'Tasteful Nipples' And Other Age Musings

The Age gets right to the core of George Bush's visit to Brazil:

A handful dressed up as the grim reaper, while some women paraded through the streets with stickers of George Bush and Adolf Hitler placed tastefully over their nipples.

Indeed. And who else should throw in their five cents to Bush's Latin America voyage other than that masterful economic doyen - Hugo Chavez.

President Chavez said yesterday Mr Bush should be given "the gold medal for hypocrisy". "Now he's discovering … after so many years that there's poverty in Latin America, precisely when the US empire is the principal culprit," said Mr Chavez, who routinely insults Mr Bush.

Although, not often enough for The Age to stop reporting it. Interesting that Hugo would point the finger at America for his own country's economic turmoil, which has a healthy inflation rate of:

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
15.8% (2006 est.)

Which means even the chicken feet are too expensive to eat.

Leave The Bears Out Of It

No one at The Independent bothered to ask the bears how they're going:

The memorandum from Mr Hannon was criticised by the Natural Resources Defence Council in Washington, which wants the US Department of Interior to list the polar bear as an endangered species because of the projected loss of sea ice in the Arctic over the coming century.

Arctic sea ice and the polar bear are especially sensitive issues at present because American scientists have pointed out that the world's biggest land carnivore is unlikely to survive if the Arctic sea ice disappears in summer, which it is predicted to do by the end of the century.

Poor bears, whatever will they do without their ice?

Pictures of a polar bear floating precariously on a tiny iceberg have become the defining image of global warming but may be misleading, according to a new study.

A survey of the animals' numbers in Canada's eastern Arctic has revealed that they are thriving, not declining, because of mankind's interference in the environment.

In the Davis Strait area, a 140,000-square kilometre region, the polar bear population has grown from 850 in the mid-1980s to 2,100 today.

"There aren't just a few more bears. There are a hell of a lot more bears," said Mitch Taylor, a polar bear biologist who has spent 20 years studying the animals.

Stupid bears, they didn't get the heads-up to drop dead with the rising mercury. In fact, did anyone bother to ask the bears?

Oh yeah, 60 Minutes did, and proved without a shadow of a doubt....Polar Bears don't like Tara Brown!

(S)omething drastically wrong with the world's weather. It came in the shape of a very large, very hungry polar bear - an angry predator, with us as its prey. Stranded in the middle of nowhere with a three-metre, 300kg bear on the attack is a frightening experience. It's also a graphic lesson in what happens when we mess with nature. As global temperatures rise, the ice cap melts and the polar bears' hunting grounds disappear. Now they're starving, desperate for food - so desperate even humans look appetising.

Oh, brother.

Debate Reigns - Sorta

Okay so my essay in debate against the illustrious (and allusive) Debussey is complete. It looks a little bit like this, do read on and let me know what you think:

What would you say is the most important and basic human right?

Perhaps when I mention such a phrase, the first thing that comes into your mind are liberties we use at a whim in our daily lives such as; freedom of speech, the ability to worship any deity we please, the right to choose employer, education, taxation affairs or possibly even the prerogative to bear arms.

Don’t get me wrong, all of these are important characteristics of the modern social-democratic state that most of us have the privilege of residing within. And yet, none of the ‘rights’ I’ve mentioned above is the most critical. Remove any one of the above and you’ll find yourself that much less free. Remove the most important and basic human right; and you’ll find yourself free of freedom. There is a distinction.

And yet, this is the one autonomy that tends to get lost first in any argument over whom should receive what treatment and why. Specifically, the Left has historically been a foremost advocate of everything from Women’s rights to those of blacks, gays and now, more so than ever, endangered animals. The first three of these I have all the patience in the world for, and number four isn’t all that far behind; I like my Polar Bears wearing the terrain, not being worn for it.

What the hell am I talking about?

Well, it’s pretty simple really – simply a very complex moral/religious/political issue. The Left has clearly lost in sense of what is most important to it, and what is actually worth standing up for. We see this most explicitly in the Left’s recently acquired admiration for far-Right religo-maniacal Islamists. An odd combination indeed - and one that probably exceeds the scope of this argument – but it’s worth noting anyway. If the Left can distort what were once noble views of the world and very worthwhile causes into today’s support of Muslim clerics to hold the Western world to ransom at the drop of the proverbial Danish cartoon, then what other moral travesties are they capable of?

