Wright; a turncoat racist.

As far as I am aware the white-sheeted Klukker of old seems, apart from perhaps a few isolated holdouts, to be consigned to the waste dump of time and common sense. This is not the end of racism, it is still out there and will probably remain so. All the laws in the world will not create a modicum of respect, reason, or any of the other things starry-eyed idealists hope for. Nor is racism confined to the white community.

The reverend Wright is a great example of the other side of the fence. Wright came to fame during the election of 08 with his ridiculous assertions of the US developing AIDS to kill off the black community, and so on, apart from his, God damn America,” remarks. He is back in the news again.

At a five day school taught at the Chicago Theological Seminary, he reportedly told those in the class they will never "be a brother to white folk," describing racial divisions in the country as entrenched. The civil rights movement "was always about becoming white," Wright said at the seminar. At another point, he said: "White folk done took this country. You're in their home and they're going to let you know it." 



Wright also claimed that the American education system is built to poorly educate black students "by malignant intent" and criticized civil rights leader Martin Luther King for advocating nonviolence, the Post reported.

Anyone with a modicum of common sense would be aware that things have changed coming into the modern era. The increasing number of minority faces in Congress, as well as professional life affirms it and I find it difficult to take Wright seriously if he is suggesting that it is not happening, hell one of his black former parishioners is President.

He is also well aware that the flaws in the education system, and there are plenty of them, are not restricted to minority Americans. There is a constant flow of criticism from all of the community about this problem. Home schooling is a growing phenomenon there because of dissatisfaction with the system.

It may be true that blacks are overrepresented among the poor and poorly educated, but the type of remarks being made by him are not going to help. The way to improve education for black kids is to press for meaningful improvements to the entire system; after all they in the main go to the same schools as white kids anyway.

Wright is not about improving the lot of African Americans, he is about creating and maintaining a divide between the races in a manner the Klan, Birchers and their ilk were never able to achieve. They might have succeeded had they not used force but encouraged the Wrights of the world to do it for them. His power base is the poor and dispossessed and he has no intention of relinquishing it by having them succeed in life.

The way for minorities to improve their condition is to engage with the community and take responsibility for themselves, not to create an artificial divide. There are a great many things that people can do to improve their lot, but separating themselves and being hostile are not among them. Those people who have succeeded are not Uncle Toms, class traitors, ‘house niggers’ or whatever else Wright has branded them in the past but good practical people who have understood that to succeed you have to work for it.

Followers of Wright will get nowhere, because with his guidance, they will always have a sense of defeat, and entitlement, and as such will always be second class citizens on the Democrat welfare plantation. The man is a traitor to those who trust him.

Carbon Tax the next battle in the long War on Carbon.

Cartoon; by Nicholson.

By Viv Forbes,

Chairman, The Carbon Sense Coalition. http://carbon-sense.com/

Nearly twelve months ago “Carbon Sense” predicted that the Ration-N-Tax Scheme was dead in the water, but there was real danger that it would be replaced by a carbon tax.

This looks more likely today. Those who seek total control over our lives and our assets will not rest, and a carbon tax will be supported by: 


• Governments who need help to fund their wasteful spending. 


• Promoters of wind and solar power – a huge permanent carbon tax is the only thing that will make these energy follies look economic.

• Those promoting nuclear power, which is coal’s major competitor for the generation of reliable economic base-load electricity. 


• The Climate Change Research industry, which needs an assured stream of income to support never-ending “research”. 


• Those who support national and international redistribution of wealth. Favored classes and nations will have access to a carbon slush fund to be used for “compensation” for the effects of climate change, for increases in the cost of living or for whatever else sounds plausible and deserving at the time. 


• The anti-development, anti-technology, anti-enterprise, anti-growth, back-to-sandals brigade who see carbon fuels, cheap energy and abundant power as the wicked foundations for all modern industry. 


• Gas producers will secretly barrack for a carbon tax. Even though gas is a carbon fuel, and produces carbon dioxide when burnt, gas usage will get a boost every time a wind farm or solar array is built. Every wind/solar plant needs a reliable but flexible power plant on standby. As soon as the wind drops, or a cloud obscures the sun, the standby plant must be ready to fire up immediately. Gas will generally be the chosen backup. A carbon tax will also encourage the replacement of coal generators with gas generators, as gas combustion produces less carbon dioxide per unit of energy produced. So, ironically, one carbon fuel (gas) will benefit from a carbon tax, even though its price will increase to cover the tax. 


