Sly Grog Saturday – and Sunday Too!

Fiona Uncategorized

Gin Mill

This thread-starter was inspired by a review I read this morning of a new biography of Kate Leigh.

For those who don’t know, from the ‘teens of the 20th century through to the early 1950s, much of the trade in sly grog, illicit drugs, and prostitution was controlled by two powerful women:

New South Wales Police Forensic Photography Archive

Kate Leigh

and

News Corp

Tilly Devine

These women were also intimately (in every sense) – especially Tilly Devine – involved in the razor gang wars of the 1920s and 1930s, which I remember both my parents mentioning sometimes when I was young (they both grew up pretty close to the matriarchs’ main area of operation – Surry Hills, Darlinghurst, and Woolloomooloo).

Archives Outside

However, I didn’t know much about the razor gangs, or Mesdames Leigh and Devine, until I read this:

Booktopia

Interesting times – though, in reality, nothing has changed.

To more serious matters. As The Boss is away, I thought we might indulge in a little loucheness this weekend, so let’s hit the town!

Greg Poppleton

Anything could happen . . . we could be raided

Bakelite Jazz

. . . have a few glasses of sly grog at the bar

Pinterest

. . . enjoy the *ahem* show

A Beautiful Book

. . . or perhaps have a little flutter

Pinterest

Watch this space.

136 thoughts on “Sly Grog Saturday – and Sunday Too!”

  2. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-21/pm-office-denies-report-gay-marriage-plebiscite-delay/7770038

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/us/politics/donald-trump-debt.html

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/business/as-the-for-profit-world-moves-into-an-elder-care-program-some-worry.html

    http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/netherlands-petrol-car-ban-law-bill-to-be-passed-reduce-climate-change-emissions-a7197136.html

    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/08/save-the-trash-why-the-gawker-archive-is-important.html

    • That story about private companies running programs for the elderly is scary. It’s bad enough now in Australia, with oldies treated like idiot children by not-for-profit groups providing what they consider suitable activities. I can’t bear to think what might happen if the private sector is allowed to take over that ‘care’ here.

      If I ever wind up spending my days in a day care centre, playing bingo, being taken on outings to casinos and being forced to do beadwork or paint tiles, will one of youse please pop around and kill me.

  3. O’Dwyer is doing the only thing her party can do in their situation. Sit on that terrible poker hand and bluff, bluff, bluff. They haven’t got a chance of making that work for them, but the alternative approaches are horrendous. They’ll never concede to the ALP on anything policy-wise, they’d rather disband the party than sink to that level of compromise. They can try to corral the Senate cross-bench, but if they make that their sole focus they’re dooming themselves to failure and ridicule. Can’t be done. Anything other than that requires soul-searching, probably reneging on any TPP agreements they have, and severing ties with key supporters. Their political life would not be worth living.

    So all they can do is pretend they’re on top of things and perpetuate this fiction that the ALP are stopping the ‘economic reform’ they claim to be undertaking. Just run a PR war and see if it does anything. And keep scrubbing up that 2014 Budget and re-presenting it as if anyone could seriously consider it.

    A mildly competent media would tear them to shreds. But we don’t have one of those. So we as citizens are going to have to suffer repeated bouts of the press gallery taking the Liberal Party at their word, against all available evidence and common sense.

    All the ALP have to do at the moment is carry on as normal, present reasonable policy ideas and not get sucked into flame wars with the Turnbull government. And hope that the Greens don’t get too involved, because every time the Greens get involved it’s because they can sniff ALP votes in the offing. It’s what the ALP have been doing for quite some time now, really ever since Abbott first became on the nose. So Shorten won’t find it too hard. He’s already reduced an (in-principle) united Abbott government to a pile of stinking rubble by doing nothing more than being competent. He just has to wait for the rubble to decompose a bit more.

  4. Was the announcement of a plebiscite date last night a case of’ run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes’? Was it a failed attempt to gazump Labor’s plan to put up their own same sex marriage bill? Whatever it was it didn’t work out well. It didn’t get much praise, and by this morning the Libs were in full denial, claiming they never set that date.

    What a mess they have made of what should be a very simple thing. All the stupid bastards have to do is move an amendment to the Marriage Act, just as Howard did when he decided to block same sex marriage. They could make it a conscience vote so the devout Christianists could male their archaic, bigoted views clear, but it would still pass. Parliament could do it in the first week back, and win brownie points for being decisive, but no, they won’t do that. Fizza lacks the guts to take on the loony right wing. He’d rather see his party crash and burn than do that.

    The Liberal Party – coming soon.

