785 thoughts on “It aint all bad”

  3. I must have the wrong version of Hansard

    Malcolm Turnbull says Australia has a renewable energy target now because of decisions Tony Abbott took as prime minister, and he claims the Coalition is “united” in ensuring that Australians have affordable and reliable energy.

    Turnbull’s sideswipe at Abbott followed the former prime minister declaring in an interview with his former staffer Peta Credlin, and the Sydney shock jock Alan Jones, that it would be “unconscionable … to go further down the renewables path” by implementing a clean energy target.

    Campaigning in Brisbane amid speculation the Labor government in Queensland will shortly call a state election, and facing sustained questioning about Abbott leading a backbench revolt against energy policy, Turnbull said he did not intend to run a commentary on other people’s remarks.

    But he said the renewable energy target “was amended and legislated in 2015, while Tony was prime minister”.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/sep/20/malcolm-turnbull-says-energy-target-legislated-while-tony-was-prime-minister

  4. Silenced? The “No” Side Is Getting Four Times The Media Coverage Of The “Yes” Side
    Exclusive: Media analysis provided to BuzzFeed News shows the “no” side in the marriage equality debate is getting a lot more media attention than the “yes” side.
    https://www.buzzfeed.com/joshtaylor/silenced-the-no-side-is-getting-four-times-the-media?utm_term=.rjrWQGgW3#.hmKnxmzno

    The chap in the comments who says he strongly supports the ‘no’ vote – he lives in New Zealand. Who cares what he thinks. He won’t be voting. (Took about 30 seconds worth of sleuthing to find that information.)

    • YES only has one message: the NO has so many to be drooled over. Religious thingies are at risk! Freedom of speech! Child molestation!

      The final “vote” can be what it is but marriage equality will gain the day. Sooner rather than later.

  9. From my email inbox –

    Guardian_logoheader
    Hello,

    A few months ago Nick Xenophon approached me and the editors of other smaller independent and regional media companies with a reasonable question.

    If the senator was to back the government’s plan to scrap rules protecting diversity of media ownership in Australia, paving the way for mergers that would increase the power of the biggest media companies, what could he propose to make sure smaller players were not squeezed out of the market?

    That plan passed the Senate last week, with a small and regional media fund negotiated by Xenophon. Most in the media are welcoming it. The Greens and Labor say he gave away media diversity protections far too cheaply. It certainly wasn’t what we suggested – we were arguing for tax breaks to encourage philanthropic donations for public interest journalism like those available in the US. Nor was it what Xenophon originally proposed. He says it was the best he could get.

    But all three parties condemn the government’s insistence that Guardian Australia be excluded entirely, a demand Xenophon attributes to “blind ideology”. This small element of the media deal required some big legislative contortions to implement, revealing a lot about the backroom processes along the way.

    The government argued, quite correctly, that the existing media rules were outdated. But abolishing even a technologically outdated ban on owning a television and radio station and a newspaper in the same region – and replacing it with far less onerous restrictions – obviously risks worsening the concentration of media ownership in what is already one of the most concentrated media markets in the world.

    Asked about this last year, the government cited the existence of new Australian media companies, such as Guardian Australia, as evidence that media diversity was just fine. If the existence of our four-year-old Australian company was a justification for scrapping media diversity rules so the biggest print and television companies could better cope with the media industry’s revenue crisis, it seemed reasonable for Xenophon to ask how smaller players, including us, could be helped to manage exactly the same pressures.

    At least 2,500 journalism jobs have disappeared in Australia over the past six years, according to the journalists’ union, the MEAA. Social media platforms like Google and Facebook have morphed from technology companies into publishers, swallowing most of the digital advertising revenue that once kept traditional media companies afloat.

    The government had to do a series of deals with the Senate crossbench to get the changes through. The most disturbing was with Pauline Hanson – who thinks all public funding for public broadcasting is a “slush fund” and ABC balance would be best demonstrated by exposing the “hoax” of global warming – to establish an inquiry into whether the ABC is competing too successfully with its commercial rivals.