• Many Greens rightly object to the speculators, traders, regulators, auditors, lawyers and bankers lined up to benefit from emissions trading. They prefer the clean punishment of a simple heavy direct tax on their hated coal and oil fuels. 


• Nations (mainly in Europe) who depend on non-carbon fuels such as nuclear, hydro or geothermal will be very pleased to see taxes on coal-dependent countries such as USA, China, India and Australia. 


• Many economists will rightly claim that a carbon tax is more direct and efficient than the complex exemption-riddled Cap-n-Tax Schemes.

However the alarmist industry knows that people hate taxes. For them, the disadvantage of a carbon tax is that it will always be vulnerable to clean quick abolition (and the sooner the better).

An election is looming and carbon taxes and/or new resource taxes will loom large on the agenda. None of them will have any beneficial effect on global temperatures. We must increase the heat on all politicians – let them know that you will actively oppose anyone who supports or defends Emissions Trading or Carbon Taxes.

Icelandic protest vote.

It is rare for a party started with the express intention of taking the piss out of the political system, or really as a joke wins. We have had a couple of parties that were jokes achieve representation but they weren’t founded as jokes. The Australian Democrats was one where a Liberal minister quit and managed to take the ‘don’t knows’ out of the opinion polls and weld them into a solid political force. They held the balance of power in the Senate for years.

One Nation was another. It was founded when Pauline Hanson was disendorsed by the Liberals and went it alone and won a federal seat. She formed the party at a time when the Nationals members were disillusioned. Keating’s removal of protectionism and trade barriers had wiped away the parties ability to implement agrarian socialism, and Pauline was able to offer them unreality for a while, and they sweept the polls in Queensland. They are pretty much gone now.

Meanwhile in Iceland the ‘Best Party’ has gained the majority in the Reykjavik council elections, which represents the majority of the nation. The party is the brainchild of an entertainer, Jon Gnarr, who decided to start a website to satirise politics in Iceland after the banking collapse of 08. It took off. He has offered such whimsical policies as a drug free parliament by 2020.

Some of his stuff is really funny:


Unfortunately there is little to go on as to what he really intends to do. Some of the stuff he is offering is straight left wing but I am inclined to think that it is really part of the joke. Some of them are, to improve the quality of life of the less fortunate, stop corruption, (OK), equality, increase transparency, free bus rides for students and the poor, drag those responsible for the economic collapse to court, and listen more to women and old people.

Now he is mayor he may possibly take things seriously and pull the place out of the shit. He is a man who has the proven ability to think outside the square and might just be able to get the council out of the way and let business do the job.

I am not optimistic but the slogan, "Economise, we only need one Santa," is promising.

Guys From Al-Qaeda.

I think this is satire, and not a recruiting effort.

Rudd gets booted.

Cartoon: David Pope.

In what the press seem to feel is tumultuous and all the other guff that is involved in dumping him Rudd, yesterday’s turkey has become today’s feather duster. Goodbye and good riddance.

Much of the press this morning seem to put the emphasis on the ‘historic’ nature of Julia Gillard becoming the nations first female PM. For some reason ‘historic’ seems in the eyes of the media as equating with good. This is about the silliest idea, well one of the silliest things we can be asked to believe. In 08 the US got all caught up in the possibility that history could be made by electing the first black President.

That hasn’t worked out very well for them. After sweeping the polls and winning overwhelming majorities in both houses, in eighteen months the Democrats look likely to lose both in massive shows of voter anger, while the administration desperately tries to grandstand and play the race card in order to survive.

Historic is irrelevant, quality is the important thing. Watch for, “the opportunity to make history by electing our first female PM,” when the election comes around.

Gillard has given a fairly manicured performance in interviews today, which is to be expected. The press is still too bemused to ask serious questions so probably for the time being we will find out little. We can expect some improvement, as there is an indication that the whole of the ministry will now be doing the thinking instead of Rudd’s gang of four.

The great big mining tax is still on the table as is ration and tax, although the latter is on the backburner for a while. The government has suspended its anti-mining advertisements and ill advisedly the mining industry has agreed to stop its anti-tax ads. Mining has been offered the chance to negotiate with the government to reach a consensus, and seem to have been sucked in.

There is absolutely no moral justification for an additional tax on mining profits; they should be treated in the same way as those of any other industry. Natural resources are no more the ‘property of the people’ than is air, sunlight, or rain. Miners need to reject any concept of a Resource Rental Tax, make it clear to both sides, and stick to it. Rational economists have dismissed the fallacious concept of resource rental long ago as a myth.

