of The Rosary which celebrates the great Catholic Holy League victory over the Turkish navy at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 ending Turkish hegemony in The Mediterranean.

The Catholic Church has always credited a Rosary Crusade in the lead-up to the battle as the key to the victory.

It will come as no surprise, then, to learn to that US Vice-President Joe Biden was fingering his rosary throughout the nerve wracking forty minute raid by US Navy Seals on Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound.

Moslems will be giving thanks too!

2011-05-03T06:56:00.017+10:00

Coward bin Laden hid behind woman

bin Laden's Abbottabad fortress

With the CIA and White House monitoring the situation in real time — presumably by live satellite feed or video carried by the SEALs — the team stormed the compound and entered the room where bin Laden was hiding. In the ensuing firefight, Brennan said, bin Laden used a woman as a human shield and returned fire. The SEALs killed bin Laden with a bullet to the head.

So Osama bin Laden hid behind one of his wives during his final battle yesterday, using her as a human shield. That revelation speaks powerfully to the false narrative of this cowardly wretch as a hero of the Moslem people.

Perhaps now peace loving Moslems who just want to get on with their lives will be able to do so without the spectre of this would-be terrorist madhi looming in the background stealing the loyalty of their children and sending them out on missions of death killing mostly innocent fellow members of their faith.

It would be wrong to assume that all the Moslem world will be weeping after the success of the American mission. In private countless Moslems will be giving thanks that this feral beast has been banished from this world.

The king of terrorists has been brought down by a small unsung band of American special forces heroes. We may never know who they were but we are forever indebted to them.

Justice has been done.

Nonetheless, Pakistan has some serious question marks hanging over its intelligence agency to answer.

That questions were not asked about the occupants of a compound with surrounding walls 18 feet high, topped with barbed wire and located only 100 metres from a military complex beggars belief.

Mission fraught with risk
The mission against Bin Laden was executed brilliantly, a flawless copybook operation by the Navy SEALs entrusted with bringing the mass murderer to justice. But it was an operation fraught with risk, highlighted by mechanical failure in one helicopter which had to be abandoned and destroyed.

It was also a manifestly courageous decision by President Obama who would have been fully briefed on the last time the US conducted a similar covert operation in the Iranian desert in 1980 during the Jimmy Carter presidency which ended in disaster.

Mad prelate blames celibacy for priest assaults

2011-04-25T09:38:00.009+10:00

Former Sydney auxiliary bishop Geoffrey Robinson is one of those mad prelates to whom the Catholic Church owes its present crisis.

Bishop claims priests believe sex with boys does not breach celibacy

He claims that some Catholic priests who assault boys justify it by claiming it doesn't breach their vow of celibacy. I've never heard anything quite as ridiculous.

Any priest who assaults a child, or anyone else for that matter, knows he is committing a mortal sin. Indeed, in terms of sin, an assault by a priest on a child or teenager, is worse than breaking the vow of celibacy with a woman.

Robinson opines that the issue will not be properly dealt with until the church holds a council of all the bishops in the church to revise the doctrine on priestly celibacy.

Priests don't offend against boys because they lack opportunities with women. They offend because they are same sex oriented and prefer young male sexual partners. If they don't consider it wrong it is is a symptom of their disordered mental state and condition, not their priesthood.

Julia's hero a fair dinkum bastard!

2011-04-15T09:47:00.005+10:00

Integrity, intelligence and independence? Cue the laughter!

Whistle blown on whistleblower

Every dog has its day. What goes around comes around!

The truth about "bastard" Wilkie!

Powerful Federal Independent MP Andrew "Mahatma" Wilkie isn't truly the peace loving guru he's painted himself to be.

A timely exposure by Andrew Rule.

Picture flags Green anti-Semitism!

2011-04-07T06:45:00.001+10:00

THIS witch wouldn't be caught dead under an Australian flag.

But the Palestinian flag - no worries. What next you might well ask?

You recognise her, of course. Sarah Hanson-Young the hyphenated green-fascist who last year attended a rally where demonstrators called on Australia to sever ties with Israel.

The Australian today reports on Hanson-Young's and Green's colleague Scott Ludlum's anti-Israel politics.

Green senators caught out over Israel!

As a man with Jewish and Moslem friends I wish for a peaceful resolution in the middle-east but as anti-Semitism raises it's ugly head in Australian politics I say this. The world would be a poorer place without the Jews!

Whitefella's dreaming - blackfella's future

2011-04-01T12:23:00.001+11:00

Former Keating Government Minister Gary Johns has no time for whiteman's dreaming of the black man's future.

Whiteman's dreaming

Johns, now an associate professor at the Australian Catholic University and President of the Bennelong Society, believes that governments moved by the "strong ideological push to recreate an Aboriginal society have condemned at least 100,000 Aborigines in mainly remote areas to a living hell.

The elaborate inquiries in the 1990s into Aboriginal deaths in custody and the Stolen Generations and in the 2000s into Aboriginal child sexual abuse came up with the same answers, that "Aboriginal culture" must be respected and "Aboriginal communities" must take charge of their destiny. But what if this "solution" is the problem? What if the culture is no more than people behaving badly, a result of blighted environments, poor incentives, awful history and a historic culture best relegated to museums and occasional ceremonies?
What if these communities are hopeless, in economic terms and every other respect, and their only rationale is that an ancient band of people once inhabited them or, more brazenly, where some remain in the hope that through land rights they may gain a windfall from a resources company?
These are the uncomfortable questions governments avoid asking lest they be labelled racist. Yet in avoiding them they are being racist and intellectually dishonest.

This is a powerful and thought provoking piece that breaks though the balm for the white man's conscience provided by policies that romanticise the brutal and hunter gatherer existence that was Aboriginal life prior to European settlement.

Aborigines did not prosper in Australia. They simply survived. They were small bands of hunter-gatherers who did not develop metal tools or writing and or political structures, in as much as they had nothing to administer, no taxes, no surplus to distribute or hold, no means to hold prisoners, no public works to administer.
The world changed for Aborigines the moment the whiteman arrived and bequeathed stored food. Much of the raison d'etre for their "way of life" or "culture" evaporated. That day, Aborigines wanted more because they could have more.
The fact they would have to change to continue to receive it is cast as a tragedy. It is only a tragedy if what is given up is more valuable than what is gained.

Part of the tragedy of the past 40 years is that the intelligentsia believe that what was given up was more valuable.

DHS workers abandon boy after outing.

2011-03-31T13:44:00.001+11:00

I am truly shocked. The DHS workers involved in this disgrace should be dismissed and charged.

I can scarcely believe such negligence. Even though I'm not overly fond of Neil Mitchell he deserves congratulations for blowing the whistle on this.

DHS abandons 9 year old by lake in darkness

Night or day the boy should not have been abandoned. He could drowned, been assaulted, abducted, murdered - who knows what may have happened to him if not for the decency of the passer-by who called police.

Andrew Bolt rightly offended by eugenics claims.

2011-03-29T16:43:00.005+11:00

Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt was grossly offended by the comments of a layer who linked views expressed in his articles on Aboriginal identity with Nazi race laws and eugenics he told the Federal Court today.

Understandably offended. Ron Merkel QC's comments were wrong and uncalled for.

The identification of individuals of majority European descent as Aboriginal appears to me to be a form of racism where true Aboriginality is secondary to an individual's personal identity. The problem with this for people of all or majority Aboriginal descent should be obvious.

Andrew Bolt takes offence.

UPDATE:

Andrew Bolt is the last one who should be accused of anti-homosexual bias. If anything, at least in my opinion, he swings too far in the opposite direction.