    • Except there will be no voice crying “Oh the humanity”. .

      I Could play this song though

      …………… setting sail to the place on the map
      From which no one has ever returned
      Drawn by the promise of the joker and the fool
      By the light of the crosses that burned
      ………….It’s the place where they keep all the darkness you need
      You sail away from the light of the world on this trip, baby
      You will pay tomorrow
      You’re gonna pay tomorrow
      You will pay tomorrow
      …………………………Avarice and greed are gonna drive you over the endless sea
      They will leave you drifting in the shallows

    • They’re having an immense amount of trouble trying not to do something that they promised they would do, especially after elevating a ‘populist’ choice to the leadership who’d been going on for so long about his support of SSM.

      There are parallels with the way in which Turnbull was completely outflanked on the republic issue. Howard just kept redefining the question until he managed to find a form of asking it that Australians couldn’t accept. And then it was never spoken of again. Turnbull’s hoping he can do the same thing with SSM. Delay, obfuscate, procrastinate, until people just stop demanding it.

      His difficulty of course is that, with the republic, the question for Australians was largely a symbolic one. It wasn’t going to affect the way in which people led their day-to-day lives. They’d carry on not caring a fig about how the country was run or who was in charge, and maybe get to choose a flag. This is more personal, so people aren’t going to stop being engaged. It won’t just ‘go away’.

      What we’re seeing here is further proof that Turnbull is no politician, he doesn’t know how to handle matters of national importance, or how to work national sentiment to his advantage. He sort of gets the mechanics of it – the tools he has at his disposal – but that’s about the same as someone knowing what the keys on the piano are named, and what a chord is, and then expecting to produce pleasing sounds because he’s hitting the keys. Or like a Treasurer who’s boned up on the jargon economists use, and then expects to be taken seriously because he can regurgitate it.

      This mess will drag on and on. Turnbull’s committed to saying the opposite of everything that won him his ‘progressive’ reputation in the first place. So if any journalist seriously thinks Turnbull can win back public support or prove and effective leader from here, they should hand their card in.

  5. leonetwo
    August 21, 2016 at 2:41 PM
    Unlike most of our pollies you have used a gracful avatar to add to your post rather than a young cub with the passing of time. I can remember driving “Senator Mal Colston around” as a comcar driver I could hardly recognise him on first pick up, it became easier later. His picture was about 20+ years out of date

    Incidentally is the name Mal/Malcolm a bad omen reminds me of Fraser/Turnbull, they have always been bad’uns
    Whilst for my avatar bilko was born old

    • That’s a very nice thing to say about my avatar – there’s no point me using a young cub, not at my age.

      My favourite uncle was named Malcolm, he was a lovely man, but he was of a different era to the current crop of Malcolms. He would be almost hitting the century now, if he was still with us.

      I think about Malcom Turnbull and Malcolm Roberts, and of course Colston and Fraser, and wonder if the name became cursed somewhere around the 1930s with the curse continuing from there.

    • Names fortunately have nothing to do with personalities. But very few people would call their sons Adolf now, or Benito. I know someone who called his son Napoléon, a good man and a nice family.Many people are called Robert, like Mugabe … It really means nothing. But I think calling your son “Adolf” would be a bad omen …

    • Yet many people have named their sons Joseph (in all its variants), Gigilene, notwithstanding Uncle Joe Stalin.

    • Not sure if entirely true. Malcolm Blight was an AFL football icon winning the highest awards in the game. He was a joy to watch even when you didn’t support his team, mostly because of his derring-do, a willingness to try for the difficult that a percentages person (as most professional sports people are today) would never dare. Eddie Betts is the nearest to him today: a showman in one sense, but exuding a joy in doing the near-impossible.

      He brought the same enthusiasm to coaching. Denis Pagan described coaching against him as “expect the unexpected”. He took charge of a slumbering Geelong club and transformed them into a dashing attacking team, contrasted with the more percentages-playing Hawthorn and West Coast, both of whom had greater depth. He went close to a premiership but finally achieved that (twice) when he returned to his roots in Adelaide. The flair did not hide a sharp mind, and there was calculation in all he did. It took a lot of work to transform Adelaide from a fair-weather type of team into one able to roll with the punches.

      I long admired some of his attitudes to life. The most famous (which I have long adopted) is “You play the cards that are dealt you.” This was to explain why Geelong was such an attacking team. Its most gifted players were their attacking ones and you play to your strengths.

  6. For all lovers of the cello, at 5pm today ABC Classic FM will be broadcasting one of the Beeb Prom’s chamber music concerts recorded four weeks ago.