Probably the most important improvement the ascension of Gillard will achieve is hopefully some improvement in the opposition. Tony Abbott cannot rely on Rudd’s unpopularity to sweep him into office, and he and the opposition will have to come up with policies that will offer a real alternative to the government.

At this point in time they have not done this. After defeating Ration And Tax in the Senate they looked the goods, but then in a fit of stupidity turned around and backed a new form of emissions tax.

Abbott seems to concentrate on the idea that the way to offer an alternative is to push for the same things as the government, only different in some way. The utterly stupid concept of taxing our most profitable businesses extra to provide a Rolls Royce parental leave scheme at up to $150,000 per year is an indication of this. They have actually come up with something worse than Rudd has inflicted. As it stands now the only real difference between the government and the opposition is on the mining tax.

The productive sector work for themselves, and in so doing improve the lives of everybody. Currently all that the big two parties are offering is differing degrees of looting to feed the avaricious desires of federal, state, and local governments that are out of control.

The Liberals have to start aiming at reducing the size, scope and cost of government and offer an alternative to the current growth of big government or get out of the way.

The only party that is consistently opposing the growth of government and offering viable policies to reverse it in this country is the Liberal Democratic Party.

McChrystal busted for thought crimes.

Illustration; From, The Peoples Cube.

There was a joke from the Vietnam era about a wounded Australian soldier being interviewed, as follows: 



Interviewer: And how did this happen to you?
Soldier: Well when I came over here, I was told that the best way to work out if someone in hiding is hostile is to insult the enemy leader; if he reacts angrily, he is Viet Cong.



So?



Well I was out on patrol, and I realized someone was hiding in the bushes across the road. I took cover and called out “Ho Che Min is a bastard”, and a voice replied, “Harold Holt (Then Prime Minister) is a bastard”.



And?



I walked across to shake his hand and got run over by a Yank.

This is fairly typical of the attitude of most soldiers I have met towards politicians and the Americans are probably not much different. In fact the interview with Col. Jack Jacobs below seems to support this contention. H/t Newsbusters:

JACOBS: “Those views are very widely held, by the way, inside the military and outside the military, about those people. That they're ineffective, that Jim Jones, the National Security Advisor, does not have an impact on national security policy, that he has very little access. That Holbrooke hasn't done anything and so on. Those views are widely held. They're not just held by McChrystal's staff for example.”

Breitbart has McChrystal’s position summed up here.

Shortly after President Obama assumed the Commander-in-Chief duties, he retired the existing commanding general in Afghanistan and handpicked his successor: General Stanley McChrystal. McChrystal was always known as a brash and outspoken military man, an expert in counterinsurgency, greatly respected by the troops under his command, and as having little patience for fools.

His requirement to have to answer to Obama, then, was a trainwreck waiting to happen.

I have read the article and it appears to be mostly commentary about the General with quotes, mainly from his staff. Some, but not necessarily all of what they said may have come from McChrystal but it is reasonable to assume that some was their own opinions and are not the Generals responsibility. The whole thing comes down to the fact that a commander has opinions that the administration doesn’t like, and those opinions are about them. There is no suggestion that the man is in anyway incompetent or unable to do the job, in fact he seems to be very good at it.

He is essentially being railroaded on the basis of a slime job by a left wing rag.

Liberal Party ads.

Election time is coming up and we are seeing some good ads coming from the Libs this time. There is a rumour that ad genius Singo is doing some of them this time. Maybe he is, they seem a bit more interesting this time.

The first features Julie Collins of Labor having just a little difficulty in explaining just how their big new mining tax will work. Maybe she should push it on the basis that if passed we will find out whats in it. It worked for Pelosi:


Then we have Kevin Rudds bag of tricks:


And who could forget Kevin 07, well here’s the new one, Kevin Olemon:

“Stop the War on Land Owners, Home Owners and Shareholders.”

By Viv Forbes,

Chairman, The Carbon Sense Coalition

Cartoon: By Zeg.

The Carbon Sense Coalition today claimed that the war on carbon was just another battle in the long war on property rights by populists in Parliament.

Speaking yesterday at the well attended annual meeting of Property Rights Australia in Emerald, the Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that Mark Twain was right – “No man’s life liberty or property is safe while parliament is sitting”.

He added:

“The war on property rights is always carried out under the spurious slogan of “the public interest”.

“It is always secretly serving a private interest.