Abortion comes to mind. At the mere mention of this word you can drag even the most committed Leftist’s correlated opinions to religious-Right Imams back to the polar opposite of the religious-Right Priest’s. Why is this? What in this world could possibly be more fragile, precious and therefore worthy of the Left’s metaphorical protective wing than a human baby, not yet born to be seen - and therefore within our collective minds - so it would seem. Surely, if there’s any cause worth championing by the Left, it’s the cause of the human child that is yet to have been given the gift of life as we all know it; post-womb.

Only last month, in India, it was reported 437 baby bones were uncovered in central Madhya Pradesh state, where abortions had been carried out illegally by mothers with unwanted female children. It’s an odd accumulation of Western science and archaic Indian tribalism that has caused this to happen; how else would the mothers have known their child was to be female?

And still, a technological progression is not akin to a cultural and moral one. Methods developed to save and nurture lives are now turned in against oneself, in preference of the mother’s choice. Which is, of course, that trumpeted ‘human right’ the Left champions today more than almost anything. I’m still waiting on the global protests that will no-doubt choke our city streets in revulsion of our despicable treatment of Guantanamo Bay inmates, erm, rather - these reproachable human rights violations.

But in all truth, you need not look as far away as India to establish an abortion epidemic, even if by some reports 10 million babies have lost the opportunity at life in the last 20 years. The US and indeed Australia have some astronomical abortion figures in the same period of time. I’d like to make it perfectly clear that my ideological position is not 100% anti-abortion. Some are completely necessary and tragic in their occurrence. In a perfect world, we’d never have to make choices over whose life we should sacrifice.

My abortion stance, what I’d like to consider it to be anyway, is more central than to be involved in a laissez-faire ‘Women’s rights’ Leftist pro-choice disposition. It’s also too Agnostic to buy into the religious-Right’s pro-life stance; within which all abortions are prohibited. I must point out, however, that the Catholic Church’s position on this matter is that man and woman should not engage in pre-marital sex, and therefore would avoid such a dilemma before they were capable of raising a child.

For those of us that are not Catholic, and do not uphold the world of the Bible, the realities of a world where young women become pregnant before they’re prepared for such a challenge is evident. I cannot help but support a raped woman’s prerogative to abort should she be so unfortunate as to find herself in this predicament.

What concerns me most about this abortion issue are matters that involve a child that is more developed; that has spent enough time in the womb to allow it life outside. I cannot find myself in support of the majority of late-term abortions. Where I live in Victoria, Australia, some women have (I must point out, legally), chosen to terminate the lives of their growing babies for the most trivial of reasons:

"In 2000, a prominent Melbourne specialist performed an abortion on a healthy 32-week-old fetus, a girl, after her deeply distressed mother threatened to kill herself if made to give birth to a baby so imperfect.

The mother believed from ultrasound tests that her baby, Jessica, could be a dwarf. But the tests were in fact inconclusive and the staff notes written immediately after the baby had been killed in the womb and still-born at the Royal Women's Hospital state: "On delivery, the baby doesn't look small." It seems possible, and perhaps even likely, that the baby had no "defects", after all."

So that you’re aware, a 32-week old foetus looks like this:

Or not much unlike what you’d expect a baby outside of the womb to appear like. One has to question the processes a mother that has threatened to kill herself, unless her baby is terminated, is taken through.

These cases, and those like it, seem to be quite infrequent in number – even if they happen far more often than we’d like to think – or talk about, for that matter.
On the contrary, an unwanted child that is merely an assortment of cells made up from the appropriate male and female DNA some hours old is not quite the same as ‘Jessica’. In this instance, I can see myself supporting a couple’s decision to take measures ensuring an unwanted baby does not begin to grow.

Destroying a child’s life out of a matter of convenience is, however, mostly a procedure I am morally opposed to. The question is, rather, at what point do we stop calling the biological material growing within a woman a ‘cluster of cells’ and begin labelling it a child? Surely in the ‘Jessica’s’ situation above, she was a child for all intents and purposes. A human being in wait; with all the necessary ingredients to be a post-womb baby with a chance at life.

