(Miscellaneous debris)

[redandblack]

What effect, if any, do you think yesterday's no-carbon tax rally will have?

[once_were_warriors]

What effect, if any, do you think yesterday's no-carbon tax rally will have?

I think there was more CO2 emiited yesterday than a coal powered electricity plant.

From what I saw it all looked very amatuerist.

Too many hidden agendas and mistruths being distributed by the flat earthers.

[Psyber]

Here are a couple of political and health related bits I found today:

The first is an issue related to pollution factors being ignored in the present focus only on CO2 as the big ticket for votes.
I agree its methodology may be a bit weak, if it is as described in the brief review, but it needs further examination as a matter of public health and safety: http://www.australiandoctor.com.au/arti ... 06fe0f.asp

David Brill and AAP
Living near busy roads is not only bad for the heart – it can even induce premature birth, Australian research suggests.
A study of 970 mothers and babies in Queensland’s Logan City has found that the more highways around a pregnant woman's home, the more likely she will have an early delivery. Those living in the most heavily congested areas, with 10 or more freeways near their house, gave birth almost two weeks earlier than average, the study found. The findings build on previous work by the same researchers linking air pollution to small fetal size.

This second one is a direct issue of the lack of government interest in basic public health safety: http://www.australiandoctor.com.au/arti ... 06fe0b.asp

There are fresh calls for stricter regulation of Chinese herbal products after an Australian man developed renal failure from consuming remedies that contained a known nephrotoxin.

The 75-year-old man fell ill after he consumed a Chinese herbal product known as long dan xie gan wan, which is commonly sold as a “liver tonic”.
According to an article in the Medical Journal of Australia, tests on the product showed it contained aristolochic acid, a known nephrotoxin and carcinogen. The man was able to get hold of the remedy via mail order despite a ban on all herbal products containing aristolochic acid.

[dedja]

No conflict of interest here, hey Bob?

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/sout ... 6034689738


Independent MP Bob Such has called for a total review of the operations of the SA Police.

Dr Such told Parliament during debate on the Supply Bill that the police force was "of great concern to me".

While he acknowledged the police force, in the vast majority of its personnel, was a very fine one, it was time for a review.

Dr Such, who has been involved in a long-running legal battle over a disputed speed camera fine issued by SAPOL, said the review needed to look at how the police force was structured, how staff were allocated and "a whole range of related matters".

[dedja]

This was posted as a letter to the editor in yesterday's Advertiser ...

http://wconger.blogspot.com/2005/09/gov ... vered.html

A major research institution (MRI) has recently announced the discovery of the heaviest chemical element yet known to science. The new element has been tentatively named "Govermentium."

Govermentium has 1 neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 225 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 313. These 313 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Since Govermentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected as it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of Govermentium causes one action to take over 4 days to complete when it would normally take less than a second.

Govermentium has a normal half-life of 2 years; it does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Govermentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause some morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to speculate that Govermentium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as "Critical Morass."

[Psyber]

Love it dedja - I'll send the link to some mates.

[Leaping Lindner]

The Labor Party is dead. Long live the Laberal Party.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/edi ... 6050128130

[Wedgie]

Yeah a shocker and even more Liberal than what the Liberals brought in!
I was a fan when a works test came in for when the sole parents kids reached school age but 6 months is ridiculous and will also put more stress on child care centres.
I don't know WTF they're thinking.

[Ronnie]

Yeah a shocker and even more Liberal than what the Liberals brought in!
I was a fan when a works test came in for when the sole parents kids reached school age but 6 months is ridiculous and will also put more stress on child care centres.
I don't know WTF they're thinking.

I thought i had read earlier that this will apply when the child turns one year old, not six months. I guess we will just have to wait for the budget for confirmation.

perhaps they are thinking the earlier the intervention the better the chance of successful participation in the workforce. Who knows, and how much can or should we expect governments to change or shape what comes back to personal behaviour anyway? I don't think there is an easy answer to that and the government will never please everyone.

[southee]

Yeah a shocker and even more Liberal than what the Liberals brought in!
I was a fan when a works test came in for when the sole parents kids reached school age but 6 months is ridiculous and will also put more stress on child care centres.
I don't know WTF they're thinking.

Spot on Wedgie. Absolutely disgraceful decision!!!!

I would have thought support would be better than to just put more stress on Child care centre's and on the parent themselves.

Gillard being a spinster - what the hell would she know anyway!!!

Shame Gillard Shame!!!!

[Gozu]

Bloody appalling.

[Gozu]

Michael Atkinson letter to the editor (Indaily) on door knocking:

Some dwellings I visit six or more times trying to find the householder home.

http://indaily.wordpress.com/2011/05/13 ... editor-55/

[Gozu]

"Bully boy tactics at The Oz":

The Australian is rapidly losing credibility as a source of news, writes Peter Botsman. It's not political bias that will sink the national broadsheet, but a tendency to create its own reality through bully tactics

One hundred years hence let us hope that future historians do not pore through the columns of The Australian to find out what happened in our period of history.

What would they find? An Australia that religiously followed the modern US Republican cause; that was profoundly unsympathetic to refugees; that nostalgically launched back into the Cold War again and again to inquire whether Russian KGB agents had infiltrated the highest levels of the Australian Labor Party; that crusaded back and forth about welfare without ever advocating an alternative; that was convinced that the best selling historian of Australia, Manning Clark, was also a KGB agent; that found man-made climate change implausible and that what revived Aboriginal Australia in the 21st century was an iron fist of military and police intervention!

http://newmatilda.com/2011/05/13/bully-boy-tactics-oz

[Gozu]

From Monday's Crikey email:

Spectator's tale of two killers.

Who gets to be forgiven for youthful stupidity, or worse, and who doesn't? It's an interesting question posed by the Oz Spectator, which last week had yet another article about David Hicks, and how shocking it is that he be allowed to speak. Yes of course -- who would be so obtuse as to imagine that violent intent could be just forgotten? Well, the Oz Spectator for one, which in the same issue has a rapturous review of a new novel by Peter Kocan.

Kocan is an excellent writer -- whose other claim to fame is as Australia's most prominent would-be political assassin. In the mid-1960s, as a disturbed young man, riled up by anti-communist rhetoric, he attempted to shoot Labor leader Arthur Calwell. Committed to an asylum for some years, he became a writer and was eventually awarded Australia Council grants, which bore fruit in two brilliantly cool novel/memoirs, and several volumes of poetry. Had the right-wing shouty squad been around at the time, the grant and possibly the books never would have happened.

Kocan is assessed on the strength of his work, as he should be, not on a period of derangement; but that assessment is so easily granted him because most of his friends and allies are from the political Right. Clearly, it's not that you try to kill, but who, that matters. -- Guy Rundle

[redandblack]

Ruper Murdoch's mum has supported a carbon tax.

We await the Murdoch press getting stuck into her, a la Cate Blanchette

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/2 ... more-10588

[Media Park]

I got an invite to meet Tony Abbott at a breakfast in July.

[fish]

I got an invite to meet Tony Abbott at a breakfast in July.

Great! Maybe safooty.net members could suggest a few questions we'd like you to ask him...

[GWW]

Ask him about his personal debt:

[Q.]

1:03 - 1:05

Comedy gold.

[Psyber]

I got an invite to meet Tony Abbott at a breakfast in July.

Great! Maybe safooty.net members could suggest a few questions we'd like you to ask him...

I binned mine.