“Mainly it is being used by politicians to buy votes from swinging voters or to attract green preferences.

“Currently ‘global warming’ and ‘carbon pollution’ are their preferred vote winners. As these scams are exposed as grubby schemes to serve private interests in the carbon trading and alternate energy industries, new slogans will be found.

“But always it will be an attack on the right of property owners to use and enjoy the security of their own property.

“Farmers have been robbed of their rights by bans on controlling woody weeds and regrowth on their properties. Seaside property values are being damaged by sudden changes in zoning laws and development plans using the excuse of possible sea level changes. Shareholders in mining companies have seen the value of their retirement funds slump under the threat of super taxes needed by the federal government to balance the books after the extravagant stimulus packages and roof insulation disasters. Real job opportunities for aboriginal people are destroyed by ‘Wild Rivers’ legislation. Fishermen are being deprived of the right to fish, and foresters are locked out of the forests.

“And at this moment many property rights are being trampled to force feed the unnatural growth of the wind, solar and natural gas industries, using various spurious climate excuses. Those whose assets are suffering include landowners, miners, tax payers, shareholders and electricity consumers.

Mr Forbes advised members of Property Rights Australia to focus on the real problem, which is in parliament.

“It is not other property owners such as miners, gas producers and native title claimants who are your main enemy – they too have bits of paper signed by politicians giving them rights which are often vague and, too often, overlap and degrade your property rights. These overlapping property rights are at the root of all discord between various classes of property owners.

“My advice to all land owners is “Know your rights, get good legal advice, negotiate hard with other conflicting property owners, but keep out of court battles with them – the only winners in that battle are the lawyers.

“Focus your legal weapons and court actions on government property invaders, and make sure your politicians feel the heat.

“And as the global warming scam is exposed, watch for their next excuse for grabbing control of your lives and property.

“There will be one – bio-diversity, sustainability, soil conservation, ocean acidity, saving something cuddly, energy conservation, or, most likely, all of the above.”

Highway Robbery.

The Outdoor Recreation Party (ORP) has just released a new ad featuring one of the serious issues of out times, the use of road rules for revenue raising. I have touched on this in a previous post, but this comes from NSW. They might suck at League down there but this is OK.



The ORP have a great deal in common with the LDP as with the growing influence of the Greens and other zealots such as the gun control freaks, the Liberals and Labor Parties stage a competition each electoral cycle to restrict our access to much of what we traditionally regard as recreational areas. As result many healthy activities such as hunting, fishing, horse riding, four wheel driving, and so on are either being restricted or denied access to many areas.

Incredibly as the options for getting out and having healthy fun in the great outdoors are being closed off by the nanny state, the same people are ruing the rise in obesity among the population. There is nothing inconsistent with this of course, the old leftist principle of having your cake and eating it too, still applies.

You are not even allowed to take your dog for a run in many places. These guys are worth supporting if you value what freedoms you have left.

Queensland cops; state tax collectors.

"Inappropriate behavior."

Bloody hell, the Bligh government is in what it likes to pretend is a campaign against disorderly behavior. In reality it is setting out to make it easier for the police force to raise revenue for an overspending government, which has taken us from debt free, to lower credit ratings and massive deficits.

The latest ploy after massively increasing the existing fine structure, because they claimed it didn’t impact enough, is to give the police the power to issue on the spot fines for “inappropriate behavior.” Some of these fines are in the order of $300.

This is in a state where the police asked for fines for jaywalking to be increased to $75 plus a demerit point off your license. Just what the hell does walking have to do with driver’s licenses? Something as harmless as not wearing a seatbelt costs $300. On one occasion here, in the main street, the cops found a stop sign, which was obscured by bushes and set up a trap for motorists. They were really raking it in for Anna.

This is a clear indication of how the police view their role, not road safety, but revenue raising. If they were in any way concerned about safety in a slow flowing area, the logical move would have been to point it out to the Council, not set a trap.

Actions like this make you wonder just what inspires them to get up in the morning, put that blue uniform on and be just busting to get out there to make pricks of themselves. Lots of petty regulations as we have now mean that we get the sort of people joining the force, who like the idea of ramming them down our throats. These are the sort of people who are getting this power over us.

Mind you, this is not for illegal behavior, the proper realm of policing where people cause damage or harm to others, but that nebulous phrase inappropriate which is any sort of behavior viewed by someone as in some way, well not appropriate, whatever that might mean. This means that it is essentially a matter of luck on what cop happens to be around as to whether that bit of harmless fun costs you dearly or not.