    Twelve cellos (and cellists) playing works from JS Bach to almost the present day. It should be spectacular.

  7. gigilene

    Names fortunately have nothing to do with personalities.

    In theory yes but they can be a definite marker/flag of their social background and hence upbringing .. Went to school with a chappie whose parents gave him the xtian names “Charles Caesar Augustus”. I’m guessing most people’s blind guess about his character would be not too far off the mark. 🙂 Now as for the young chappie given xtian names of “Koady Diezel Jaxxon ” 🙂

  8. In some cases, once given a certain special name, parents want you to live up to that name, and as you grow up you continue to live up to it …

    We’ve given our son a lovely name of both a Saint and a composer … He hasn’t become either. He’s just himself.

  9. I was just listening to the abc and apparently they are now calling Father’s Day –

    Wait for it ———————– Hismas (no it’s not a spelling mistake).

    W – T – F.

  11. Gigilene (& Kaffeeklatscher),

    once given a certain special name, parents want you to live up to that name

    Those familiar with the works of Agatha Christie may remember one Alexander Bonaparte Cust, hero(?) of The ABC Murders.

  13. Has Trump heard of payday lenders or maybe hanging around just near the Athenaeum Club in Collins St in the most liveable city and Turnbull could present (with camera’s) and pull out another fistful for a RW mate?

    Trump’s maze of debts and opaque ties
    The Sydney Morning Herald‎ – 13 hours ago
    An investigation reveals Donald Trump’s real estate holdings have at least $US650 million …

    • (Sorry the link above didn’t transport.)
      In relation to street beggars, previously I would drop $5 in a tin at the feet of a squatting, dirty, derelict looking beggar/cum pen & ink artist not far from where Turnbull made his recent Melbourne CBD charitable donation.
      I always thought it strange that my beggar would never acknowledge me the next time I walked pass and slipped him $5. Also it was strange that he merely posed with pen and card but never seemed to do any actual art.
      Then I found out that he lived in South Yarra, caught the train to ‘work’ whilst chewing on chocolate and reading the Herald Sun and smoked even when he was using his mobile phone!

      Subsequently, about 2 years ago he cheekily moved his workplace to the front door of Myer in the Bourke St Mall.
      An infrequent visitor to the CBD these days but I happened upon the ‘beggar’ a few weeks ago still outside Myer and I couldn’t help myself. (He was now confirmed as a scammer as he now was clean, wore new clothes and now sported a long blonde wig!)
      I congratulated him on his attire and asked him where he parked his BMW.

      He loved my interaction and grinningly agreed. He was now so cocky he didn’t even pretend.
      Mugs (like me previously) are still however donating.

  16. I’ve got the local time warp radio station on atm and they are featuring the Beatles album Revolver, why? Because it was released 50 years ago. you heard 50 years ago, that’s half a century! Far out man.

  17. Bananas playing another blinder

    Tim Wright, Asia-Pacific director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican), said it was thought that Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, instructed her diplomats to disrupt the international gathering late on Friday afternoon by forcing a vote. While others then joined Australia to vote against the report, Australia was alone in forcing the vote to happen.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/21/australia-attempts-to-derail-un-plan-to-ban-nuclear-weapons#comments

  18. For Sale: The World’s First $1+ Billion Dollar House

    Exactly two years ago, we reported about what we dubbed at the time was “absolute bubble insanity” – a double skyscraper called the Tour Odeon, located in the French Riviera, which would house a 3,300 square-meter (35,500 square-foot) penthouse with a water slide connecting a dance floor to a circular open-air swimming pool. While the description was nice, it was the bottom line that was mindblowing: that appartment was priced to sell for more than 300 million euros ($400 million at the time) when it went to market the following year. That made it the world’s most expensive penthouse, according to broker Knight Frank LLP.

    And while we don’t know if and at what price the Odeon’s penthouse ended up selling for, we did predict that it was only a matter of time before this nearly half a billion price tag would be eclipsed by a full, round billion.

    Two years later, the forecast has come true: as the Mail reports, the most expensive house in the world has been offered for sale at a price of over €1billion ($1.1 billion), located yet again in the south of France. The address in the billionaire’s playground of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Les Cedres, is owned by Suzanne Marnier-Lapostolle, a member of the Grand Marnier dynasty who is supposedly seeking to “downsize.”

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-20/sale-worlds-first-1-billion-dollar-house

  19. American jets scramble against Syrian aircraft bombing Kurdish rebels

    n a move starkly pointing to the risk of all-out war between the major powers in the Middle East, the US military said yesterday that it had scrambled fighter jets Thursday against government bombers inside Syria to protect US Special Forces operating with Kurdish “rebel” militias.