    When Fifield came to do the side-deal with Xenophon, the minister had a non-negotiable condition. It could not apply to Guardian Australia. He’d cited us as a reason that media concentration was no longer a problem, but now he singled us out for exclusion from a package protecting diversity. After long argument, Xenophon agreed.

    “The government’s position was that the Guardian Australia’s parent entity was foreign and therefore would not qualify. I do not believe this is relevant. What is relevant is that Australian news stories and analysis are being produced by Australian journalists,” Xenophon said.

    “The Hobson’s choice I faced was to lose the $60m package of measures I negotiated for small and regional publishers.

    “I fear that there was narrow, blinkered ideology at play on the part of some Coalition backbenchers and some crossbenchers … You have to ask whether blind ideology, yet again, got in the way of sensible public policy.”

    Privately, the government was frank, the “foreign parent company” veto was aimed at Guardian Australia, something that became evident when they selectively waived it for other media groups in last-minute negotiations.

    Such a veto didn’t apply when the government gave $30m to Foxtel during earlier media law wheeling and dealing, with the vague purpose of broadcasting more women’s sport and little or no documentation. Foxtel, of course, is half-owned by News Corp Australia, another Australian company with a foreign parent, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

    Fifield confirmed to the Senate that News Corp would fail the new foreign-based parent entity “control test” established as a criteria for the three-year Xenophon fund. But News Corp-owned regional media did want some of the $8m the fund allocated to help employ trainee journalists, so for that part of the Xenophon deal the criteria became convoluted.

    If you are a small metropolitan news organisation with a foreign parent company – like, say, Guardian Australia – you do have to meet the control test and are therefore ineligible, but if you are a regional media organisation with a foreign parent company, like News Corp regionals, the control test is suddenly waived.

    The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, concluded it was “hard to escape the conclusion that this was done for anything other than political reasons.”

    If the package was really intended to encourage more Australian journalism, there are arguments for Guardian Australia’s inclusion. We employ 80 Australians across our commercial and editorial operations, jobs that didn’t exist four years ago. Our structure means we have no proprietors or shareholders to pay, so every dollar of revenue we earn in Australia is invested in Australian journalism. We can never do as much as we would like, but with seven Walkley awards, numerous scoops and a unique monthly audience of 2.8 million readers, we’re doing OK.

    If the government’s objection was really about providing assistance to Australian companies with a foreign parent company, why selectively waive that rule for some?

    At the end of this saga, the ABC and SBS face an inquiry that could dramatically curb their journalism and the big players will be able to merge and and better cope with reductions in advertising revenue, but this is also highly likely to increase our already extreme levels of media ownership concentration.

    Regional papers will get a much-needed benefit and some of our smaller commercial competitors such as Crikey, the Monthly and the Saturday Paper will receive up to $1m a year from Xenophon’s fund. All power to their pens. We want independent journalism to thrive.

    As for us, we’ll keep doing what we’ve done from the start – the very best Australian journalism that we can. If you value our independent Australian journalism, the kind of journalism the government seems to want less of, we’re relying on you now more than ever.

    Warm regards,

    Lenore Taylor
    Editor
    Guardian Australia

  12. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.