Fines of one hundred dollars for swearing is ridiculous, and when it comes down to it, just what words constitute swearing? Bloody is a swear word in the eyes of some. This whole thing is draconian and has no place in a free society.

The actions of the state government are inappropriate behavior, but you can bet your arse they won’t be fined for it.

Study; Government spending kills jobs.

Rasmussen reports are one of my regular references for opinion in the United States. The main reason is the accuracy of the data; they poll prospective voters rather than a cross-section of the public at large. Another is that Scott Rasmussen is libertarian leaning, having written the book, “In Search of Self-Governance.” One review states the following:

In this brilliant and thoughtful essay he unmasks the new fault line of our democracy: Mainstream America rising to reassert the supremacy of their sacred right of self governance over a failed Political Class grimly determined to preserve the primacy of their prerogatives of power. Pat Caddell, Political Strategist.

In their political commentary section they have highlighted an issue dear to the libertarian philosophy; that government spending, in this case earmarks are actually detrimental to the local economy. In a recent research paper by three Harvard Business School Professors, the conclusion was that the conventional beliefs that political seniority translates into tangible economic benefits for districts and that politicians are able to create private sector jobs with your tax dollars in the first place are wrong.

The researchers stumbled across the result accidentally when they were examining the correlation between politically connected firms and powerful legislative committee chairmen when they came upon something “unexpected.” Something free market advocates have known for years: Government spending kills jobs.

“It was an enormous surprise, at least to us, to learn that the average firm in the chairman’s state did not benefit at all from the increase in spending,” says Coval. “Indeed, the firms significantly cut physical and R&D spending, reduced employment, and experienced lower sales.” …..

In other words, government spending directly supplants private sector investment – substituting expensive, cumbersome bureaucracies where efficient, profit-driven companies would have otherwise operated. Needless to say, this “crowding out” of the private sector not only costs jobs – it also comes at a tremendous up-front cost to the taxpayers.

Unlike other studies into the effects of government spending on private sector activity, this research’s focus on committee chairmanships provides a unique “exogenous” (or independent) variable.

“We show that becoming a powerful committee chair results in a significant increase in federal funds flowing to the ascending chairman’s state,” the report reveals. “Thus, a congressman’s ascension to a powerful committee chair creates a positive shock to his or her state’s share of federal funds that is virtually independent of the state’s economic conditions.”

That critical consideration has been routinely ignored by numerous prior studies – most of which have returned “inconclusive” findings regarding the extent to which government growth has been cannibalizing the free market.

The study is here.

Youtube bows to Islam.

From Arutz Sheva:

After it got over 3 million hits in barely a week, Youtube has removed the Latma parody video, “We Con the World,” a satirical musical portrayal of the true intentions of the Turkish-Hamas 'love boat' captain, crew and passengers.

The removal was first discovered by journalist Caroline Glick, who edits the Hebrew language Latma website, which originated the video. According to Youtube, the video violated the copyright of the companies that own the rights to the “We Are the World” video, produced in the 1980s to raise money for hunger in Africa.

While it's true that the copyright to “We Are the World” is owned by Warner/Chappell, says Glick, “Copyright experts we advised with before posting the song told us in no uncertain terms that we were within our rights to use the song because we did so in accordance with the Fair Use Doctrine.”

It is my understanding that it has been reposted, however this copy is from “Atlas Shrugs”:


This has been pulled, because of the lack of will in respect to offending Jihadists, rather than any doubts about copyright. They are not afraid of any physical danger; it is the fear of political incorrectness that renders them impotent. This is not the adverse action of large corporations stifling the rights of the average citizen; it is the cowardly actions of small men afraid to be seen as being outside the collective immorality of the beehive society, letting down the righteous.

We’ll make the world;
Abandon reason; …

It's happened already.

Saving newspapers, Cobb & Co, and the whaling industry.

At the time of the US bailouts of banking, the motor industry, and debtors there was considerable speculation as to the possibility of extending it tom the newspaper industry. This has not happened but it is in the wind. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is considering several ways to help the struggling newspaper industry, but Americans strongly reject several proposed taxes to keep privately owned newspapers going.

Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey indicates overwhelming opposition among voters towards a (3%) tax on monthly cell phone bills to help newspapers and traditional journalism, a proposed five percent tax on the purchase of consumer electronic items such as computers, iPads and Kindles, and a proposal to tax web sites like the Drudge Report to help the newspapers.