I'll have more to say about this trial when it's over.

Celebrated movie director praises Opus Dei's founder

2011-03-23T14:25:00.001+11:00

St Jose Maria Escriva

Celebrated movie director Roland Joffe has compared the founder of Catholic organisation, Opus Dei, with Nelson Mandela.

In an era of ideological conformity the founder of Opus Dei had the courage to tell people to think for themselves, and like Nelson Mandela in South Africa brought healing to Spain, Mr Joffe said.

Presenting his new movie There Be Dragons at a private screening of 150 Vatican officials Mr Joffe said said St Josemaría Escrivá – one of the central characters in the movie, “answered the question that his time gave him, which is that when politics was industrialising and the world was splitting into rigid opposing camps a young priest stood up in Spain and refused to condemn.”

Movie director Roland Joffe praises Opus Dei founder

Roland Joffe directed The Killings Fields, The Mission, The Scarlet Letter and Super Mario Bros among other projects and is currently filming a new movie, Singularity, featuring Josh Hartnett.

Italy wins fight for crucifixes in classrooms

2011-03-20T10:12:00.000+11:00

Crucifixes will continue to be displayed in the classrooms of Italy's public schools after a European Court of Human Rights decision. Thank God that Europe still has some sense of it's religious heritage and the faith that fostered its civilisation.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Crucifixes displayed publicly in Italy, including in classrooms, are a sign of Christianity's key contribution to European culture and civilization, said Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture. Christianity is a "founding element" of Western civilization and "even if someone does not want to recognize it, it is an objective fact that the Christian presence is absolutely relevant, decisive," the cardinal told reporters March 18. Cardinal Ravasi spoke just a few hours before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of Italy in a case where a mother claimed crucifixes in Italian public-school classrooms violated her children's freedom of conscience. A lower chamber of the European court had ruled in 2009 that the classroom crucifixes violated the religious freedom clauses of the European Convention of Human Rights. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said the Vatican welcomed the Grand Chamber ruling, which recognizes that "human rights must not be placed in opposition to the religious foundations of European civilization." The decision is an affirmation of the respect owed to each country of the European Union for "the religious symbols of its cultural history and national identity" and for national decisions on how the symbols can and should be displayed, Father Lombardi said. A lack of respect, he said, would lead to a situation in which, "in the name of religious liberty, paradoxically one would limit or even deny this freedom, ending up excluding every expression of it from the public sphere."

Poor distressed rangers

2011-03-19T11:52:00.002+11:00

ABC News alleges that Park rangers who have to monitor the cattle used for the Victorian government's alpine grazing trail have been distressed by it.

Read what is below and laugh. It's amazing the energy some of these rangers have when they're out do things like harrass pregnant women with little kids in a vehicle driving along a bush track.

But when it comes to actually earning their pay - well - that's distressing in the extreme. Gentlemen, our hearts bleed for you.

Frankly, there are some fine rangers in Parks Victoria who do a sterling job. But there are also many who deserve to be out of a job permanently.

I know of one who wanted to travel from Beechworth to Jindabyne in NSW to interview a local for the gross offence of parking his vehicle under a snowgum in the Alpine National Park and he asked the NSW police for access to the police station in order to conduct the interview. Mild megalomania? You tell me.

The President of the Victorian Rangers Association, Peter Cleary says some rangers are distressed.
"Park rangers who have to deal directly with the cattle grazing issue feel they have to implement this policy at the expense of other work commitments and their principle towards the natural conservation of these areas," he said.
"So it not only increases their workloads, it has caused considerable distress among the rangers as well," Mr Cleary said.
A Parks Victoria staff member who does not want to be identified has told the ABC that the response to the trial within the organisation has ranged from shock, to disbelief and despair.
It can take park rangers two days to check on the cattle at just one trial site in the Alpine National Park.
With weekly checks at six remote sites, Mr Cleary says the rangers' conservation work is falling by the wayside.
The Victorian Government has promised to consider hiring more staff as the trial progresses, but rangers say there is no sign of help on the way.
Parks Victoria rangers usually review every research application in their park area, but Mr Cleary says rangers were not consulted about the grazing trial.
"I do believe that there has been an ongoing investigation from a federal level as to how the department has gone about that process," he said.
A spokesman for Parks Victoria says the trial is Victorian Government policy, and supporting its implementation is a necessary role for staff.
He says it is a small part of managing the park.

Kermit Burke fails to save face

2011-03-18T17:43:00.008+11:00

Kermit Burke, we're ashamed of you. What a barefaced, shameless and atrocious attempt at face-saving you came up with today. LAUGH OUT LOUD!

The Victorian Government must ensure the cattle are out of the Alpine National Park by April 8 you say, right around the time they were due out anyway.

What you're actually saying is you've given the Victorian Government 15 business days – until April 8 – to refer its current grazing actions for Federal assessment or you will force a referral. That’s the shortest time frame you can give under Federal environmental law.

So of course, that's why you waited until today to make your announcement so that the timeframe fits the schedule for the cattle to leave the park. Transparent.

Be honest for a change. No one on this side of politics has been fooled for an instant. Wry smiles all around. You're a mockery and that's a shame, really.

The Victorian Government was elected on a clear platform of returning cattle to the high plains. They have a mandate from the Victorian electorate.

You're a Minister in a minority government that doesn't have a hope of re-election. Like I've said before, a tinpot dictator of a minister in a tinpot government.

Yes, the cattle will be out of the Alpine National Park early to mid April. But that was pre-arranged long before you made your announcement today.

I s'pose we'll see you in December when they go back up. If you're still in government, that is! And that is doubtful.

UPDATE:

Just saw Burke on ABC 7.30. He mentioned what he called "the Maguire situation."

It is quite obvious Mr Burke has no idea what the issue is and why I have cattle grazing in the Alpine National Park.

It's really quite simple. The legislation is factually wrong. This means that it's validity is in question. If it is invalid I am entitled to a new seven year licence and so is every other mountain cattleman.

At the end of the day the Victorian Government has to decide whether it believes the National Parks (Alpine National Park Grazing) Act 2005 is valid or whether it should be repealed.

That is Victoria's decision and it has nothing to do with Burke.

Finally, Burke's announcement today does not apply to my cattle. I don't jump at his command.

It is not as if I am without support in the Victorian government. I do have strong and determined support and the word from my supporters is stand strong. That is what I am doing.

On the other hand if Victorian Minister for Sustainability and Environment Ryan Smith asked me to remove my cattle I would certainly be sympathetic to the request, just as he has been extremely reasonable in his dealings with me.

Grazing battle not about the environment.

2011-03-18T11:34:00.004+11:00

The debate over alpine grazing is not about the environment. It has never been about the environment. It is about the destruction of an Australian cultural icon.

Witness the faked outrage of the Victorian National Parks Association and Federal Environment Minister, Kermit Burke, over 400 head of cattle participating in a comprehensive scientific study by an internationally known and respected scientist.

The outcry is out of all proportion. Where was the outcry over the former government's funding for the control of noxious weeds and the elimination of feral species, particularly wild dogs, foxes and deer?

On Parks Victoria's own estimates there are up to 200,000 feral deer, mostly big sambar, roaming the Victorian high country. Are they doing less damage that 400 head of cattle which are depastured there for around four months?

There is something seriously wrong when a Federal Government allows foreign people smugglers to change the face of the nation against the wishes of the population and then makes war on its own people who are practicing a cultural heritage which dates back 170 years and may well be environmentally beneficial.