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime sent two Su-24 bombers to bomb Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) forces advancing on government-held positions in the city of Hasakah. The bombers nearly hit US Special Forces troops that are deployed illegally in Syria, embedded in the YPG. US officials tried to contact Syrian government and Russian forces operating in the region, and Russian officials replied that their bombers were not involved.

    The US fighter planes arrived after the Syrian bombers had left the area, and no US soldiers were injured. Washington then stepped up its air patrols in the region. Yesterday, Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis warned of military action against any threat to US forces.

    Washington, he said, would “take whatever action is necessary” to protect US Special Forces in Syria. “We will ensure their safety,” he continued, “and the Syrian regime would be well advised not to do things that place them at risk… We view instances that place the coalition at risk with utmost seriousness and we do have the inherent right of self defense.”

    Davis also criticized the Assad government for suddenly attacking the YPG, which until recently served as its de facto ally against CIA-backed Islamist militias. “This is very unusual, we have not seen the regime take this type of action against YPG before,” he said.

    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/08/20/kurd-a20.html

  21. Decades-long cover-up of “black lung” among Australian miners

    A report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s “7.30” program last Monday indicated that authorities knew of black lung cases among coal miners in Queensland before last year’s official “rediscovery” of the disease.

    Coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, also termed black lung, results from the accumulation of dust particles in the lung, leading to scarring and inflammation. The incurable condition can cause chronic bronchitis, lung failure, scleroderma and heart problems. In severe cases, the disease ends in an excruciatingly painful death.

    “7.30” stated that Queensland Workers Compensation data, obtained by the program under freedom of information legislation, showed four compensation claims for the disease between 2007 and 2012. One claim was reportedly approved, while another is pending.

    According to the program, a Queensland Health audit of public records showed four possible and seven probable instances of black lung between 1995 and 2015.

    Safe Work Australia, the statutory authority responsible for health and safety across the country, had also identified two compensation claims for the disease in New South Wales and one in Western Australia. It was not clear whether the claims were from workers who had been employed in the state, or they had moved from Queensland.

    The revelations point to a cover-up by successive Labor and Liberal-National Queensland state governments, regulatory authorities and mining companies. For three decades, they claimed the disease had been eradicated in the state.

    <url.http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/08/20/lung-a20.html

  22. Italian imam posts photo of nuns on beach to discuss burqini ban, gets FB account blocked

    The imam of Florence has posted a picture of habit-wearing nuns splashing along the seashore on Facebook, calling for dialogue about burqini bans… but got his account blocked instead.

    The post by Izzedin Elzir got some 2,700 shares, and came in response to the French southern cities – like Cannes and Nice – prohibiting the wearing of burqinis on the beach.

    The day after the imam published his post, he awoke to find his account blocked.

    “It’s incomprehensible. I have to send them an ID document to reactivate it. They wanted to make sure it’s my account – it’s a very strange procedure,” the indignant imam told La Repubblica.

    On Friday, his account was back in, and the imam said he hopes it wasn’t blocked because of the picture, as it urges dialogue, and “we live in a society of law and freedom.”

    He also noted that the burqini had only come into fashion among Muslim women over the past few years, and he expressed regret that “some politicians in France, instead of responding to the political and economic needs of their citizens, are focusing on how Muslims dress.”

    https://www.rt.com/news/356585-italy-burqini-nuns-imam/

  23. Three Palestinian children in Ofer prison imprisoned without charge or trial

    Three Palestinian children are currently held in Ofer prison without charge or trial under administrative detention: Ahmed Nimer, Louay Nairoukh and Hamzeh al-Silwadi. They are among 750 Palestinians held without charge or trial under administrative detention orders, which are indefinitely renewable; as of April 2016, 13 children were imprisoned in administrative detention. There are approximately 350 total Palestinian children under the age of 18 currently imprisoned in Israeli jails.

    Nearly all Palestinian children arrested by Israeli occupation forces are subject to physical or psychological torture, including threats against family members, kicking and hitting and other forms of abuse…

    Palestinian children can be held up to 90 days under interrogation, and are more frequently subjected to solitary confinement in an attempt to induce confessions under interrogation. “Israeli authorities apparently use isolation to create a psychologically compelling situation for the child detainee, and then vulnerability increases when access to legal counsel is denied,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Accountability Program director at Defence for Children International Palestine. “The practice of using solitary confinement on children, for any duration, is a clear violation of international law, as it amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and in some cases, torture.”

    http://samidoun.net/2016/08/three-palestinian-children-in-ofer-prison-imprisoned-without-charge-or-trial/

  24. US Senator: “There’s an American Imprint on Every Civilian Life Lost in Yemen”

    A US Senator slammed his country’s administration over bombing civilians in Yemen, warning that Washington’s support for Riyadh’s war would have consequence on the US national security.