    Mark Kenny concludes that Turnbull will never be conservative enough for his nemesis, Tony Abbott.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/big-bang-theory-abbott-still-drowning-out-turnbulls-sales-pitch-20170920-gyl0i4.html
    Peter Martin applies the concept of the cost accounting Death Spiral to power prices and it’s a bit frightening!
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/why-electricity-prices-are-set-to-climb-ever-higher-20170919-gykx0w.html
    As the RBA hints at interest rate rises are we facing a huge debt bomb? Google.
    /markets/equity-markets/interest-rate-rises-to-trigger-16trn-debt-bomb-20170920-gykyps
    Meanwhile the nation needs to pull the trigger on gas supply to lower prices or face factory closures and job losses, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims has warned.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/consequences-of-gov-not-acting-on-energy-are-dire-sims-said-20170920-gyky4l.html
    More on this from David Crowe who says “Australian factories are at risk of shutting down and sacking workers as the nation’s gas exporters starve local customers in favour of overseas clients, according to a dire warning from the competition watchdog that clears the way for a gas crackdown.” Google.
    national-affairs/gas-exports-starve-local-firms-jobs-accc/news-story/8b18e143e42753b0eb45575d38e7f50f
    Michelle Grattan says that even in today’s often bizarre political environment, Tuesday night’s encounter between Tony Abbott, Peter Credlin and Alan Jones on Sky News was surreal. It’s getting even worse now for the government she says.
    https://theconversation.com/abbotts-disruption-is-raising-the-question-where-will-it-end-84396
    Paul Kelly issues a word of warning to Abbott over his contrarian position on energy, saying that there is no magic silver bullet and that renewable energy is only a minor issue in the scheme of things. Google.
    /opinion/columnists/paul-kelly/reality-check-for-abbott-no-silver-bullet-in-a-war-on-renewables/news-story/f6a2c0f90c0fe9ab40651531a8567edb
    Eryk Bagshaw reports that the global economy has reached a turning point, the Reserve Bank says, on the same day as the OECD has lifted its forecast for global growth thanks to a co-ordinated economic recovery.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/reserve-bank-economy-has-reached-a-turning-point-20170920-gyl4yo.html
    David Uren writes that coal is virtually unbankable and the fact there has not been a go-ahead for any new coal-fired power station in Australia for 15 years tells us there is a problem. Either the demand is not there, the numbers don’t stack up or the risks are too great. Google.
    opinion/it-is-unbankable-so-coals-future-has-gone-up-in-smoke/news-story/05429b55a6c8d44b9c607b48e7116bdc

  13. Section 2 . . .

    Why AGL reckons we should get over the fixation on baseload power. And to separate “dispatchable” from “baseload”. Google.
    /opinion/drilling-down-why-agl-energy-reckons-we-need-to-get-over-baseload-fixation-20170919-gykvh4
    An interesting contribution from John Warhurst in which he talks about the SSM debate pitching peers against peers.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/samesex-marriage-survey-the-minicampaigns-pitting-peers-against-peers-20170920-gyl3yy.html
    Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte says he has ordered police to kill his eldest son if they can prove he is involved in smuggling or drug trafficking. WTF!!
    http://www.smh.com.au/world/philippine-president-rodrigo-duterte-orders-police-to-kill-eldest-son-paolo-if-drug-smuggling-rumours-are-true-20170920-gyllmv.html
    A fast-growing outbreak on the Mornington Peninsula of a mysterious flesh-eating ulcer, previously largely confined to the developing world, has the health department puzzled and deeply concerned.
    http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/mysterious-flesheating-ulcer-at-epidemic-levels-in-mornington-peninsula-20170920-gyl2kf.html
    What’s happening to guns in Australia? The most recent annual survey, based on data from 2014, shows a steady rise in gun imports between 2011 and 2014, despite the strict gun laws introduced across the nation after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/australia-ranked-as-one-of-the-worlds-major-small-arm-importers-and-exporters-20170918-gyjqvt.html
    Despite the Federal Government’s talk of “caring for the carers”, the reality is a massive hole in aged care policy, where private aged care operators are financially rewarded and family carers ignored.
    https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/no-respite-for-carers-of-the-aged,10736
    Nick O’Malley takes a close look at the dangerous and influential Trump speechwriter, Stephen Miller.
    http://www.smh.com.au/world/the-young-nationalist-helping-to-shape-trumps-words-and-deeds-20170920-gyl722.html
    Serial fibber, the NSW Liberal MP Felicity Wilson, has her fibs come home to roost.
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/mp-felicity-wilson-faces-threat-from-branch-tell-us-where-you-lived-or-lose-support-20170920-gyl27u.html
    A Middle Eastern crime gang is suspected of carrying out $11 million worth of insurance fraud involving staged car accidents and faked injuries. A 43-year-old solicitor and two men posing as physiotherapists, aged 30 and 31, were arrested on Wednesday, accused of playing roles in the scam. Charming!
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/solicitor-pair-posing-as-physiotherapists-arrested-over-sydney-insurance-scam-20170920-gylfs3.html