Such a scenario denies someone their most valuable and basic human right; their right to life. If any cause was worth defending - by anyone - it would surely be the cause of a delicate, womb-encased baby, weeks away from being born into life as you or I see it.

Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan: Not So Glorious

Borat finds himself the focus of a human rights report issued by the US State Department:

"The government deemed as offensive the content of a satirical site controlled by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and revoked the .kz domain," the report said.

Borat: Internet Martyr. More worrying, however, are these claims:

In its remarks on Sarsenbaiuly's death, the State Department criticised a Kazakh court for failing "to follow up and investigate signs that other parties and high-level government officials may have been involved in instigating the killings".

The report also listed military hazing, torture by police, unhealthy prison conditions, arbitrary arrests, restrictions on freedom of assembly, domestic violence against women, people trafficking and "severe limits on citizens' rights to change their government" as areas of concern.

Green Malaise Breeds Cynicism

The Guardian gets stuck into the UK's Labour party over its failure to tow the green line, using The Sustainable Development Commission's as its catalyst:

Government operations across Whitehall are "simply not good enough" the report says, and ministers and senior civil servants are failing to set the right example. Sir Jonathan Porritt, head of the commission, said: "I have no doubt that people will see this as hypocrisy on their part."

Ouch, you mean someone that confesses their eco-sins to Gaia can still be hypocritical?

On departmental cuts in carbon emissions the report says: "A drastic change in approach is essential for government to have any hope of meeting its targets. And all this against a background of endless government messages indicating strong support for climate change initiatives. Unless government can quickly take charge of its own operations it risks breeding deep cynicism among the public."

Maybe, so. But what does this mean for Big Al Goracle?

The press release went on to say, according to the Nashville Electricity Service, Gore's 20-room, 8-bathroom home "devoured" nearly 221,000kWh per year, more than 20 times the national household average. His average monthly bill topped $1,359, the report said.

Don't worry, unlike the Labour Government, Al buys 'carbon offsets', you know, those cash confessionals you fork out nominal fees for so that we can plant some more trees somewhere, like Al's livingroom perhaps. Sure, trees store carbon, only problem is that when they die (believe it or not, they all actually do), all of that stored carbon has to go somewhere:

As Prof. Oliver Rackham, the Cambridge botanist and author, says: "Telling people to plant trees is like telling them to drink more water to keep down rising sea levels." What goes in will come out.

And so Al's precious hard-earned has gone to waste - or has it? Who does Al buy his carbon offsets from?

Hon. Al Gore is Chairman

We invest in long-only, global, public equities with a concentrated portfolio of 30-50 companies. We aim to buy high quality companies at attractive prices that will deliver superior long-term investment returns.

Don't ever let anyone tell you that green business isn't good business, right Al?

Blogger Forgets To Post

Well, I haven't forgotten exactly - neglect would be more accurate. Stay tuned for more posts to come shortly, including my upcoming debate on the abortion topic against the illustrious (and possible alien abducted mind of Gary Busey) Debussey from Getbig. I'll be posting both essays and letting everyone decide on the most persuasive. It's a tough topic so stick with us.

Obama 'Appreciates' 9/11 Conspirators

I have a feeling our Democratic Candidate will be moving to distance himself from these theorists as soon as possible:

Democrat Presidential frontrunner Senator Barack Obama has responded to a question posed by an Infowars reader regarding government complicity in the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks.

Three months after the reader sent Obama a correspondence outlining her great concern that criminal elements of the government were directly complicit in the attacks, the Senator sent the following response via email, which was then forwarded to us:

Dear Penny:

Thank you for contacting me regarding your belief that the U.S. government was complicit in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. I appreciate hearing your passionate views on this matter.

While I do not believe the U.S. government was complicit in the attacks, I do think it should be held accountable for the unacceptable mistakes it made in the run-up to that terrible day. The blunders that occurred prior to the 2001 attacks were inexcusable and often outrageous. The series of clear warnings about the potential use of hijacked planes as weapons is just one example of why the "surprise" of 9/11 should have been anticipated. In my view, proof of government complicity is not necessary when making the argument that the U.S. should accept some responsibility for what happened on 9/11.