Wildfires in 1998, 2003, 2006-07 and Black Saturday should have well truly delivered the message that green management of Victorian forests and high country was having devastating consequences. At least the Victorian Coalition Government has the guts and foresight to look at all kinds of actions designed to reduce the threat of wildfire.

There is no environmental case against alpine grazing. As I have already pointed out numerous times when the Bracks Government allegedly banned it in 2005 only 15 per cent of the Alpine National Park was subject to grazing licences and only 6 per cent was actually grazed.

The Greens, the Victorian National Parks Association and certain members of the Gillard government have an almost pathological hatred of Australian culture.

Mountain Cattlemen, seen by many as living symbols of Banjo Paterson's Man From Snowy River, are tall cultural poppies who must be cut down to ensure that nothing remains of the old Australia.

Only when we are a fast fading memory will the green eco-fascists be satisfied.

"We recognize that separating humanity from nature, from the whole of life, leads to humankind’s own destruction and to the death of nations. Only through a re-integration of humanity into the whole of nature can our people be made stronger. That is the fundamental point of the biological tasks of our age. Humankind alone is no longer the focus of thought, but rather life as a whole . . . This striving toward connectedness with the totality of life, with nature itself, a nature into which we are born, this is the deepest meaning and the true essence of National Socialist thought." Ernst Lehmann, Munich, 1934.

2011-03-17T18:34:00.001+11:00

Happy St Patrick's Day everyone!

Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona do gach cibé an bhfuil nó nach bhfuil Gaeilge agat!

Kermit croaks again!

2011-03-17T15:34:00.002+11:00

Federal Environment Minister, Kermit Burke!

Federal Environment Minister in the most anti-Australian government of all time, Kermit Burke, is apparently most upset with the email correspondence I sent him a couple of week back.

I had written him a letter!

So much so, in fact, that he has apparently been croaking with indignation to some chosen journalists who in turn have been seeking me for comment.

I know this due to a phone call this morning from a friend who has been contacted by these journalists seeking my phone number.

They haven't caught up with me yet but no doubt, as professionals, they'll track me down sooner or later and I'll be happy to talk to them.

Maybe Kermit is out to borrow a stockhorse, oilskin coat, akrubra and a stockwhip so that he canter off into the alpine sunrise for a hard day's mustering!

UPDATE
Apparently we've been mentioned on the news today. I'm told there is great excitement over the fact that we have cattle in the Alpine National Park. The fact is, however, they've been in the park every summer since the Bracks Government tried to ban us. We drove the cattle back into the park in the public spotlight in the company of ABC TV on January 10, 2007.

I've been interviewed on ABC radio this afternoon. It may be on the news but I would think the cessation of the exceptional circumstances relief is more newsworthy than a few cattle in a national park.

Gay Paedophile Ring busted - 230 children rescued!

2011-03-17T11:53:00.004+11:00

"The suspects were members of an online forum, boylover.net, that promoted sex between adults and young boys."

Thirty-one Australians are among 184 homosexual paedophiles arrested after a series of international raids on a online paedophile ring believed to involve up to 70,000 members.

Europol director Rob Wainwright told a press conference at The Hague that six-hundred-and-seventy suspects had been identified and 230 children had been identified and rescued from further harm.

News reports so far don't make clear whether the rescued children had been abducted and held unlawfully or whether they were legally fostered or adopted.

Either way it will provide a powerful argument against the adoption of children by homosexual men.

According to the Australian Federal Police the arrested Australians are aged between 19 and 84 years and include four members who are believed to be senior members of the international ring.

Facts on Paedophilia.

· Paedophiles are invariably males: Almost all sex crimes against children are committed by men.

· Significant numbers of victims are males: Up to one-third of all sex crimes against children are committed against boys (as opposed to girls).

· The 10 percent fallacy: Studies indicate that homosexuals comprise between 1 to 3 percent of the population.

· Homosexuals are overrepresented in child sex offenses: Individuals from the 1 to 3 percent of the population that is sexually attracted to the same sex are committing up to one-third of the sex crimes against children.

· Some homosexual activists defend the historic connection between homosexuality and pedophilia: Such activists consider the defense of "boy-lovers" to be a legitimate gay rights issue.

· Paedophile themes abound in homosexual literary culture: Gay fiction as well as serious academic treatises promote "intergenerational intimacy."

2011-03-17T11:52:00.000+11:00

"The suspects were members of an online forum, boylover.net, that promoted sex between adults and young boys."

· Paedophiles are invariably males: Almost all sex crimes against children are committed by men.

· Significant numbers of victims are males: Up to one-third of all sex crimes against children are committed against boys (as opposed to girls).

· The 10 percent fallacy: Studies indicate that homosexuals comprise between 1 to 3 percent of the population.

· Homosexuals are overrepresented in child sex offenses: Individuals from the 1 to 3 percent of the population that is sexually attracted to the same sex are committing up to one-third of the sex crimes against children.

· Some homosexual activists defend the historic connection between homosexuality and pedophilia: Such activists consider the defense of "boy-lovers" to be a legitimate gay rights issue.

· Paedophile themes abound in homosexual literary culture: Gay fiction as well as serious academic treatises promote "intergenerational intimacy."

A different angle on Japan's nightmare!

2011-03-16T10:26:00.000+11:00

Was the dreadful horror of last week's tsunami disaster foretold nearly 30 years ago in a series of visions to a Japanese nun?

The story of Our Lady of Akita is worth relating here in the light of these terrible events.

In 1973 Sister Agnes Sasagawa, is claimed to have have had a series of visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary who predicted a series of natural disasters perhaps even worse than the tsunami and its aftermath.

The following report is from the Catholic news agency, CNA.

Niigata, Japan, March 12, 2011 (CNA).- The epicenter of the earthquake that caused a deadly March 11 tsunami is located near the site of an apparition in which Mary warned about a worldwide disaster that could afflict humanity.Japanese Church officials have confirmed that the Diocese of Sendai, in the north of the country, was hit hardest by the 8.8 magnitude earthquake – the worst in Japanese history – and the resulting 23-foot waves.
Hundreds of people have already been confirmed dead in the city of Sendai, located less than 90 miles away from the apparition site of Our Lady of Akita in the town of Yuzawa.
The city of Akita, which experienced fire damage and flooding along with many parts of northern Japan, is a place of veneration for Catholics.
In 1973, the Virgin Mary was said to have predicted a number of future events – including natural disasters even more serious than Friday's earthquake and tsunami – during three appearances to a Japanese religious sister, Sr. Agnes Sasagawa.The purported appearances of the Virgin Mary in Japan were reviewed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1988. During his time as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prior to his election as Pope Benedict XVI, he let stand the local bishop’s judgment that the apparitions and the messages were acceptable for the faithful.
The messages warned of chaos within the Church, and disasters which could afflict the world.
“If men do not repent and better themselves, God the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity,” Mary reportedly told Sr. Agnes.
“It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as never seen before.”“Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful,” she said.
“The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church, in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops.”
“Churches and altars will be sacked. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises, and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.”
“Each day, recite the prayers of the Rosary,” she told Sr. Agnes. “With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests.”
Two years after the last message, the statue of the Virgin Mary in the chapel where the apparitions had occurred began to emit tears and drops of blood. The occurrence continued for more than six years.
Reports from Akita following Friday's earthquake indicate that the city received significantly less damage than other parts of northern Japan, despite its proximity to the epicenter. However, residents did report power outages, burst pipes, and fires.
Bishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi of Niigata, whose territory includes the Akita apparition site, is also the president of Caritas Japan, which will be working to assist victims of the earthquake and tsunami.