  14. Section 3 . . .

    The SMH editorial goes to a wide malaise evidence by the latest incarceration figures.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-editorial/jail-numbers-point-to-a-wider-malaise-20170920-gyl8oc.html
    Judith Ireland on why Ed Husic quit Twitter.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/twitter-hate-speech-in-140-characters-or-less-20170919-gykdzd.html
    Barnaby Joyce has rebuked Tony Abbott for threatening to cross the floor of Parliament if any kind of clean energy target was pursued by the Turnbull government. But why don’t hey just take him out?
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/barnaby-joyce-warns-tony-abbott-over-threat-to-cross-turnbull-government-over-energy-20170920-gyl502.html
    Financial Services Minister Kelly O’Dwyer last week introduced two key changes into Parliament that, if passed, will make Australia’s best-performing group of super funds more like the worst-performing group of funds. It’s ideologically driven and scandalous!
    http://thenewdaily.com.au/money/retirement/2017/09/20/super-reform-returns-odwyer/
    How Amazon makes it easy to acquire terror bomb-making materials.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/would-you-like-extra-shrapnel-with-your-purchase-sir-20170920-gyl50o.html
    Is Trump about to repeat George W Bush’s worst mistake?
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/20/trump-george-w-bush-worst-mistake-iran
    The Senate has voted to ‘reform’ Australia’s media laws. It’s not really a reform, writes Ben Eltham.
    https://newmatilda.com/2017/09/20/the-claytons-inquiry-the-media-reform-you-have-when-youre-not-having-media-reform/
    Stephen Koukoulas writes that penny pinching has left the education of the nation lagging.
    https://thekouk.com/item/540-penny-pinching-on-education-leaves-the-nation-lagging.html
    Rector Michael Jensen tells us why he’s voting NO. It’s entirely based upon scripture. He’s certainly entitled to that personal view but should we take exception to him wanting that interpretation to be universal?
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/marriage-is-a-blessing-between-a-man-and-woman-and-should-remain-that-way-20170920-gyl1mn.html
    Adam Gartrell reports that five of Australia’s most respected mental health groups have joined forces to wage an unprecedented public campaign in favour of same-sex marriage, claiming the reform could prevent up to 3000 high school suicide attempts every year.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/samesex-marriage-would-prevent-3000-teen-suicide-attempts-a-year-say-health-groups-20170920-gyl2hf.html

  15. Section 4 . . .

    Why the AFL had to take a stand on SSM.
    http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-had-to-make-a-stand-on-samesex-marriage-20170920-gyli33.html
    The same-sex marriage poll is insidious and privileged bullying, since gay people will never participate in a government-initiated opinion poll on the sexuality of straight people and their right to marry, writes Jennifer Wilson.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/turnbulls-postal-opinion-poll-a-vicious-bullying-farce,10737
    A Liberal MP, phoned by a robo-call claiming that same-sex marriage will lead to “radical gay sex education”, has labelled it push polling designed to “mislead and deceive” the Australian public. The robo-poll from WPA Intelligence, a Republican-aligned research company in the United States, first appeared on Tuesday last week and is now the subject of a complaint by the Equality Campaign because it does not say who authorised it. Respectful debate?
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/sep/21/liberal-mp-says-he-was-targeted-by-deceptive-anti-marriage-equality-push-poll
    Roger Corbett has likened homosexuality to the difference between a black and a white man in arguing against marriage equality but leading ‘Yes’ campaigner and Qantas CEO Alan Joyce says he wishes the former Woolworths boss would “talk a bit more”. Latika Bourke reports.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/qantas-ceo-alan-joyce-urges-roger-corbett-to-keep-talking-20170920-gylgcx.html
    Abbott is paranoid over SSM!
    http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/act-education-minister-yvette-berry-cautions-schools-on-samesex-marriage-20170920-gyl17m.html
    The Victorian “assisted dying” legislation has been introduced and it contains 68 safeguards and significant penalties. It will be a long parliamentary debate that precedes a vote.
    http://www.smh.com.au/victoria/doctors-risk-life-behind-bars-under-righttodie-laws-20170919-gykwmn.html
    BHP is willing to head to court to fight the Australian Taxation Office on a more than $1 billion tax bill over its Singapore marketing hub. One to watch.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/mining-and-resources/bhp-billiton-willing-to-head-to-court-against-ato-tax-bill-20170920-gyl5qk.html