Thank you again for writing.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
United States Senator

Why would Obama go out of his way to address such madness? Is he that desperate for votes?

See also the involvement of 'Investigate 9/11' morons on Obama's campaign trail:

Please note that I understand Obama is not explicitly aligning his political views with the 'Investigate' mob, but he doesn't seem to be doing much to play down his involvement with such views. I've also been unable to confirm the above picture has not been tampered with by the 9/11 loony squad.

(Thanks to 240 at Getbig's Political Forum)

Oscar The Grouch!

The Oscars have turned their collective (waxed) backs on evil carbon emitting activities (well, sorta):

This year, the Academy, the Oscar telecast producer Laura Ziskin and the entire production team endeavored to select supplies and services with a sensitivity toward reducing the threats we face from global warming, species extinction, deforestation, toxic waste, and hazardous chemicals in our water and food. With guidance and assistance from the Natural Resources Defense Council, a non-partisan environmental and advocacy organization, we learned that it was easy (and often cost effective) to make simple changes to reduce Oscar's ecological footprint.

Touching, although the advertisement (found far-right) for a gas-belching vehicle somewhat confounded me.

Citizens Polled, 'Worried' and 'Compassionate'

USA Today conducts a poll of 1,002 Americans regarding the Iraq war with some interesting results:

Given a range of possible words to describe their feelings about the overall situation in Iraq, people were most likely to identify with "worried," selected by 81% of those surveyed.

Other descriptive words selected by respondents:

•Compassionate: 74%.

•Angry: 62%.

•Tired: 61%.

•Hopeful: 51%.

•Proud: 38%.

•Numb: 27%.

The fact that so many respondents returned a 'compassionate' opinion of the war is a positive sign - it shows that American's still have a positive view of the typical Iraqi, and want the US forces to succeed in their efforts. That more than half of the respondents described the situation as 'hopeful' is also a pleasing result.

Goriffic Scenes

Andrew Gumbel gets a little too excited over Al Gore's enviro-popularity in The Independent.

Here's a scenario that sounds like it could only be invented in Hollywood. Al Gore wins an Oscar this weekend for his documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Later this year, he is the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to raise awareness of global warming. At which point, why shouldn't he also run for president?

It's a scenario that has crossed more than a few minds in Hollywood this week...

An Oscar, a Nobel Peace Prize? Surely the next step is Presidency!

Why have the people (what do they know, anyway?) approve of your candidacy, when Hollywood and the Nobel Committee already have?

Glowing Green

Dr. Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace, demonstrates that it's okay to change your mind once in a while, so long as the facts support you.

Climate change is now high on the global agenda, and I believe nuclear energy holds the greatest potential to arrest the dangers we face from global warming. It is the only non-greenhouse-gas-emitting power source capable of effectively replacing fossil fuels and satisfying growing demand.

Hmm, but isn't nuclear power dangerous?

Worldwide, nuclear energy is one of the safest industrial sectors. Here in North America, no one has been harmed in the entire history of civilian nuclear-power generation. Indeed, it's proven safer to work at a nuclear power plant than in the finance or real-estate sectors.

I never knew I was in a dangerous profession, although, what exactly killed those daring finance workers is beyond me. The good doctor goes on:

Nuclear energy also makes economic sense. The cost of producing nuclear energy in the United States is on par with coal and hydroelectric. That's a very important consideration in New York, which has the country's second-highest elec- tricity costs.

So, that's a big tick for environmental, safety and economic benefit. No wonder most greenies don't approve nuclear - it's the pragmatic choice. Now, if we could only have a decent and reasonable debate on nuclear power in Australia....

Zimbabwe Left Breadless

President Mugabe hits 83 years of age as the last man alive in Zimbabwe that still has something to eat.

Zimbabwe’s economy is so dire that bread vanished from store shelves across the country on Wednesday after bakeries shut down, saying government price controls were requiring them to sell loaves at a loss. The price controls are supposed to shield consumers from the nation’s rampant inflation, which now averages nearly 1,600 percent annually.

Hmm, looking good guys, and you never know - with inflation figures like that - his mailbox should be overflowing with offers to visit Australia.