Computer trouble today.... Please remember Japan in your prayers.

2011-03-14T09:11:00.000+11:00

Sorry, computer troubles today so probably no posts.

Meanwhile, if you are a prayerful person I'm certain you won't forget the Japanese people in this time of disaster and tragedy.

The scale of what has happened is almost unimaginable.

For all you Lachlan Tigers!

2011-03-08T13:34:00.000+11:00

Here's a treat for you Aussies who feel starved of Australian culture. A classic shearing song by a classic Aussie band. Enjoy it!

Bravest of the brave

2011-03-08T06:10:00.000+11:00

This is Shabhaz Bhatti, Pakistan's Federal Minister for Minorities, a Catholic, murdered for his support for Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy, and his opposition to the country's blasphemy laws.

May he rest in peace and may his example light the fire of Christian faith in his country.

Thanks to Andrew Rabel.

Revolt against gay marriage and euthanasia plot!

2011-03-03T11:01:00.011+11:00

THE revolt has begun.

Julia Gillard has agreed to consider overturning the government's support for an Australian Greens' plan that would open the way for the nation's first same-sex marriage laws after an angry revolt by Labor MPs.

Labor revolt on gay marriage

The revolt is timely and congratulations to the Labor MP's who can see clearly that the green/gay alliance to whom Gillard has committed a form of power sharing is not only dangerous to Labor but to the nation itself.

Both the green and gay movements have ancestors in common with the Nazis and still share like policies.

Hatred of the Jews is alive and well amongst greens and gays and the Greens attempt to reinstitute euthanasia in the territories is only the start of their agenda. Let's not forget this is a party concerned with over-population.

According to The Australian Gillard faced a widespread revolt yesterday as Labor senators, led by one of her key supporters in the leadership coup last year, Don Farrell, demanded Labor overturn its support for the Greens plan.

The revolt came less than 24 hours after Gillard announced that Labor would support homosexual Greens Leader Bob Brown's push to end the Commonwealth Government's veto over territory laws, an act which would have cleared the way for gay marriage and euthanasia in both the ACT and the Northern Territory.

Meanwhile Brown himself claimed his proposal was a victory for democracy and was about states' rights. He should go back to school because the territories are not states.

Just how dangerous this Labor flirtation with the Gay/Greens really is was brought home to me in a book available online called The Pink Swastika which traces the origins of Nazism to homosexual activism.

Written by Scott Lively and Kevin Abrams, the book demonstrates how the Nazis stood for abortion, euthanasia, hatred of Jews, and, very emphatically, homosexuality.

You can read it online here: The Pink Swastika

I recommend it.

Lose yourself you berk!

2011-03-02T14:07:00.007+11:00

Toothless Kermit Burke

Kermit Burke, a Sydneysider who plays at being the Federal Minister for The Environment, sneaked into Victoria's Alpine National Park last week and asserted he didn't need the permission of the Mountain Cattlemen to be there.

Very childish!

Kermit wants to kick out cattlemen over frog

I don't need his permission to be there either, a fact of which I've informed him via a personal email.

He's a bit of a headcase, Kermit! Read what he said about the much needed alpine grazing/fuel reduction study instigated by the Victorian Government.

"This is the first time in living memory that a government has introduced an invasive species into a national park."

Invasive species actually defines any species that has been introduced to an environment where it is not native, and that has since become a nuisance through rapid spread and increase in numbers. Quite simply, that does not describe cattle.

But if it did Kermit should bear in mind that his own party, which declared the Alpine National Park, did so while providing for the continuing presence of this invasive species.

Can you believe that this man, who considers cattle an invasive species, was once the Federal Minister for Agriculture? Almost unbelievable.

Don't worry about the kicking out bit. We're not leaving till its time to bring the cattle down and that's not in Kermit's timeframe.

More Ignorance on alpine grazing In The Age Letters

2011-02-28T19:14:00.004+11:00

Regular greenie letter writer Nicholas Dewhurst had his self important opinion published in The Age Letters this week.

My responses in italics.

In the discussion regarding grazing in the Alpine National Park I have yet to find any reference to the seminal work of ecologist/botanist Maisie Fawcett that began in 1941.

He's kidding. VNPA activists rarely shut up about about dear old Maisie. If she was the lead writer of the Book Of Genesis she couldn't be more talked about.

Fawcett worked for the Soil Conservation Authority. In 1947 she submitted a report on The Ecology of the Hume Catchment in which she detailed the effect of of fire on soil, natural vegetation and indigenous animals. This report was published in emeritus professor Denis John Carr's 2005 publication A Book For Maisie.

No need to mention of course that Maisie's married name was Carr and that Professor Denis John Carr was her husband. Fawcett/Carr's work was far from complete. She never studied the diet of cattle on the high plains, for example. That was left to Harm Van Rees in THE DIET OF FREE-RANGING CATTLE ON THE BOGONG HIGH PLAINS, VICTORIA. 1984.

Fawcett's continous records - from 1941 until she died in 1988 - of vegetation change experiments at Pretty Valley, Rocky Valley, Cope Hut and Cope Creek formed the basis of a 1994 report written by Wahren, Papst and Williams in the Australian Journal of Botany.

Well golly, what a recommendation. A nicer bunch of quack scientists you'd never encounter. Let's just say that science should be independent and unbiased. That's not possible with the aforementioned.

This analysis, spanning 49 years of scientific research, is one of the world's longest ecological experiments.

Sheer fabrication that doesn't require rebuttal.

The research on on the effect of cattle grazing on vegetation, fire, soil and landscape has therefore been done.

According to Nicolas Dewhurst and friends. Other scientists think differently, for example Professor Mark Adams of The University of Sydney.

This work was highly significant and fundamental to the establishment of the Alpine National Park.

Absolute and utter nonsense. The area where Fawcett/Carr's work was carried out was already in a national park. Bogong National Park preceded the Alpine National Park. The ANP exists in its present form only because green activists wanted to boast that it was contiguous with Koszciusko National Park.

Research and land use designations demand that cattle not be returned to the Alpine National Park or even crown land at higher altitudes adjacent to the park. It is of significance that the majority of fires in these areas were actually lit by the graziers themselves in an attempt to obtain better quality pasture in the short term.

Pioneer mountain cattlemen had very experienced teachers. Indigenous Australians. They burnt the country regularly to provide a grass understory for game. We've seen what happens in the absence of fuel reduction burning and grazing - incredibly destructive wildfire. Dewhurst needs to catch up with the current work of Monash University Professor David Dunkerly. I note also that the Mountain Cattlemen did not fire the high plains and that all burning in state forests and national parks was banned by the Forests Commission in 1919.

However, in the long term this contributed to the degeneration of a precious natural environment. We should not repeat these mistakes for any political, financial or so-called cultural reasons: Nicholas Dewhurst, Clifton Springs.

The mistakes referred to can all be identified as excesses of incredibly ignorant green inspired management. The wildfires of 1939, 2003 and 2006-07 stand out. We should not repeat these green errors for any political, financial or cultural reason including the cult of Maisie Fawcett.

Arrest this treasonous crew!

2011-02-26T08:42:00.003+11:00

The Politburo - a gaggle of liars, thieves and criminals.

Not feminine but is sickening!

2011-02-25T09:36:00.006+11:00

That's feminine? Give us a break!

This is Feminine! (Miranda Kerr)

The good news this week is that female impersonator, Andrej Pejic, won't be returning to Australia for the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival.