  16. Section 5 . . . Cartoon Corner

    John Shakespeare on the hateful Twitter storm on SSM.

    Cathy Wilcox has Abbott on the driving range.

    John Shakespeare depicts Turnbull as a dinosaur over coal.

    Broelman on the extremes of this government.

    Paul Zanetti and some fatherly advice from Morrison.

    No words are necessary.

    David Rowe upskirts Trump.

    And he gives us the evil postman.

    David Pope exposes the damaging hypocrisy of this government.
    http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/david-pope-20120214-1t3j0
    Ron Tandberg on Manus. Not very nice.
    http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/ron-tandberg-20090910-fixc.html
    Andrew Dyson takes us into what is presumably Abbott’s tool shed.
    http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/andrew-dyson-20090819-epqv.html
    Mark Knight and the AFL’s statement on SSM.
    http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/8ab310c71d2a79d6c8a097041c56181c?width=1024
    Jon Kudelka and the real green energy target.
    http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/deb97d880edb0f4acc6a02210bf1a6b0

  18. The usual suspects in the MSM are playing right into Abbott’s hands, again. It’s like 2013 again, a political Groundhog Day, except this time Tony is using the Rudd playbook and trying to bring down his own government, not a Labor one.

    The MSM haven’t learnt a thing. They have all gone back to breathless reporting of every idiotic thing their hero says and does. Tony appears on Sky, Auntie Michelle leaps (well, maybe not a leap, at her age) into action and reports every bit of what happened. Even Paul Kelly has woken up for long enough to comment.

    Poor Malcolm. No matter what he does he’s just not getting the media attention Tony is now getting. He must be starting to understand how Julia Gillard felt, and he must be quaking in his bespoke shoes at the thought the same thing may well happen to him – brought down by a disgruntled former PM.

  19. From above by CK, re the Guardian:

    A few months ago Nick Xenophon approached me and the editors of other smaller independent and regional media companies with a reasonable question.

    If the senator was to back the government’s plan to scrap rules protecting diversity of media ownership in Australia, paving the way for mergers that would increase the power of the biggest media companies, what could he propose to make sure smaller players were not squeezed out of the market?

    Can I just…..

    It’s not a reasonable question. It’s a stupid question.

    The rules protecting media diversity were designed to make sure smaller players weren’t squeezed out of the market. When you scrap those rules there is no protection for the smaller players. That’s what the rules are there for.

    From that email above, the problem is clearly the revenue stream for traditional media outlets. The answer is not, and can never be, concentrating the existing revenue stream into the most powerful of those media outlets. That just exacerbates the problem, because it’s those outlets people are walking away from. People are seeking out new forms of information gathering, and they’ll do that regardless.

    The correct response is to let the old dinosaurs die, keep the diversity, and see what comes along to replace them. You can bet it’ll be leaner and more competitive than what we currently have. All Newscorp does these days is suck up public money and strut around as if it’s entitled to it. Opening up the market by supporting new media platforms will sort that out quick smart.

    I’m still not sure whether Xenophon is craven, self-interested or stupid. But I do know that nobody from the Guardian should have agreed with what he proposed and hoped to get something good out of it. They should have called it out when he first proposed it to them.

    • I’d go with X being all three. To agree to deny one particular publication access and not the others that have overseas owners is just wrong. X should have said all or none and the deal wouldn’t have gone through. That would have made them rethink, and if they really wanted to pass the legislation they would have had to agree, but X was too chicken.