    The Saudis are the ones dropping the bombs, but “there’s an American imprint on every civilian life lost in Yemen,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday.

    US Senator Chris Murphy”If you talk Yemenis, they will tell you, this is not perceived to be a Saudi bombing campaign. This is perceived to be a US bombing campaign. What’s happening is that we are helping to radicalize the Yemeni population against the United States.” Murphy called that “terrible for us right now.”

    A Saudi air strike on Tuesday hit a hospital in Yemen, killing 19 people. The US-supported Saudi air campaign against Yemen began in March 2015.

    Rights groups and UN agencies say around 9,000 people have been killed in the conflict. The fighting has intensified since peace talks in Kuwait collapsed earlier this month.

    Murphy said the Saudis couldn’t fight the war without US help: “It’s our munitions, sold to the Saudis; it’s our planes that are refueling the Saudi jets; and it’s our intelligence that is helping the Saudis (with) their targeting.”

    http://english.almanar.com.lb/adetails.php?eid=282797&cid=18&fromval=1&frid=18&seccatid=56&s1=1

  25. Jennifer Rubin: Hillary Must Stop Peace With Iran at All Costs!

    After anxiously and incessantly angling for a hardcore neoconservative to take the Republican presidential nomination, the Washington Post’s online blogger Jennifer Rubin has made the long journey home. Rebuffed by Republican voters who selected Donald Trump as their candidate, Rubin’s gunpowder breath is now desperately seeking Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s ear.

    Her message? This damned Iran deal is improving US/Iran relations and that is completely intolerable. “Hillary: Please bomb something over there,” Rubin screeches, in her latest installment of the neocon chronicles.

    Why is Rubin so hot and bothered? Well, Secretary of State John Kerry has dared to encourage some business investment in Iran after the nuclear deal has begun paying dividends in more stable relations. Doing business is always preferable to sanctions and blockades because it makes war less likely. Each side has too much to lose when there are economic interests at stake so each side will act with more caution. As when a Chinese incident with a US spy plane led the damaged US plane to land in China — both sides realized that economic relations were sufficiently important that the potentially volatile situation needed to be carefully walked back from the brink of conflict.

    http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/neocon-watch/2016/august/18/jennifer-rubin-hillary-must-stop-peace-with-iran-at-all-costs/

  26. Syrian Army: PKK Provocations Unacceptable, Required Response

    The General Command of the Syrian Army and Armed Forces said that the Asayish, the military wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party, has recently escalated its provocative actions in Hasaka city, attacking state establishments, stealing oil and cotton, disrupting examinations, carrying out abductions, and causing a state of chaos and instability, SANA reported.

    In a statement on Friday, the General Command said that these actions took a more dangerous turn as the Asayish encircled Hasaka city, shelled it with artillery and tanks, and targeted Syrian Arab Army positions in it, claiming the lives of a number of military personnel and civilians.

    The General Command said that the Asayish did not respond to all the attempts that were made to contain the situation and restore security and stability to the city; instead they persisted in carrying out their crimes in a bid to seize control of the city, which required the a suitable response by Syrian Arab Army as it targeted the sources of artillery fire and the gatherings of armed elements responsible for these criminal actions.

    The statement clarified that the recurring attacks on citizens and the Syrian Arab Army are carried out exclusively by the Asayish and are not related to any specific Syrian component, affirming at the same time that it will respond to any such attack by any side and exert efforts to prevent the situation from escalating in order to preserve Syria’s territorial integrity and the safety of Syrian citizens.

    http://english.almanar.com.lb/adetails.php?eid=282809&cid=23&fromval=1&frid=23&seccatid=20&s1=1</url.

  28. Back a bit there was talk about given names defining character. I came to know a bloke named Franco Benito Adolph C###. . His father must have been a great bloke! Benny, as he was known to his friends, was a major drug dealer about 30 years ago. I think someone shot him dead.

  30. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.