Pejic, whose latest gimic" is modeling a wedding dress looks about as feminine as Bazza McKenzie with his lantern jaw and indisputably masculine nose.

He's no more feminine than any other "Broady boy" with long hair and a skinny frame dressed in drag. And, believe me, that's not feminine.

It appears that some people in the Australian media who should know better have trouble distinguishing male from female. Perhaps their employers should put them through a quick course in human anatomy and facial characteristics.

Bazza in his birthday suit

Aunty Jack

More pointedly the fashion industry should stop insulting women by dressing men up to look like Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce in Priscilla Queen Of The Desert. Aunty Jack ought to "rip their bloody arms orf!"

Gemma's not plastic....not much!

2011-02-24T12:38:00.001+11:00

Gemma Ward opines that plastic surgery is mutilation.

She says plastic surgery is mutilation.

Fantastic not plastic!

But if she looked different and rather more inferior what's the bet her opinion would be different too?

After all, she's doing quite well exploiting what nature gave her. Just a trifle hypocritical, Gemma!

We're all racist down here.

2011-02-23T17:50:00.003+11:00

The media breathlessly reported today that Australia is a land of racists and of course it was white Australians of European descent who are responsible.

We're a racist mob!

Did you know that half of our population harbours anti-Moslem sentiments. It has to be right because "the biggest survey done on racism in Australia tells us so."

Naturally the fact that 20 Moslems are in Australian jails for plotting terrorist acts has nothing to do with that negative perception.

This wasn't just any old study. It was a university study. Lead researcher Professor Kevin Dunn said while the findings were largely positive, (even though we're a land of racists) there were still too many Australians who were anxious or uncomfortable with cultural difference, with about one in ten expressing "very problematic views".

Hmmm, in other words there are too many Australians who don't think the way Professor Dunn thinks they should.

Concerning Australian attitudes to Islam I would like to ask Professor Dunn how holding anti-Moslem sentiments equates to racism, given that Moslems are members of a religion, not a race?

The majority of Moslems in Australia come from Turkey or elsewhere in Eastern Europe so it's hardly a racist issue.

We'll leave it at that. Just more leftist nonsense that doesn't withstand the slightest scrutiny.

THE AGE, THE TRUTH AND ALPINE GRAZING

2011-02-22T19:44:00.010+11:00

Green activist and journalistic poseur Melissa Fyfe
Pic courtesy of vexnews

An incisive demolition of media bias.

By Joe Byrne,

a true friend of the high country, in his own words.

THE AGE has fallen on hard times lately. Circulation of the daily edition is down, way down, and the rivers of gold that once flowed from its classified pages have all but dried up. Not so long ago the paper made about $100 million a year. These days that figure has shrunk to $20 million and continues to fall.

It cannot be a happy situation for John Fairfax executives, especially Greg Hywood, a highly regarded former journalist who has just been elevated to the CEO’s post at Australia’s second-largest and most-troubled media group.

With the company’s Sydney flagship, the Sydney Morning Herald, in similarly dismal financial straits and the mailroom at the Australian Financial Review becoming a clearinghouse for lapsed and cancelled subscriptions, Hywood must be wondering what he can do, what rabbit he can pluck from the hat, to reverse his company’s slide into bankruptcy and irrelevance.

Well, here is a simple suggestion, Mr Hywood: Take a long, hard look at your journalism. More particularly, do something about your reporters’ apparent compulsion to serve not as conduits for facts but as ardent promoters and sly propagandists of their pet causes.

The Mountain Cattlemen’s expertise is raising cattle and knowledge of the alarming, ongoing degradation of the Alpine environment, so media criticism is something they normally leave to others.

But in the case of The Age, which has mounted a concerted and grossly unfair campaign against alpine grazing in both its editorial columns and news pages, those two issues come together. Day by day, Age writers have regurgitated the talking points of the Victorian National Parks Association, paying nothing more than lip service to the idea of fairness and balance.

Before we get to the latest example it is worth noting that, when it comes to reporting based on bias and preconception, the Age has form. Anyone curious about those wider sins need only consult the Australian Press Council’s recent ruling in the case of former Brumby cabinet member Theo Theophanous, whom the paper accused of raping a woman on his office sofa.

There wasn’t a shred of truth to the story, as the Council ruled and a court concluded. As the Press Council also noted, that travesty of fair and decent journalism was, in part, the slimy result of an undisclosed personal relationship between the reporter and Theophanous’ mentally troubled accuser.

You can read the press council adjudication here – or, for more in a similar vein, you can consult the Sunday Age of February 20, 2011, where you will find a story under the byline of the paper’s state political correspondent Melissa Fyfe. Apparently the Age learned nothing from its Theophanous humiliation because the same crimes against truth, the same bias and willful blindness to inconvenient facts, are once again given pride of place in Fyfe’s work of fiction, Doubt on cattle trial's impartiality.

But let us save you the expense of buying the Sunday Age, which only encourages them. We read the Age so you don’t have to, and below you will find, point-by-point and paragraph-by-paragraph, a refutation of every single element in Fyfe’s story.

The information in italics was made available to Fyfe before publication, yet it was omitted from the published report. Laziness? Incompetence? A steroidal contempt for fairness and the right of reply? Keep reading and judge for yourself.

First, though, a little background on Fyfe who has never made any secret of her green sympathies. Late in 2009 she jogged the entire length of Australia's eastern seaboard to “raise awareness of global warming”. Her paper endorsed that effort by giving her daily blog space to report what she witnessed, from a dying Murray Darling system (funny how the recent rains have brought it back to life, eh, Melissa?) to the anguished musings of a restaurateur who believes it is environmentally unacceptable to grow grapes in Mildura (about time to get back to those folks and see how they are coping with all this fresh water, eh, Melissa?).

Basically, Fyfe is a rolled-gold, green-blooded champion of the cause and in her latest piece on the Alpine grazing issue she gives full voice to a manic bias.

Here’s the story with our comments. Decide for yourself if Fyfe

THE independence of the Baillieu government's controversial alpine grazing trial has been called into question….

And who is calling it into question? Very likely the people behind the scientifically flawed report that prompted the expulsion of cattle in 2005. Moreover, some of those same people may stand to benefit financially if they are given a supervisory role in any amended trial or in any committee formed to oversee the trials. More on this in a minute.

… with the revelation that cattle farmers have raised money for the scientist leading the experiment.

This is totally false.

The Mountain Cattlemen’s Association Victoria has never, ever raised money for Adams, nor has he received a cent from the members. In 2008, the Association learned that an Adams’ research program looking into the relationship between fire and alpine grazing in the Snowy Mountains was running out of funds. From what we understood of Adams’ research, its thrust and findings appeared likely to validate the wisdom of Indigenous owners that the bush in general, and alpine grasslands in particular, need to be renewed by regular burning or slashing. Aborigines did this with their firesticks and mosaic burning, a fact attested by every single account of the early explorers and settlers.

As restrictions on fire became more pronounced it was cattle that controlled the accumulation of dried snow grass.

The Cattlemen thought Prof.Adams’ research was worth supporting and, at a 2008 board meeting, voted to enquire if it should besupported it financially. This decision was no different from the then-state government’s support for the academics whose critical report on alpine grazing was the catalyst for the 2005 ban. Actually, there is a difference -- that “research” was funded by the taxpayers at the behest of a backbench labor committee( three from Melbourne) who The Cattlemen believe had a predetermined outcome planned for their report

However, the idea to support Adams’ research went no further -- no money was raised nor handed over (see below). All this was repeatedly made clear to Fyfe by telephone and email last week, as she was “researching” her article. She chose to ignore all of it, every single word that did not mesh with her preferred narrative.