    • X isn’t stupid, but he is definitely self-interested. Everything he does comes from a ‘how will this keep me in the spotlight’ angle. Every time this government proposes something nasty X says he might vote against it, then we get lots of media talk about him being in negotiations with the government and then we get the inevitable vote for whatever it was. He gets all that publicity, keeps his name and his party in the media spotlight and still manages to stay true to his Liberal roots. If he gets negative comment then he doesn’t care, it’s all publicity. Like Oscar Wilde, Xenophon believes the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

      One of my favourite terms, ‘attention whore’, could have been created just for Xenophon.

      Why anyone would still be taken in by this tedious performance is just one of the many things I will never understand. It has taken Katharine Murphy a very long time to come to her senses about Turnbull. It seems Lenore Taylor still hasn’t worked out Xenophon.

  20. A good explanation:

    It’s not the Vf=Vi+at that kills you, it’s the F=m(deltaV/deltaT)

    It’s a little less pithy, but it makes better sense nonetheless. The first equation describes your free fall. Your final velocity (Vf) is equal to your initial velocity (Vi) plus the acceleration you are undergoing (a) times the amount of time you are falling (t). In a free fall, the acceleration acting on you would be the acceleration due to Earth’s gravity (32.2 ft/s/s or 9.81 m/s/s). Multiplying this acceleration times the duration of the fall gives you a velocity at impact (taking into account your initial velocity).

    The second equation describes your splat. The force that you impact the ground with (F) is equal to the change in your momentum (m*deltaV) divided by the amount it time it takes for your carcass to come to a complete stop (deltaT). This equation represents the impulse with which you hit the ground. Impulse explains everything from why an egg won’t break when hitting a pillow to how cats can survive falls from great heights.

    So, yes, the saying does lose some of its catchy quality when expressed in the terms of physics, but at least you will be accurate when saying it. Plus, it will make all your nerdy friends giggle.

    https://sciencebasedlife.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/how-do-cats-survive-falls-from-great-heights/

    https://sciencebasedlife.wordpress.com/2012/06/03/its-not-the-fall-that-kills-you/

    • Your analysis of the second equation is spot on but the first equation needs some playing around with when applied to the real world (in general the world of physics is not the real world but an approximation of it and, sometimes, a gross over-simplification).

      Unless the fall is in vacuum, it is not a “free fall” but, as the falling body falls faster the force due to air resistance increases until it balances out the gravitational force and the fall continues at a steady, terminal, speed. If the “body’ is a person who has had the foresight to attach a parachute before jumping from, say, an aeroplane, the force of the air resistance is much greater (due to the much increased amount of air involved) and so the terminal speed and the change in velocity involved in the collision with the ground is much less and a “carcass” needn’t result.

  22. Malcolm Roberts, what a joke!

    Stephen Lloyd, assisting the court, said Senator Roberts tried to contact British authorities on May 1 and June 6, 2016.

    His first email, titled “Am I still a British citizen”, went to an address ending with the domain “.uksydney”, Mr Lloyd said.

    The next, complaining that nobody had got back to him, went to a decommissioned account which had been inactive for six years, Mr Lloyd said.

    “None of these emails led to any responses,” Mr Lloyd said.

    He said Senator Roberts sent a third email with inquiries and that one worked.

    Roberts’ email attempts irrelevant, lawyer argues

    Mr Lloyd said other evidence to be presented would include documents Mr Roberts received while he was preparing to nominate himself as a senator, which provided tips on what candidates could do if they had doubts about eligibility.

    But Robert Newlinds, acting for Senator Roberts, said the evidence about the emails was irrelevant and “inadmissible”

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-21/malcolm-roberts-challenges-dual-citizenship-in-high-court/8966572

  25. Men behaving badly.

    Liberal National Party member Luke Howarth drops f-bomb at Turnbull media conference
    FOOTAGE has emerged of a Liberal National Party MP swearing under his breath in front of Malcolm Turnbull when the Prime Minister was asked question about women.
    http://www.news.com.au/national/politics/liberal-national-party-member-luke-howarth-drops-fbomb-at-turnbull-media-conference/news-story/d27f24c71f47746a0d6d951499c519cb

    And a pal of Dutton’s being a very naughty boy –
    EXCLUSIVE: Embattled Border Force boss’s official Twitter account ‘likes’ pornographic video – while he is ‘on leave’ over scandal
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4901186/Border-Force-Roman-Quaedvlieg-s-Twitter-acct-likes-porn.html

  27. carrt2016

    September 21, 2017 at 12:55 PM
    CK

    How is your back?