Cockburn Hurts

The Independent, through Patrick Cockburn, throws forward a view of Iraq that only it can:

(T)he civil war is getting worse by the day. Food is short in parts of the country. A quarter of the population would starve without government rations. Many Iraqis are ill because their only drinking water comes from the highly polluted Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Ol' Cockburn must remember with great clarity the social and economic masterpiece Iraq was with Saddam running the show.

Meanwhile, Tony Blair clarifies the decision to begin removing troops:

In addition, there have been changes made by Prime Minister Maliki - to whose leadership I pay tribute - to the way economic development and reconstruction monies are administered within the Iraqi Government - with DPM Barham Saleh given specific responsibility. This will allow the disbursement of funds to be made and will allow, in Baghdad and elsewhere, development and reconstruction to follow closely on the heels of improved security.

The objective of all of this is to show the terrorists they cannot win; to show those that can be reconciled that they have a place in the new Iraq; and the Iraqi people that however long it takes, the legitimate Iraqi Government which they elected and which the international community supports, will prevail.

The aim of the additional US forces announced by President Bush is precisely to demonstrate that determination. If the Plan succeeds, then, of course, the requirement for the MNF reduces including in Baghdad. It is important to show the Iraqi people that we do not desire our Forces to remain any longer than they are needed; but whilst they are needed, we will be at their side.

(Via Andrew Bolt)

England - Lost Cause

You know the British Isles are slipping into ideological obscurity when one of the contenders for the leadership of the Labour Party is caught commenting:

John McDonnell
Backbench MP, leadership challenger

I have used every opportunity to oppose the government's alliance with George Bush and the US-led military occupation of Iraq which has resulted in the deaths of over 655,000, caused untold human suffering, put at risk the territorial integrity of Iraq, destabilised the entire region, alienated our own Muslim communities and given a huge boost to international terrorism - just as we warned it would.

In May 2005, the UN released a report that quantified the death toll for Iraqis post-Saddam and found:

The survey for the UN Development Programme, entitled Iraq Living Conditions Survey 2004, questioned more than 21,600 households this time last year. Its findings, released by the Ministry of Planning yesterday, could finally resolve the debate over how many Iraqis were killed in the war that overthrew the regime of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.

The 370-page report said that it was 95 per cent confident that the toll during the war and the first year of occupation was 24,000, but could have been between 18,000 and 29,000. About 12 per cent of those were under 18.

The figure is far lower than the 98,000 deaths estimated in The Lancet last October, which said that it had interviewed nearly 1,000 households. But it is far higher than other figures.

There's something for our Labour candidate to mull over.

No Clooney

Mark Steyn reminds all and sundry why he's the most captivating and versatile conservative columnist in the world - fixing his crosshairs on Hollywood's propensity to tackle 'brave' issues in film, and the awards process that rewards it. George Clooney gets stuffed back (chin first) into the ideological box from whence he came:

He (Clooney) was brave enough to make a movie about Islam’s treatment of women? Oh, no, wait. That was the Dutch director Theo van Gogh: he had his throat cut and half-a-dozen bullets pumped into him by an enraged Muslim who left an explanatory note pinned to the dagger he stuck in his chest. At last year’s Oscars, the Hollywood crowd were too busy championing the “right to dissent” in the Bushitler tyranny to find room even to namecheck Mr van Gogh in the montage of the deceased. Bad karma. Good night and good luck.

Too right, ask yourself this question - does it require a higher element of brevity to make a film questioning the treatment of suspected Communists in America some decades ago, or a film that tackles the rampant Islamofacism enveloping the World today? And which is more likely to get you abducted by a group of bearded men with the intent of decapitating you? This goes a long way to explaining liberal Hollywood's ignorance of what both Steyn and I would consider to be the World's most dangerous talking point.

Read Mark's entire article here - he possesses a wit sharper than the blades brandished by the crazed Islamists he describes.

India: The Place To Abort

After being rocked by terror attacks this week, it's now been revealed that India has somewhat of a black market for abortions, with some 400 baby bones found after the foetuses were terminated, buried and subsequently unearthed. See now this genocide that has ended the lives of an estimated 10 million (given, this is a Lancet figure) Indian babies before they even started.