Among ideas other than straight taxes the FTC is flying are, establish a “journalism” division of AmeriCorps, increase funding for the CPB, establish a National Fund for Local News, provide a tax credit to news organizations for every journalist they employ, establish Citizenship News Vouchers, and provide grants to universities to conduct investigative journalism. There is a limit to the university investigative journalism, as most of the things Bush and Cheney did are already out there, although breaking up Al Gores marriage has yet to be fully explored.

Throughout history industries have risen over the top of other industries and eventually failed and disappeared. The reason for this is human innovation, which has constantly come up with new ideas, new methods, and new technologies, which have revolutionized human progress.

While the news media tend to claim, “It is not our fault, we had no reason to think the Internet would become popular, it’s the economy, we didn’t do anything wrong,” the fact is that they have not moved with the times and are being superseded. We are currently in evolutionary times and over the next ten years or so something completely foreign to all we now know or understand may develop.

This may mean the death knell of online news as we have it now. Should HuffPo Drudge and Redstate be subsidized if this happens?

The industrial revolution destroyed many cottage industries, but in the process produced those products which were so expensive that in many cases could only be afforded by the rich, cheaply enough that the poor had access to them. It also produced new products, which were unimagined at the time.

The whaling industry was effectively destroyed by John D Rockefeller, who through innovation and efficiency produced kerosene so cheaply that it replaced whale oil for lighting. In doing so he removed the main market of the whalers and saved the species from extinction. It is interesting to speculate whether there were calls for government assistance to preserve this vital industry, and preserve the jobs of the seamen who would starve in unemployment at the time.

Similarly, modern transport wiped the old horse drawn coaches off the road. Just think of it, a vital industry condemned to oblivion, and after providing a great service for so long. There must have been those who, like the FTC felt that the government should step in and save it.

Times change, ideas change, and maybe the print media will find an economic niche where they can continue to be relevant. I hope so, I rather like my papers.

Kevin Rudd stimulates closing schools.

Cartoon: By Bill Leak.

Kevvy just can’t seem to get anything right, but he is from the left so that has to be expected. Since the glory days of Kevin07, he has presided over arguably the most incompetent government in living memory. With such memorable failures as Grocery/fuel watch nonevent, the $890,000/house remote area housing scheme disaster, the home insulation fiasco, the ETS debacle, a couple of cash splashes, the … but hey, who’s counting?

The Building the Education Revolution, (BER) scheme, which has been unkindly referred to as the Builders Early Retirement scheme, has been a constant embarrassment of inflated prices for school buildings, especially when compared to those in private schools. A recent press report featured a 25 square meter state school building for the same price as a Catholic schools 240 square meter building.

It is now revealed that in Queensland the scheme has spent $4.5 million on improvements to schools earmarked for closure. Well, there’s nothing quite like closing that there stable door after the horse gallops over the horizon. Yowah State School, near Cunnamulla, has only three students but received $300,000 for a new library; outdoor play area and a watering system for its oval.

While there may be some legitimate debate as to whether the state or federal government was responsible for this incredible waste, it has to be said that the feds should wear it as nobody other than them are likely to take the advice of the Bligh government seriously.

Some of the real doozies are:

Bymount East State School (between Roma and Injune) 13 students (2008) - $300,000 for a new library, water tank, classroom upgrades and covered walkway

Daintree State School (near Mossman) 13 (2008) - $300,000 for a new library and office and classroom upgrades.

Grosmont State School (Wandoan region) 7 students - $300,000 for new library and for library extension and refurbishment

Nagoorin State School (Gladstone area) 9 students (2008) - $300,000 for resource centre, sign upgrade, classroom renewal and verandah work

Peek-a-Doo State School (Taroom area) 5 students - $300,000 for new resource centre and classroom learning area upgrades.

Palmerston East State School (near Innisfail) 13 students - $300,000 for resource centre, dual flush toilets and classroom renewal.

It would be interesting to compare this result with a list of marginal electorates, and find out the details of how many of these grants have been made in other states. This figure is horrendous, but is only one state.

Arianna Huffington; Light comic relief.

I have often wondered why people go to Huffington Post. My original thoughts on it were simply that they wanted some reassurance from somebody who suffers from a similar form of derangement as themselves. Lately I have come to the conclusion that whatever they go there for is not really political, as politics has to be taken seriously. Nobody could take this seriously:



Of course with Grayson wanting those who say “Drill baby drill” jailed, especially for some reason Michael Steele, Arianna might be one of the saner ones.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Western apologists.