    The ABS is now coming the “any publicity is good publicity” line. Next thing they’ll call it a masterstroke.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/silver-lining-uncovered-in-census-shambles-20160821-gqxpin.html
    Urban Wronski says the government without a moral rudder is drowning by numbers.
    https://urbanwronski.com/2016/08/21/turnbull-government-drowning-by-numbers/
    Further ramping up on the call for a banking Royal Commission from Labor.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/australias-rich-food-and-lolly-history-seen-in-150yearold-nestle-archives-20160819-gqwqdm.html
    And now the rapacious behaviour of power companies comes very much under the Senate spotlight. Go get ’em!
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/labor-takes-aim-at-banks-and-power-companies-over-paper-bill-rort-20160820-gqx9lx.html
    Labor and The Greens slam the delay in the SSM plebiscite.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/another-broken-promise-labor-and-greens-attack-gay-marriage-plebiscite-delay-20160821-gqxke3.html
    Terri Butler’s interview on the subject yesterday was very good.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/marriage-equality-plebiscite-no-fait-accompli-says-labor-shadow-minister-20160821-gqxo9u.html
    Ross Gittins – there IS a better path to growth.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/preachers-of-innovation-should-start-by-healing-themselves-20160820-gqx9v0.html
    In a similar vein The Chifley Institute says it’s time to forget about trickle down economics. Well worth reading. Google.
    /news/economy/chifley-research-centre-sees-inequality-at-heart-of-policy-reform-20160821-gqxixt
    Trump’s maze of debts and opaque lies. Master business man? Pffft!
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/trumps-maze-of-debts-and-opaque-ties-20160821-gqxiqr.html
    Architect Philip Cox says that if you take the Harbour away Sydney is a “pretty ratshit city”. Google.
    /news/economy/chifley-research-centre-sees-inequality-at-heart-of-policy-reform-20160821-gqxixt
    ACOSS hits out at the government of the impending reduction of a $4 per week supplement for the poorest recipients of welfare payments.
    http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/welfare-groups-plead-with-pm-keep-4-a-week-payment-for-poorest-australians-20160821-gqxo0k.html
    Woolworths’ magnificent management is likely to announce a $1b loss.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/woolworths-tipped-to-report-heavy-loss-on-back-of-restructuring-masters-exit-20160821-gqxomp.html

  31. Section 2 . . .

    Is this another indication of the “productivity” ideology.
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/older-experienced-drivers-dying-on-nsw-roads-20160820-gqx86a.html
    The key to children’s success is to improve their wellbeing. The item that is missing from school reports.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/want-to-improve-school-results-improve-students-wellbeing-20160817-gquc2d.html
    Nick Xenophon proposes that the RBA should replace its inflation target with one about growth. Abd he’s not alone.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/nick-xenophon-leads-push-to-axe-inflation-target-amid-change-at-reserve-bank-20160821-gqxk2i.html
    Is it time to re-evaluate our obsession with the Olympic Games?
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-editorial/olympic-ideal-diminished-veneer-cracked-20160821-gqxk2y.html
    Will new One Nation senator, Culleton, be forced into bankruptcy and lose his seat? Google.
    /national-affairs/legal-tangles-risk-felling-one-nation-crusader-rod-culleton/news-story/e0ea454aa0e5e00800b28f874c81e452
    An auction frenzy after the latest interest rate cut has put the heat on the RBA. Google.
    /real-estate/residential/nsw/auction-surge-lights-property-boom-fears-20160821-gqxo0p
    A Port Adelaide fan shows her class. The responses from both clubs and the victim also showed theirs.
    http://www.smh.com.au/afl/eddie-betts-targeted-by-port-adelaide-supporter-with-racial-vilification-20160820-gqxi1c.html
    Lawyer Tm Dick writes that Pauling Hanson should be worries about Christianity’s decline rather than Islam’s growth.
    http://www.smh.com.au/afl/eddie-betts-targeted-by-port-adelaide-supporter-with-racial-vilification-20160820-gqxi1c.html
    Peter Wicks with an alternative to Hanson’s Royal Commission into Islam.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/royal-commission-into-islam-no-lets-have-one-into-religious-intolerance,9382
    An interesting Australian history through lollies.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/australias-rich-food-and-lolly-history-seen-in-150yearold-nestle-archives-20160819-gqwqdm.html

  33. This burkini thing – this is going to be a longish rant, because I’ve had enough and I’m cranky.

    I really wish old men would stop telling women what they can and can’t wear.

    What’s wrong with wearing a burkini at the beach? Nigella Lawson wore one on Bondi beach a few years ago and no-one arrested her. She did cop a lot of criticism from the anti-Muslim lot, but her reason was simple. She was protecting her English rose complexion from the Australian sun. Plus, of course, she was getting herself a lot of media attention. Clever girl!
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2542094/The-truth-THAT-Burkini-Nigella-said-picked-bizarre-head-toe-swimsuit-Saatchi-liked-women-pale.html

    Parents around the world dress little boys and girls in neck-to-knee or even neck-to-ankle lycra suits, often with long sleeves, plus sunhats, for the beach. Some even go to the extent of little lycra shoes (allegedly so their tiny feet will be protected from stray syringes in the sand) saying we are protecting them from future skin cancer. No-one ever suggests that these children are odd, or look like Muslims, or risk drowning by covering up in the sun. Their parents are praised for taking such elaborate care of their little darlings.