Police were investigating a hospital's involvement in illegal female feticide after 437 baby bones were dug up close by the complex, a state government said.

Police began unearthing the bones on Saturday from Christian Medical Hospital, in central Madhya Pradesh state, after a tip-off that medical staff were carrying out illegal abortions.

"Initial reports indicate feticide or infanticide," said state health minister Ajay Vishnoi.

'Feticide'? That's an interesting spin on what I would call murder. Note also the amazing effect this swathe of baby killing has had on the Punjab region.

Punjab has the worst gender ratio in India, with 798 girls for every thousand boys under the age of six.

A study by The Lancet, a British medical journal, said last year that India may have lost 10 million unborn girls in the past 20 years. Indian experts put the figure at about five million.

Incredible, so we have 5 to 10 million dead children? That puts this in the region of deaths from the Holocaust. But where are the protests, the outrage? The astonishing number of abortions in the last 20 years in India should put this as one of the greatest Human Rights violations of our time - particulary when you consider why this is occuring.

Hundreds of thousands of unborn girls are killed each year in India, where families prize sons who are seen as breadwinners and required to light their parents' funeral pyres, according to Hindu practice.

Sun Causes Heat

Nigel Calder's inclusion in The Sunday Times makes its way into The Australian today, and puts forth the argument that the Earth's recent warm period is a result of that bilious celestial body that tends to keep us warm - the Sun.

So one awkward question you can ask, when you're forking out those extra taxes for climate change, is "Why is east Antarctica getting colder?" It makes no sense at all if carbon dioxide is driving global warming. The best measurements of global air temperatures come from American weather satellites, and they show wobbles but no overall change since 1999.

That levelling off is just what is expected by the chief rival hypothesis, which says that the sun drives climate changes more emphatically than greenhouse gases do. After becoming much more active during the 20th century, the sun now stands at a high but roughly level state of activity. Solar physicists warn of possible global cooling, should the sun revert to the lazier mood it was in during the Little Ice Age 300 years ago.

The Sun giveth, and it taketh away.

Ageing Principles

Usually a haven of the Left, Julie Szego in The Age gets it spot on:

It doesn't answer why almost no one marched for the women oppressed by the Taliban, but plenty marched against a war that promised to liberate them. It doesn't answer why the streets weren't choked with protesters when Saddam gassed Kurds. It doesn't answer why they aren't choked now with protesters demanding an end to genocide in Sudan's Darfur.

But the reasons why the Left is quick to side with those that would be least likely to grant them the same level of tolerance is clear. The Left believes its enemy’s enemy is its friend - even if it’s the same strand of Islamism that hates women and gays, detests even the most basic human rights and consistently displays deeply bigoted views against, for instance, Jews. All this is peripheral to a Leftist that can score points against an even greater adversary - The United States.

Melting Ice Caps - 'Inevitable'

I guess I won't have to buy that Prius, after all:

A critical meltdown of ice sheets and severe sea level rise could be inevitable because of global warming, the world's scientists are preparing to warn their governments. New studies of Greenland and Antarctica have forced a UN expert panel to conclude there is a 50% chance that widespread ice sheet loss "may no longer be avoided" because of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Such melting would raise sea levels by four to six metres, the scientists say. It would cause "major changes in coastline and inundation of low-lying areas" and require "costly and challenging" efforts to move millions of people and infrastructure from vulnerable areas. The previous official line, issued in 2001, was that the chance of such an event was "not well known, but probably very low".

Coming Up Shorten

Bill Shorten uses The Australian to weigh in on the current water crisis that the country is facing, and decides the solution will come with the bringing of that traditional Labor sacrificial lamb - jobs:

It's time to bite the bullet on cotton and rice. Is it really sustainable to keep farming these high-water, flood irrigation, low-yield crops in places such as the parched Murray Darling Basin?

We'll need to help farmers through this period of structural adjustment; in the same way we helped workers and employers in the car industry and the textile industries in the 1980s. The Prime Minister must show some leadership and buy water entitlements from cotton and rice farmers, compulsorily if necessary.