    My problem is in my neck, C 3/4 level spinal cord stenosis/compression. This caused weakness and loss of dexterity in my arms and legs rendering me unable to walk more than 20 metres (on a good day) and unable to use my hands for any fine motor movements. In other words I was farking rooted.

    I had a laminectomy of C 3/4 which has eased it somewhat (i can touch type again and walk about 50 metres) but I don’t think I’ll be dancing the hoochie coochie with a gypsy queen anytime soon.

    • WE had to do that for sheep stuck in the mud around drying up dams in drought. The owner of the property got a dredge in and scraped a dry path to the water and we fenced off the mud. If the sheep had not been in too long and their legs still worked we usually got them up. Of course the wool makes it much harder for them to get out of the mud.

      And that is why I dislike crows. That bastard Potatohead is a typical crow.He would line up to pick the face off a bogged sheep.

  29. CW

    In other words I was farking rooted.

    Complety ‘armless … how ‘handy’. 🙂

    I hope the improve keeps happening.

    Country Road an old favourite. I sat in the dark a couple of weeks ago and listened to the whole album. Like the Easybeats, Greg Quills stuff stands up fairly well for it’s age.

  30. An excellent long article about the Welfare State. Read it and weep as you read what they found out about unemployment over a century ago. The discovery by people like Bevridge,Rowntree and Booth that unemployment was not simply caused by “character flaws” as was assumed at the time. Over a century later we have today’s Tories peddling the same tripe,attitudes and solutions shown to be wRONg way back then. Precarious work conditions replicate the shite of yesteryear so it is not just the unemployed “enjoying” the 19th and early 20th century ‘lifestyle’.

    The long read

    Why we need the welfare state more than ever
    Shocked by the ‘poverty cycle’, British reformers created a safety net for casual workers. Now precarious working conditions are back, and the welfare state is under attack. By Chris Renwick

    https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/sep/21/why-we-need-the-welfare-state-more-than-ever

  33. There is class and then there is the L/NP

    The Liberal party is once again being forced to defend its record on women, after one MP swore in frustration when asked about gender diversity and another referred to breastfeeding in parliament as “a bit over the top”.

    The comments came just a day after the former prime minister Tony Abbott tweeted a photo of an “invigorating Q&A session with the Newtown Young Liberals on the merits of western civilisation”, which featured an overwhelmingly male audience, most of them white.

    The Queensland LNP MP Luke Howarth, considered a rising star within the party, was heard to say what sounded like “oh, this is fucked” when the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, was questioned about the number of male MPs in the sunshine state.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/sep/21/liberals-on-back-foot-after-gender-outburst-and-criticism-of-breastfeeding

  35. Don’t RSL accounts get audited? If they do I would want a word with the auditors.

    The former CEO of RSL NSW failed to act on concerns raised by several staff members about former president Don Rowe’s corporate credit card expenditure, telling the inquiry “a man’s got to live”.

    Chris Perrin, who was close friends with Mr Rowe at the time, confessed at the public inquiry in Sydney to being “careless”.

    Mr Rowe admitted to the inquiry into the RSL branch’s finances that he misused charity money, including spending $475,000 on a corporate credit card, using allowances to pay off a mortgage and buying mobile phones for his family.

    The inquiry today heard that prior to Mr Rowe’s resignation in 2014, three staff members came to Mr Perrin and raised concerns that Mr Rowe was abusing his card, specifically by making cash withdrawals, and also over lack of documentation around his expenses.