    When the same little kids become teenagers boys are still allowed to cover up and can wear knee-length shorts and T-shirts, but are mocked if they wear Speedos. But society decides girls should be wearing bikinis, no shoes and no hats. If they want to keep the neck-to-knee stuff society tells them they are odd, or must have leanings towards Islam. Why else would they want to cover up and deny dirty old men a chance to perve at their almost naked nubile bodies? Women are supposed to show skin, a lot of skin at the beach while men are not. Skin cancer? Who cares. Just slap on some more sunscreen, darling, you will be fine.

    But a Muslim woman decides to wear a burkini to the beach and all hell breaks loose. It’s just not allowed. Governments and councils make laws saying the woman, who as a child was possibly encouraged to cover up, must now expose her body whether she wants to or not, or face arrest and charges.

    Could someone explain to me why this –

    is considered appropriate beachwear for children, and is encouraged and praised while this –

    is considered inappropriate, is banned and women wearing it are arrested? Because I really can’t see any difference.

    Humans are strange. Shouldn’t we be demanding young women cover up on the beach? After all, when a young woman is attacked and raped during a night out we say it must be because she was wearing a short skirt, or a low-cut top, and in doing that she encouraged the attention of her attacker. If only women would dress more modestly, we sigh, then they would be safe. Men, it seems, are unable to control their primeval urges when confronted by too much bare female flesh, we must help the poor things to be more restrained.

    But a young woman does decide to dress modestly for the beach by wearing a burkini and what happens? The same society that tells her she needs to cover up so men will not be driven wild by her bare legs now tells her she is wearing far too much, covering up far too much skin. If she insists on covering up and dressing modestly she gets arrested, she is told her outfit is unhygenic, she is told it would hamper her rescue should she get into difficulties in the water. She must take it off and wear ‘proper’ swimwear if she wants to swim. What about that thing about avoiding rape by not dressing provocatively? It seems that does not apply to the beach, or the pool. Men, it seems, can control their urges when surrounded by throngs of almost naked female bodies, it’s only when they are faced with one female in a mini-skirt or a low-cut top they lose control. How ridiculous is that? What we really mean is ‘you look like a Muslim and we hate Muslims’.

    Just stop telling women what they can wear! It isn’t Muslim men forcing their women to cover up with hijabs, burqas and burkinis, it’s not a sign these women are oppressed by their menfolk. Quite the opposite. There is no instruction in the Quran requiring Muslim women to wear these things.
    http://www.quran-islam.org/articles/part_3/the_burqa_(P1357).html

    The laws in some predominantly Muslim countries requiring women to cover up in public are made by misogynist old men. In Australia, and in France, and in other places where until now there have been no such laws Muslim women can choose what they wear in public, just like women choose flat shoes over stiletto heels, or choose longer skirts over shorter ones. It’s called freedom. I thought we were all for freedom. It seems not. We now have law-makers in France telling women they must not wear hijabs, or burqas, or birkinis simply because they want to teach their people to fear and hate anyone who is ‘other’. If right-wing nutters like Hanson have their way we will have such laws in Australia soon too.

    • It is just part of the anti-Islamic thing. I fully agree with Leone. I haven’t followed this chatter or whatever it is, but I’m very surprised that anyone other than the nutters is bothered. It actually looked quite good on the pic Leone ran. And nobody turned a hair when Cathy Freeman wore her full length outfit in the Sydney Olympics. Perhaps it helps if you’re a winner. They tried to make a fuss over her having an Aboriginal flag, while not recognising the hypocrisy in having a Boxing Kangaroo flag.

      In the Philippines, after three centuries of Spanish occupation, certain customs on the modesty of women had become accepted. Swimwear showed too much of the body, especially the legs. So although they’d usually have the latest swimwear for bathing, they’d invariably wear a dress, sometimes a longish skirt, over the bathing costume.

      To me it seemed absurd, but it is their country and choice. So we just accepted it as the norm. I don’t see that we have a right to be offended or to demand that others do as we urge.

    • Non-Muslims flock to buy burkinis as French bans raise profile of the modest swimwear style

      Over the past eight years, Aheda Zanetti​ has sold 700,000 swimsuits to clients all over the world. Her designs, costing from $80 to $200, are sought out from Norway to Israel and are each made in Villawood, western Sydney.