So, just to recap, no money was raised, none changed hands, no financial relationship exists that might call Prof Adams’ work into question. Indeed, very few Mountain Cattlemen have ever met Professor Adams.

This comes as federal Greens MP Adam Bandt this week finalises Commonwealth environment law amendments designed to force the Gillard government to shut down the trial, which has reintroduced 400 cattle into Victoria's Alpine National Park.

Bandt, your quintessential inner-city Green, hails from Fitzroy, where cattle raising is not a major industry and what passes for “the environment” is that lovely lemon-scented gum in the front yard of a fashionably renovated terrace. While Bandt’s ignorance of alpine ecosystems is understandable, his posturing disregard for the law is astonishing, given that he is a lawyer by training and trade.

Simply put, the six Alpine National Park areas involved in the trial are all under state jurisdiction. Bandt can whip up all the amendments he likes, have his political profile polished to a deceptive brightness by the likes of partisans and allies in the Fyfe mould, but none of that preening and spotlight-seeking will change the law one iota.

The Baillieu government chose the University of Sydney's Mark Adams to run the trial, which it says will measure whether grazing reduces high-country fire risk. Cattle were banned from the park by the Bracks government in 2005.

Why wouldn’t the government select Adams? He is the Dean of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at Sydney University, has served on international bodies, is an expert on alpine ecology and has been widely published and peer-reviewed. And notice the snide little snipe at Adams – “which it says will measure”. Is Fyfe suggesting that Adams’ research is a put-up job, that he is not to be taken seriously as a scientist? Apparently she is, and this is par for the course. In earlier Age stories the word "scientific" has been enclosed in ironic quotes, the snide inference being that it is anything but.

The Cattlemen have grown accustomed to the lies and slurs that are peddled to gullible reporters, then re-broadcast without qualification or review to the broader public. It is not nice, it is not fair, but it is what they have come to expect. Adams is not a player; he is a man of science and has built his reputation and career as such. If, after having his integrity repeatedly impugned, he takes legal action against The Age, who could blame him?

The Mountain Cattlemen's Association of Victoria has since campaigned to return to the park. Last year, the Coalition promised grazing would resume. Since January, cattle have grazed in the park at no cost to the cattlemen.

At no cost? This is 100% false.

Apart from the time, effort, transport and related costs that have been borne by the cattlemen from their own pockets in order to give this study a chance of success. One Cattlemen assisting with the trial has reported to the MCAV that his costs to date for repairing infrastructure and opening tracks is about $10,000.

A 2009 edition of the association's journal Voice of the Mountains reveals that the group considered Professor Adams an ''ally'' and pledged $10,000 to his research into the impact of grazing and low-intensity fires on water production in catchments.

Then president Christa Treasure wrote: ''The cattlemen see his work as vital to our cause and we have pledged $10,000 this year … But he needs $500,000 a year to continue his long-term study - if anyone would like to donate … please contact our secretary.''

After making a passing reference to the $10,000 in The Voice of The Mountains, the MCAV annual magazine, published each January nothing ever eventuated.

The MCAV made it clear to Fyfe that it did not raise money for the scientist. The first line of the Age story is false. Both she and her editor were told this a day before publication but chose to print the accusation.

There was general discussion in 2008 that the MCAV might support work being done by Adams because it was in its field of interest. This never occurred, but the Age and its reporter maligned the MCAV anyway.

It must be remembered that the cattle had been removed from the Park in 2005 and there was no thought in early 2009, when that edition of Voice of the Mountains went to press, that cattle would ever return in 2011 or that Adams would be involved, as has transpired.

It also should be noted that much research in Australia is supported by private funds in many areas.

The VNPA is now calling for donations to underwrite its campaign for the removal of cattle and it is believed they are working with other scientists to achieve this .

Current MCAV president Mark Coleman said the $10,000 ''tentative pledge'' was offered to Professor Adams, but not accepted. In an email to The Sunday Age, Professor Adams said the University of Sydney has ''never accepted or been offered funds'' from the cattlemen. But the Victorian National Parks Association says the pledge puts a question mark over his relationship with the cattlemen.

So, there was no payment and Adams’ employer repeats that there was no payment, but none of that matters to Fyfe. Instead, she turns for her cues and talking points to the Victorian National Park Association, whose paid operatives most likely picked through the back issues of Voice of the Mountains in order to come up with this pathetically weak slur.

As a reporter, Fyfe contents herself with mere stenography – but only if she is taking dictation from those on her side of this contrived “controversy”.

''Mark Adams seems to have been given this job without any due process. It is clear he was hand-picked for this job. We need to go back to square one and have an independent group of scientists look at the research needed in the park,'' said spokesman Phil Ingamells.

Ah-ha! Here we have it, what this story is really about! If Ingamells, whose scientific credentials extend no further than once having driven a tram for a living, gets his way, Adams will have a posse of partisan, publicly funded scientists looking over his shoulder, second-guessing his research and throwing up a screen of media confusion to pre-emptively discredit his work. And that would be but the start. With those same partisans leaking and misrepresenting developments to the eager likes of Fyfe, any findings will be rendered so muddy, so incomprehensibly tangled, that they will be useless.

Ingamells and his ilk had their chance with the back bench anti-cattle Labor-sponsored “researchers” – if anyone was “hand-picked” it was the committee that produced the report leading to the banning of cattle in 2005. Now another scientist is taking another look, but because fair and principled science is anathema to people whose primary focus is spin and manipulation, Fyfe rejects it.

Mr Coleman said Professor Adams, the University's Dean of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, works in fields of interest to the association. ''It is quite proper, indeed [the Association] has a responsibility to its members, to take an interest.''

This is what passes for balance at the Age. Fyfe might have quoted Coleman’s fuller explanation of why the Association saw Adams as an ally. She might have reproduced a paragraph or two from the emails that tried in vain to address the piffle she was being fed by Ingamells et al. But no, that would be journalism, proper journalism, so it didn’t figure in Fyfe’s error-riddled hatchet job.

The reference to Professor Adams as an ''ally'' must be taken in context, he said.

Notice how Fyfe neglects to explain that context, the same context laid out in our italics above.

Here is how the Association explained its position in an email sent to Fyfe on the Friday afternoon before her story’s publication:

“This comment has to be taken in context. The work Prof Adams was doing was at long last reflecting what the fathers and grandfathers of the Mountain Cattlemen had been saying for many years about grazing assisting fuel reduction.

“Adams’ work was the first ever undertaken by a scientist that the MCAV regarded as objective and independent, and they were pleased that at last it was occurring.”

The Baillieu government has refused to answer questions about the cost of the trial and how much Professor Adams is being paid.

Perhaps the Baillieu government has simply concluded that it will never get a fair hearing nor a straight-arrow recapping of its comments from the likes of Fyfe, so it is simply taking its time getting her the information. To a new government with much on its plate, satisfying the demands of a strident partisan may be a very low priority. If so, who can blame them?

The Department of Sustainability and Environment also told The Sunday Age that aspects of the trial have the support of the Australian Academy of Science. The academy, however, reiterated last week that it does not support the trial in its present form and believes it will not produce ''credible scientific evidence''.

We understand that, of the Academy’s many members, a mere five – yes, FIVE – have expressed that view. If Fyfe called the Academy to learn more that perspective vanished from her report. If she did not call them, why not? Fairfax is all but broke, but surely it can afford a local telephone call, which would have drawn the response that the Academy has no position on the trials and that the views expressed by a handful of its members are theirs and theirs alone.