There was an interview in “The Australian” with Ayaan Hirsi Ali which was an eye opener. Hirsi Ali who is one of the most articulate voices of Islam and therefore under threat of murder gave an interesting insight into the media with the following:

Greg Callaghan: In your new book, Nomad, you say that liberals in the West are far more uncomfortable condemning the ill treatment of women under Islam than conservatives. Why do you think this is so?

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Liberals tend to think collectively about ethnicities, cultural groups and religion. Freedom of the individual tends to be a lesser notion. Thus a liberal might be more reluctant to interfere in the case of a Muslim father physically abusing his daughter out of some misplaced respect for cultural difference.

A conservative, being more concerned with individual rights – and perhaps less subject to political correctness – would be more inclined to speak out against the wrongdoing. Liberals too often fall back on the notion that governments can solve all problems and “rescue” people who have been told they are victims of the system. Rather than speak out against totalitarian practices under Islam, they shuffle their feet.

Bligh stages mock poll.

Cartoon: By Nicholson.

It is often remarked that some politicians are Poll driven, frequently accurately. This appears to be the case here in Queensland where the Bligh government has just done some polling on the subject of daylight saving.

For the unenlightened, daylight saving is the action southerners carry out during the summer months of turning their clocks back an hour. Somehow they are convinced that this makes the sun shine for an hour longer. Nobody is quite sure of what caused this belief but it is expected to gradually die out when the school opens down there.

Anyway an independent MP has raised the idea of doing it here several years after it was rejected in a referendum. At the time it was suggested that if the Southeast wanted it they could have it but the rest of us would like to stay the way we are, thank you. We were told in no uncertain terms that such an idea was ridiculous and the whole state would have to comply. After the referendum was solidly defeated, for some reason the Southeast felt that they could actually do it themselves.

This seems to indicate that when they felt they would win they considered that they owned us and could bend us to their will.

Anyway Anna and her cronies have decided that they want to go that way, so they felt that the best way to do it was a poll to get an indication of what the people were thinking, at least those who agreed with her. For this reason they staged the poll.

Rather than take the chance on a real poll using scientific methods to gauge an accurate picture of the mood of the electorate, it was decided to stage an online one, you know the sort that appears as a novelty on websites. It was probably not one of the generic ones that involve hitting a couple of buttons and typing in the questions, but assembled by experts to give them the same thing only more expensive.

Online polls are about as inaccurate as you can get, as they are pretty easy to rig. There is also the consideration in this case that those who want to change the system have more incentive to vote on the matter. Those who prefer the status quo are more inclined to ignore the whole thing while their opponents have every incentive to log in and vote; and vote often if possible.

But just to make sure that there is no pesky desire to vote on the subject after it is introduced the idea of a referendum, canvassed in the poll was rejected despite the vast majority (63%) preferred it. This government is out of control.

Mayor Daley; Chicago thuggery.

Cartoon: By Glen McCoy.

H/t Ben and Bawb.

The left is famous for the politics of hate and the Democrats; especially the hard left of the party excel at it. None though can hold a candle to the slime that pervades the Chicago political machine. While hate riddled attacks on opponents their families and especially their children are the stock in trade of the ‘intellectual’ leadership of the party, Mayor Daley takes the cake.

Asked about the effectiveness of the cities draconian gun laws by a reporter at a press conference he picked up a rifle that was on display and come out with:

"It's been very effective," Daley, said, "If I put this up your butt, you'll find out how effective it is. Let me put a round up your, you know."


Another aspect of their character is to go into histrionics at every chance to claim the other side is threatening them. When Palin came out with a list of Democrat Congressmen she referred to as targets to be defeated in the mid-terms with the comment: “Don’t Retreat, Instead — Reload!” a hysterical chorus erupted in the media.

Democrats everywhere (according to the media) were wetting themselves in fear, going into hiding and cowering in corners quivering in abject terror, sobbing, “She’s so scary.”

Anyway it has come to pass that an 80-year-old Korean War Veteran who had been robbed before had bought a gun. An armed robber broke into his house where his wife and 12-year-old great grandson were present and fired two shots at him. In response he shot him in the chest, killing the bastard.

When asked if the 80-year-old would be charged for violating the city's gun ban, Mayor Richard Daley, who recently threatened to put a gun up the posterior of a reporter questioning the ban's effectiveness, said: "I don't know.”