      Zanetti is the Australian inventor of the burkini and the swimsuits she sells under the label Ahiida are full body, hooded and inspired by Islamic modesty.

      But what is particularly interesting about Ahiida, which now finds itself in the crosshairs of controversial French rules banning the garment on the basis of secularism laws, is that 45 per cent of its clients, Zanetti estimates, are non-Muslims.

      “This is about choice,” says Zanetti, who hails from Lebanon and moved to Bankstown when she was two. “The burkini stands for freedom, flexibility and confidence, it does not stand for misery, torture and terror.”

      http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/news-and-views/news-features/nonmuslims-flock-to-buy-burkinis-as-french-bans-raise-profile-of-the-modest-swimwear-style-20160819-gqwx95.html

  34. Irony?

    The minister for human services, Alan Tudge, has said there is still public support for offshore detention in the wake of the Nauru files published by Guardian Australia.

    Asked by Paul Kelly on Sky News if he believed “given the revelations in recent weeks that there is still public support for offshore detention”, Tudge responded: “I still think there is public support for our strong border protection regime which as you know consists of three parts.

    “Turning back the boats when it’s safe to do so, offshore detention and temporary protection visas.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/21/offshore-detention-still-has-support-after-nauru-files-says-coalition-minister

    Our “border protection scheme”, like Gaul of old, now has three parts.

    • Do they write their own Key Performance Indicators or, nudge nudge wink wink, does Mr Egan do that for them?

  38. Quick HI Update

    Do they write their own Key Performance Indicators or, nudge nudge wink wink, does Mr Egan do that for them?

    Her Indoors’ Key Performance Indicators are:

    * Do no work,
    * Get paid (including pay rise increments, accrued annual leave, allocated days off, superannuation etc.),

    Still ongoing, but we haven’t heard a peep out of them for 13 weeks, when they wrote, telling us it would all be over… in 1 week.

    We are starting to think they’ve forgotten about us, or we are in the “Too Hard” basket, or both. We’ve now been paid more than a full FWA/IRC settlement of 26 weeks would have achieved (we are now at 43 weeks paid and/or accrued, and counting), so I guess we can’t complain. It’s a sort-of “win”, at least financially.

    Terrible waste of public money, though. We could have registered and insured both our cars 50 times over with the money they’ve paid out to HI for doing absolutely nothing.

    Case Studies
    On wasting money… One of the accusations against HI was that she nearly over-spent $10 on a sandwich plate order by miscalculating the GST on fresh food (she forgot there’s no GST on fresh fruit).

    On wasting time… Incredibly, another was that she was a “poor communicator”, by not writing to “stakeholders” in a timely manner (she was 2 hours late).

    You could almost weep at the hypocrisy of these people.

    • Salt away the pay because chances are this is her last paid job. Not fair, I know! The emotional bruising of this process will be leaving scars to say nothing of professional reputation and most employers shy away from hiring problems

  39. i was going to get one of those burkini things so i could swim in the sea without being burnt to a crisp by sunburn, But what about this…

  41. Murdoch Rags

    they are not worth reading even at half price and dont mention the freebies in public areas, all rubbish IMHO

  43. Alan Tudge – such an unfortunate surname. I’d have changed it at the first opportunity, if I’d been saddled with a name that rhymes with ‘sludge’ ‘trudge’ and ‘drudge’.

  46. Salt away the pay because chances are this is her last paid job. Not fair, I know!

    Oh, we are.

    The Industrial Relations Commission rulings are choc-a-bloc with trashed workers rights, orders ignored by the Public Service, then appealed by them as a time-wasting process, then lapsed, because the employee went broke trying to fight them and employer intransigence, plus outright bastardry.

    And that’s before I even get to nit-picking judges in cahoots with cynical lawyers wrecking people’s lives with technical minutiae… even when the workers won their case, they lost.

    So, yes, this is the last throw of the dice… when they deign to contact us, that is (which they haven’t done for 3 months).

  47. Starting to get excited at my Tassie holiday! Will get car serviced and safety check done this week. Next Tuesday will head to niece’s place and spend the night there then we head off the next day. Get to Horsham, have a spot to eat and stretch the legs etc, then through the Grampians to the Great Ocean Rd. Stay there overnight then down the GO Rd to Melbourne and the Spirit of Tasmania dock, onto the ferry and to Tassie. Angrybee has sent me a Encyclopedia Brittanica about Tassie so plenty to see, do and eat.

    Hope to find a block of land I like in the Tamar Valley and put a bid on it. Apart from that—a great holiday!

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