Sounds expensive, but the question must be asked, if we're out spending money on water - and knowing where most of it comes from at the moment - how responsible is it for Bill to completely omit the word 'dam' from his article? This is the equivalence of having a debate on energy (which the Left frequently engages in) and failing to mention that most of it currently comes from burning fossil fuels. But why would Bill Shorten have a tendency to be so forgetful when it comes to water?

Bill Shorten, the national secretary of the Australian Workers Union, is the endorsed Labor candidate for the Melbourne federal seat of Maribyrnong.

Oh, that's right.

Terror Hits India

The Age confirms this afternoon that the train blast in India that has left 64 people dead is most likely an act of terrorism.

A top state government official said most of the victims were Pakistanis but included some Indian security personnel.

Two suitcases filled with flammable material which investigators believe may have been explosive devices were found at the scene, said VN Mathur, general manager of the Northern Railway.

He said one was found inside a burned coach and the other on the railroad track.

Speaking to reporters at the scene, India's junior railways minister R Velu, said: "We have 64 bodies."

Most of the dead Pakistanis, eh? Last time I checked this was a majority Muslim country with a tinge of sympathy for the Islamo-fascist cause. This illustrates not only the indiscriminate nature of such actions, but also dispels any theories that appeasement of terrorists via, you know, political correctness is bunk. So next time you argue that taking pork off the menu at KFC and 'celebrating diversity' will reduce your chances of being blown into smithereens, think again.

It also suggests that Westerners aren't the only targets - and, in fact, that being Muslim won't necessarily save you in this life either. Forget conversion as your saving grace too, the terrorists would rather you burned.

Just a Few Stirrers

Worried that Muslims worldwide have launched a devastating jihad against your kind?

Concerned about the spate of suicide bombings wiping out innocent women and children from everywhere from London to Bali?

Phased by the rising intolerance of Muslim 'youths', burning cars (and anything else flammable) like an automotive vigil to a vengeful god?

Worry no longer, the SMH reports today that it's all just a big misunderstanding involving a 'few stirrers'. That's right, un-furrow that brow, it's simply 'intolerant minorities' on both sides that have gotten us into this whole mess. What a relief - here I was thinking that burning sky-scrapers and slit throats had something to do with a deep-seated religious fanaticism that despises the west and everything it stands for. Now I know better, and take note Westerners - you're just as bad.

"Two out of three people in Australia understand that there are those on all sides of this question who just love to stir," said Paul Korbel, of Market Focus International, the pollster that conducted the survey here.

Absolutely. I, for instance, could list a veritable mass of unprovoked Christian violence against our Muslim friends. Think of all the burning Mosques, the rising death toll from Christian suicide bombers, the laughing pastors in Victorian gatherings!

But what's the solution?

"Perhaps education programs aimed at the intolerant minority should be boosted."

Brilliant! Mohammed wants to slit your throat from ear to ear for being a dirty infidel, but only because of a lack of 'education programs' to show him the error of his ways. Forget Gitmo, these guys need a lesson in good manners - send them to RMIT I say.

Does the SMH really believe that the blindingly obvious difficulties that many Muslims have assimilating into Western life are just the consequences of 'a few stirrers'? On the other side, are we to believe Westerners are just as bad, with a 'minority' ruining it for the rest of us? The closest thing I can think of when it comes to a terrorist Westerner is David Hicks (and not John Howard, as RMIT would have you believe).

Forget, on top of this, the inclination of militant Islamists to bluntly inform us that the reason we're being blown up is because we're not submitting - the Left would far rather rely on polls to show us that Islam is indeed compatible with the West.

Although, you'd have to ignore previous polls which have shown Muslims do have difficulties buying into such straightforward issues such as, let's say, 9/11.

Gallup conducted in-person interviews during December and January of 9,924 residents in nine Muslim countries: Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Key findings:

Although U.S. officials say all 19 of the Sept. 11 hijackers were Arab men, only 18% of those polled in six Islamic countries say they believe Arabs carried out the attacks; 61% say Arabs were not responsible; and 21% say they don't know.

Why, for instance, take Osama Bin Laden's word for it when you can blame a lack of 'education programs'?

'Pimp' My Government Agency

Talk about getting it way wrong.