    “I had nothing to do with the presidential expenses and if you bumped into me in a corridor and said ‘Don Rowe is withdrawing cash’ I would have probably said ‘a man’s got to live’ to withdraw cash, because he was living in Sydney away from home,” Mr Perrin said during evidence.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-21/former-rsl-ceo-didnt-act-on-staff-concerns-about-spending/8969090

  36. Marine La Pen’s leadership looks on the ‘skids’.

    PARIS (Reuters) – The right-hand man of French National Front leader Marine Le Pen quit the party on Thursday, raising the prospect of a split in the far-right’s ranks after Le Pen’s defeat in the May presidential election and months of internal feuding.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-politics/frances-national-front-number-two-quits-as-far-right-party-in-turmoil-idUSKCN1BW0LR?il=0

  38. Very agile and innovative

    The staff of a Launceston pizza shop have altered the meaning of an anti-same-sex-marriage billboard next to their business, a day after a Hobart hotel distanced itself from a billboard atop its premises.

    Employees at Wiseguise Pizza, in the suburb of Mowbray, started painting the brick wall adjacent to the “It’s OK to say no” sign, adding the words “to pineapple on pizza”.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-21/pizza-shop-alters-anti-ssm-billboard-message-in-launceston/8969184

  39. An interesting article

    Why religious belief isn’t a delusion – in psychological terms, at least

    …

    If someone told you, in all seriousness, that they talk to invisible beings who control the universe, you’d probably back away slowly while nodding and smiling while desperately looking for the nearest exist or escape route. If this person then said they wanted to be in charge of your life, you’d probably do the same, but more urgently, and with a view to finding the nearest police officer.

    …

    “I can believe that a stone age man built a wooden boat large enough to house every species on Earth, but climate change just seems a bit of a stretch to me”

    https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2017/sep/21/why-religious-belief-isnt-a-delusion-in-psychological-terms-at-least

  40. TLBD

    24k Gold gold gold for ..

    “I can believe that a stone age man built a wooden boat large enough to house every species on Earth, but climate change just seems a bit of a stretch to me”

  47. Highly recommended. Ms Bee taking the piss

    Full Frontal With Samantha Bee
    Thursday 21st September at 8:00 pm (30 minutes)
    Full Frontal With Samantha Bee Series 2 Ep 19: Full Frontal finally takes a look at all the bulls**t we’ve been missing since the White House of Horrors opened.
    Actors/Presenters: Samantha Bee, Andrew Bridge, Jayne Maginot
    M
    Premiere, Entertainment
    (Classification)

  48. Privileged white male Liberal politician has a big sook.

    Heterosexual, white men with jobs ‘aren’t included in anything’, Canberra Liberal MLA says

    An ACT Liberal politician has used a parliamentary debate on inclusion to lament the lack of government support for heterosexual, white men.

    Mark Parton said white males, aged over 30, who held down a job were “not really included in anything”.

    “I always find it fascinating that we focus on all of these groups that we’re not going to leave behind,” he told the ACT Legislative Assembly.

    “But if you are a heterosexual, employed, white male over the age of 30 you’re not really included in anything.”

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-20/heterosexual-white-men-are-not-included-in-anything-mla-says/8964916

    Awww, diddums!

  50. Lovely Facebook comment about Abbott’s alleged attack –

    As another commentator brilliantly put it:
    You sure? Might have been a climate change, anti mining or alternative energy activist. Or a householder upset that you tampered with energy prices and they are paying through the nose. Or someone upset their housing prices will collapse with your negative gearing policy. Or someone who is struggling for work because of your austerity program. Maybe an unemployed person undertaking mandatory drug testing because of their postcode. Or a person concerned at the incarceration and treatment of refugees. Or someone from your constituency upset that your drunk on the job. Or a friend of your sisters upset at your comments or how you treated her….
    The line forms to the far right

    The alleged assault really is only an allegation. Were there witnesses? It was not mentioned by anyone but Abbott’s mate Blot. I smell a very large and stinky rat. It wouldn’t be the first time Abbott has lied to get attention..

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