Pressed further on the incident, Daley, who goes nowhere in the city without armed protection, cautioned, "guns is not the answer to the problems that we see in a home, in the streets of America. It's as simple as that."

It is incredible that any authority would even consider such an action as to charge a citizen under these circumstances.

Rudd claims; Miners a risk to economy.

Cartoon: By Nicholson.

In the wake of a revolt by mining companies and a scandal involving the misuse of taxpayer funds for an improper advertising campaign, Rudd has gone into histrionic mode. Imagine the loss of reality it has to take to accuse the mining industry whose buoyancy was the catalyst for the survival of our economy through both the financial crisis and the government’s misguided reaction to it, of endangering the economy.

The Australian Financial Review today published an article, “Miners a risk to economy, says PM,” which seems to indicate that not only is Rudd losing it, but is as mad as a cut snake and has twice as many twists and turns as one.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has blasted the mining industry campaign against his government as a risk to the economy as he faced a parliamentary assault on his integrity yesterday for approving $38.5 million of advertising to sell his proposed resource tax.

The Prime Minister insisted on the need to spend the taxpayer funds as the federal Coalition turned the argument over tax reform into a debate on Mr. Rudd's honesty and his breach of a 2007 election vow to restrict government advertising. ….

The Australian Financial Review has also learned that the government paid $350,000 for market research and polling in the weeks before announcing the controversial 40 percent tax on resource company super profits. ….

This is totally dishonest in that the mining industry campaign is not specifically against the government but against a 40% tax imposed on any profit made by a resource company in excess of 6%, which has been picked for some odd reason for being the yield from long-term bonds. Why, has not been explained, probably because it can’t be.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott stated, "This is a government which is looting the Treasury because this Prime Minister cannot do the job ordinarily expected of a prime minister - that is, to explain, justify and defend the policies of the government," Mr. Abbott told Parliament.

The government faced new attacks from the mining industry as well, when Rio Tinto likened the 40 percent tax on resource company profits to the surprise policy changes by Third World governments that undermined investor confidence.

"Financial assets are held by most Australians, particularly through their superannuation funds. "To the extent the impacts are based on misinformation or misunderstanding of government policy they represent an avoidable disturbance to markets and ultimately a reduction in Australian welfare. ….

So lets just try to work this one out. The government is launching a new huge tax burden on an industry, but believe that will not impact in any way on that industry. In fact some of them along with a couple of collectivist economists are even suggesting that the tax is beneficial to mining.

Treasury Secretary Ken Henry, extolled the tax, claiming that it effectively made the government ''a silent partner in each investment.” There are no prizes for guessing what political ideology that comes from. Professor Garnaut regards it as “elegant,” but he’s the guy who came up with the Ration and Tax scheme, (RATS) to combat people using energy.

The Treasurer, Wayne Swan has stated that it will lower shareholders returns, but still, they insist the drop in the market is caused by all those selfish mining companies, not their big new tax. Seriously they cannot be so economically illiterate as not to know what shareholders do to companies, which give lower returns. These guys are not only blatantly dishonest they are stupid as well or think we are.

Atlas Shrugged sales soar.

An article by George Will raised an interesting fact that since Obama took office sales of Atlas Shrugged have soared. From my reading of Shrugged, I find it has generally come true, or at least the dystopian setting is here.

He was featuring Ron Johnson's bid for the Republican nomination to stand against big government liberal Russ Feingold in the Senate contest in Wisconsin. Ron is an Ayn Rand fan and calls "Atlas Shrugged" his "foundational book."

But this year the "social issues," as normally understood, are less important than the social issue as Johnson understands it -- the transformation of American society in a way foreshadowed in fiction.

What Samuel Johnson said of Milton's "Paradise Lost" -- "None ever wished it longer than it is" -- some readers have said of "Atlas Shrugged.” Not Johnson, who thinks it is "too short" at 1,088 pages. Noting that Massachusetts "is requiring insurance companies to write policies at a loss," he says, "We're living it," referring to the novel's dystopian world in which society's producers are weighed down by parasitic non-producers.

From 2000 through 2008, sales of "Atlas Shrugged," which was published in 1957, averaged a remarkable 166,000 a year. Since Barack Obama took office, more than 600,000 copies have been sold. The novel's famous opening words -- "Who is John Galt?" -- refer to a creative capitalist, Rand's symbol of society's self-sufficient people who, weary of carrying on their shoulders the burden of dependent people, shrug. Ron Johnson would rather run.