In previously referencing the Academy, Fyfe noted only that it is "taking an interest" in the trials. Three weeks later she is reporting that the Academy “reiterated” its opposition.

If Age readers were curious how this alleged change in the Academy’s position came about, Fyfe stiffs them for an explanation.

The Victorian National Parks Association has received a report from consultants Ecology Australia that says the trial breaches Victoria's National Parks Act. This is backed by legal advice from the Environment Defenders Office.

Give Fyfe credit for consistency. Her story began with a misrepresentation in its first paragraph and concludes with a pair of self-serving assertions that do not survive a moment’s scrutiny.

Once again she turns to the Victorian National Parks Association as the source of her preferred wisdom, citing the commercial enterprise Ecology Australia, a for-profit consultancy, which questions the study’s legality.

What readers need to know is that Ecology Australia's executives and employees also signed a group letter released to the media on January 27, that demanded “an independent panel of scientific experts to oversee all aspects of the research into cattle-grazing in the high country, including its initial design, is necessary to ensure scientific credibility of the current research trial”.

In other words, Ecology Australia rather fancies a good deal of state money being devoted to the imposition of a panel staffed and directed by exactly the sort of people who work at Ecology Australia, the goal being to hobble a project overseen by another scientist they have identified as holding a dissenting view. It would have been nice if Fyfe had mentioned that but, then again, this is the Age we are talking about, where fairness has become such a quaint, remote concept that its writers apparently cannot imagine it being applied in other field of human endeavour.

As for the Environmental Defenders Office, Fyfe might have mentioned that it is the unofficial in-house counsel to legions of green groups. As to the credibility it brings to its causes, its web site features a helpful, eight-point guide for journalists that urges them against the use of the term “eco-terrorism”: If there is no conclusive proof (as distinct from circumstantial ‘evidence’ like a banner, leaflet or anonymous letter or message) it is best to avoid using the word ‘eco-terrorism’ altogether.”

Another Environmental Defenders Office pamphlet gives candid advice on manipulating the media to maximum effect: "Few direct actions can achieve changes incorporate or government policies without media coverage."

As Fyfe cites the opinions from Ecology Australia and the Environmental Defenders Office, the MCAV thinks it would be fair to also inform readers about the relationships linking the Age newsroom with the VNPA and other activists groups orchestrating the anti-grazing campaign. What are the financial and personal connections between those groups and individuals, for example?

Fyfe’s story makes much of one word, “ally”, in a single edition of Voice of The Mountains, implying that it is some sort of smoking gun. In the interests of full disclosure, would she care to release a record of her own contacts and allies in the anti-grazing groups, the information they fed her, and the spin they requested she put on it?

Don’t scoff, because The Age has form here, too. One of the factors leading up to the ouster of former editor Andrew Jaspan was the leaking of an email from the Earth Hour people instructing him on the stories they expected to see in his paper and how they wanted them presented.

It would make for good reading if Fyfe were to release her own emails, but don’t hold your breath waiting for such a story to appear.

So there you have it, Fyfe’s story and its shocking inaccuracies. If Greg Hywood hopes to save The Age, it is this sort of journalism that represents the biggest threat to his masthead’s survival.

As for Fyfe, as a journalist she makes a good jogger.

Fr Bob stung by media wasps

2011-02-15T15:42:00.005+11:00

I was wise to hold off commenting on this one. It's as I expected. Fr Bob Maguire was misreported in today's Herald Sun.

"I'll do gay weddings."

Oh, no he won't. He doesn't believe in gay marriage.

He doesn't believe in sex outside marriage.

He's a loyal member of "the institution" as he calls his beloved Catholic Church.

He said he would say a few words on behalf of people who love each other as part of his priestly pastoral care role.

But it's not if as he is endorsing homosexuality. He's not going to wish them a happy sex life and say "get to it, boys."

Sometimes all of us who know, love and respect Father Bob wish he would be a little more circumspect in what he says. It's not hard to misunderstand him at times.

But his twitter feed re this issue is plain enough. "Spread the word comrades. I will not perform gay marriages. I cannot perform gay marriages."

Of course he can't perform gay marriages. He knows there is no such thing.

The gay marriage lobby will be so disappointed. They thought they had uncovered an influential new supporter.

What's the bet "Janey the dragon has moved" over at Andrew Bolt's has already been crowing over this? Too soon!

Thought needed on organ donation moves

2011-02-14T09:01:00.017+11:00

Victoria should not introduce the concept of presumed consent for organ donation simply because there is no such thing as presumed consent.

If the state is going to remove organs from people without their consent it may as well be honest about it and call it what it is - routine organ donation unless a person has recorded their objection before being diagnosed as brain dead.

Committee to examine presumed consent for organ donation

Admittedly such a proposal would create more organ donors and thus save lives but on the other hand it might take some lives, too, and we would never know how many.

There are strong arguments against the proposal. The idea that the absence of an objection represents consent is plainly nonsense. It is not consent of any kind but an abuse of human rights. Moreover, consent that is not informed is not true consent.

Why is it necessary to call such an arrangement consensual when it clearly is not?

The accepted definition of presumed consent refers to the "removal of organs from brain dead cadavers unless an individual has specifically opted out of such an arrangement." What madness!

Firstly, a brain-dead potential organ donor is not a cadaver. A body with blood circulating is not a corpse.

There is an urgent need to be totally accurate with the terminology.

Brain death is not actual death. The concept was introduced in 1959 categorised as the deepest form of coma due to primary brain damage without chance for recovery. In 1968 Harvard Medical School argued for recognition of this state as a new definition for death and over succeeding years this has become universally accepted.

There are various clinical scenarios which can mimic brain death including high cervical cord injury, sudden onset Guillian-Barre Syndrome, organophosphate intoxication and reactions to poisoning by certain drugs including lignocaine.

According to America's respected Neuro-critical Care Society in most such cases at least one discrepancy from a full brain death examination can be found. However, the fact that they can be found does not mean they always are.

At the very least the possibility of misdiagnosing brain death should be enough to make us very wary of introducing so-called presumed consent. Imagine the damage that could be done if an autopsy conducted on a donor showed they were suffering from a condition that mimicked brain death.

Full brain death examinations should always be carried out including scans to prove there is no blood reaching the brain.

Public education must also ensure that everyone is aware that brain death, although irreversible, is a comatose state, it is not actual death and that a donor is not "actually dead" when their organs are harvested.

Individuals must retain the right to consider actual death as the only acceptable definition of death.

Personally I am a believer in organ donation but only under the strictest criteria.

The ultimate answer lies in medical technology and the development of effective artificial organs which enable recipients to enjoy a normal active life.

I come from the land falafel...............where Eddie blows and it's awful....

2011-02-11T10:32:00.003+11:00

What is disgusting about a falafel? Old Broady boy Eddie McGuire may well be asking himself that question today after being accused of peddling "disgusting stereotypes" about Sydney's western suburbs.

On his Triple M breakfast show yesterday Eddie had a go at Greater Western Sydney coach, Kevin Sheedy.

"I've just a put a team together of your 17-year-olds who'll be sick of living up in the land of the falafel in western Sydney playing in front of a 12,000-seat stadium that's still not put up," he said.

That's the great Aussie insult of the century, apparently. Mazhar Hadid, a councillor for the Sydney west suburb of Liverpool, described it as "completely inappropriate".

He said: "Eddie McGuire is supposed to be a very respectable person but this comment is just insulting to the residents of the western suburbs."

May I remind you Mr Hadid that this is Australia. If you don't like our humour clear off back to where you came from. Hoo roo!

Seven damaged by false Abbott claims

2011-02-11T07:24:00.004+11:00

The Australian's editorial today puts the Tony Abbott in Tarin Kowt affair in its proper context.

The first casualty of war damages seven network

The misrepresentation of Tony Abbott has backfired and reaped its own reward.

Brokeback Bandit hates cattlemen

2011-02-10T21:11:00.013+11:00

Drama queen and Green Federal MHR for Melbourne Adam Bandt has drawn a line in the alpine humus. He's giving Federal Minister for The Environment, Tony Burke, two weeks to stop the Victorian government's alpine grazing study or he'll introduce a private members bill, he says.

He must think there's a Brokeback Mountain in the Victorian Alps. There's not.

This luvvie is a laugh a minute. He's been in Parliament five minutes and already he's trying to straddle The Razorback. National Parks are a state issue. Neither the Federal Government nor The Opposition is going to support legislation that directly threatens Federalism. The implications are frightening. And all over 400 cows and a scientific study.

Even Environment Minister Burke with his sabre rattling has only been threatening action under the National Heritage legislation which doesn't mention grazing as a threatening process.

I don't need to mention the fact that the ALP hates Bandt with a passion, even if Gillard has a pact with Bob Brown. But I'll say this. You don't pinch a true blue Labor seat and expect the ALP to cozy up with you especially when you're a party traitor.

It doesn't matter that he's supporting Gillard's minority government. He knows, and more importantly Labor knows that he won't be withdrawing his support when they refuse to support his bill.

The only thing that makes this drivel remotely interesting is that Bandt is the Member for Melbourne. The Alpine National Park is none of his business. He should be concentrating on representing the interests of his constituents which include things of great moment like gay marriage and AIDS funding.

Adam Bandt is a former solicitor and partner at Slater and Gordon and used to think The Greens were a bourgeois party. LOL

And you thought it was a woman's prerogative to change her mind!

We Mountain Cattlemen are quaking in our boots Adam.....not!

Still riled up over Riley

2011-02-10T16:36:00.013+11:00

The Seven News furore won't die down in a hurry.

It's no longer about Tony Abbott and his words at Tarin Kowt.

It's no longer about the cold stare he levelled at Riley.

It's not about the Liberal Party allegedly reconsidering his leadership.

It is about Seven News and their shameless exploitation, nay abuse, of the memory of a brave Australian soldier.

Tony Abbott restrained himself manfully on Tuesday afternoon and didn't deck Mark Riley. But given the opportunity someone probably else will - an angry digger most likely.

Every journalist is aware how sensitive an issue the death of a soldier is and how lightly we must tread out of respect for the family.

Back in September Steve Price spoke to Lt General Mark Evans about the death of Jared McKinney but prefaced the discussion with this:

"We're talking to Lieutenant General Mark Evans, Chief of Joint operations. I said and made the point last night to Ian McPhedran from The Australian, we must bear in mind that we're dealing here with the death of Jared McKinney, and we've got to think about the impact something like this would have on his wife, Becky."

What a shame Seven News, Mark Riley and even Price himself haven't heeded those words.

Price himself is doing his best to ensure continued pain for the McKinney family. Today he wrote a piece condemning Tony Abbott's cold stare and predicting it would bring him down.

Yet a friend of the McKinney family wrote in Queensland's Courier Mail that it would be a tragedy if this incident led to the downfall of Tony Abbott - "another sad footnote in the events surrounding the death of a fine respected soldier."

Jane Fynes-Clinton writes that Lance Corporal McKinney deserves far far better, considering who he was and what he did than to be remembered for this. And she is spot on.

Furore stirs up painful memories for MacKinney family

We can only hope that if this results in a powerful lesson for Riley and Seven News and improves the standard of Australian journalism it will end as a fitting epitaph to close the final chapter in the life of a brave man.

In other developments today Tim Blair points out:

'It gets even worse for Channel Seven and reporter Mark Riley. The network quotes Tony Abbott saying the following during his interview with Riley:

"I was doing my best to support the soldier I was discussing with them."
The singular “soldier” obviously refers to Australian Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney, killed during a battle in Afghanistan last August. “Them”, in this context, would be the soldiers with whom Abbott was shown discussing circumstances surrounding the conflict.

The effect is to draw Abbott closer to a direct link with Mackinney’s death.But Abbott’s actual words differ significantly. Peter Somerville checked the tape, and found this line instead:

"I was doing my best to support the soldiers I was discussing with then."
Once the line is pointed out, it’s quite unmistakable – Abbott wasn’t referring to Mackinney. Seven now is not only shown to have edited footage unfairly but also to have distorted quotes so that they fit the network’s toxic item.

No wonder Riley is backing away like a garlic-shy vampire.

As I said in my earlier post Riley and Seven have clearly breached the Australian Journalist's Code Of Ethics. Riley should not only be sacked he should also be stripped of his Walkey Award which in any case had far more to do with the company he keeps than any ability he possesses as a journalist.

Riley breached journalist's code of ethics.

2011-02-10T08:20:00.007+11:00

While the save facing exercise by Seven's News is in full swing reporter Mark Riley looks safe. But that will change sooner rather than later.

Riley has breached the Australian Journalist's Code of Ethics which demands that a journalist:

* Report and interpret honestly, striving for accuracy, fairness and disclosure of all essential facts. Does not suppress relevant available facts, or give distorting emphasis........

* Present pictures and sound which are true and accurate. Any manipulation likely to mislead should be disclosed....

The code also has a guidance clause which states that basic values often need interpretation and sometimes come into conflict and that ethical journalism requires conscientious decision-making in context. However, only "substantial advancement of the public interest or risk of substantial harm to people allows any standard to be overridden".

Riley did not report honestly. He sought to give the impression that Tony Abbott had demeaned the death of an Australian soldier. He provided a distorting emphasis. He presented pictures and sound which were edited in an attempt to put Mr Abbott in a bad light. The agreement of Major General Cantwell with Mr Abbott's comment was removed from Riley's report.

None of these actions are consistent with the guidance clause. There was no "substantial advancement of the public interest" involved.

Thus the trials of Riley are just beginning. He's still trying to run the line that Tony Abbott's office had two and half hours warning of the questions he was to be asked but it's wearing very thin.

It's a strategy aimed at avoiding not only the charge of ambushing Mr Abbott but also of abusing the death of an Australian soldier by dragging his name into a political "shitfight." Excuse the pun.

Almost everyone who has the seen the footage of Tony Abbott's comments at Tarin Kowt agrees that what he said on the day was entirely appropriate. Only a clumsy media grizzly like Riley would consider it a pic-a-nik basket filled with political goodies.

Tony Abbott observed that in war, even when the appropriate support is available, shit happens. And there's no doubt that such a violent death is shit. It's crap. And it happens again and again and again.

What is not shit is the sacrifice made by the man who suffers such a death in war. Tony Abbott did not demean the sacrifice made by Lance Corporal Jared McKinney and nothing he said could have been interpreted that way.

That fact didn't stop Grizzly Riley from attacking that pic-a-nik basket with gusto. No fear. He spilled the contents far and wide until he found himself holding a grenade with which he destroyed his own credibility.

He and Seven were hoping that Tony Abbott's icy stare would save them. It did not and it won't.

It has, however, called attention to Tony Abbott's self control in a situation that would have resulted in an explosive reaction from a succession of Labor leaders namely Kevin Rudd, Mark Latham, Paul Keating and Bob Hawke.