The NSW Roads and Traffic Authority has launched a campaign on their website to have ‘young drivers’ improve their web advertising in a ploy they’re calling ‘Pimp our ads’. For those of us that have been led to believe a ‘pimp’ is a misogynistic woman-selling crook, the RTA has helped us re-think that into a more progressive definition:

‘(P)imp means something that's pretty darn cool. Or as the Urban Dictionary puts it: "More commonly used nowadays as making something cool or better."’

This isn't a joke. Actually, Urban Dictionary's most 'accurate' definition of 'pimp' is as follows:

one who brokers the sexual favors (sic) of women for profits

Sounds pretty 'darn cool' to me! But maybe the RTA missed this post, after all, it was hidden away at the top of the page as the most 'approved' entry.

Anyway, using Urban Dictionary as your source for marketing campaigns? How trendy. Need I point out this is also the same website that defines ‘Bush’ as:

The only presendent (sic) of the United States of America to be all most (sic) assassinated by a pretzil (sic).

Oh my god he must be a dumb f***!!!

Yes, quite – although there could be slight issues with using an online consensus to identify words and names. Especially those that fail to spell correctly the tough words like 'President' and 'Pretzel' - we'll give them the benefit of the doubt though, they were 'all most' right.

Here’s the RTA’s in-house version of events

And they have even started an entirely separate website for this farce

It handily encourages all involved to ‘start pimpin’’. Where do I sign up for the purple felt suit and bevy of crack addicted whores?

I understand this is an attempt to try and make the roads safer for young drivers in NSW, but perhaps the RTA should consider that it's not entirely necessary to label your youth-savvy schemes with monikers usually given to criminals.

Book Arrives

Finally my copy of America Alone - Mark Steyn's 200 page tour de force has arrived (after Borders managed to bungle my order). I can't wait to get going on it, and will most likely post a review here if I get a chance. For those interested in purchasing the book, I recommend going here.

For Mark's website, full of his work across many media publications, please visit here.

Bono Simplifies The World Into One Song

With a little help from the appropriately named Green Day, Bono, and his band of merry interferers, joyfully simplifies two vastly separated events into one disastrous video clip. Do watch as he (and friends) take the Iraq war and Hurricane Katrina, and somehow manage to merge both into a happy medium for all involved. If only the rest of us had such vision, such hope, such sunglasses!

Dissention In The Ranks - IPCC Report On Global Warming

As Andrew Bolt reports today, not all of the participants in the IPCC's recent report on global warming are towing the line. Some 10 of the 2,500 scientists that contributed to the report are suggesting the debate is not quite as over as the Left would have you believe.

All of this, in the wake of Associate Professor Ross McKitrick's unholy damning of the very same report he participated in, after his own contentions regarding the conclusions of the report were not documented (most likely because he disagreed). His thoughts can be found here.

Clearly, the IPCC bit off more than it can chew by promoting this report as a veritable worldwide opinion on global warming. It's a clear attempt to stonewall dissent and convince the adoring Left-Wing media that the debate is all but over. Despite this, it's important to note that even this report has projected rises in sea-level far below the apocalyptic prognoses of some doom-sayers, including Australian of the Year - Tim Flannery, who fantasizes that melting ice-caps will top buildings dozens of meters in height. The IPCC puts the rises, a tad more believably, in centimetres - meaning you have about a century to roll those pant legs up.

Welcome All!

Welcome everyone to my new little venture - this Weblog.

I trust you all enjoy my title, I thought it up all by myself after disovering (heartbreakingly, although not surprisingly) that 'joeblogs' was no longer available. I think you'll agree my new moniker is just, true and easy to remember.

The purpose of this Blog will be, until I think of other objectives, as follows:

- Monitor the media both at home (Australia) and abroad, and present my own insights and opinions on these reports
- Opine on political issues that are currently being hotly debated (eg. global warming, immigration and other thrilling subjects)
- To plagarise the work of pretty much everyone online (this one will have to be run by my lawyers first)
- Have you, the readers, to an extent, be my eyes and ears - any content deemed interesting enough to publish here will be posted, and the reader responsible credited.

Failing the above, my job will be to try and get as much debate going within this Blog as possible. To do this, I obviously require readers. Therefore, if you are currently thinking of typing something irrelevant into a search engine, I recommend the following key words:

- Joe
- twat (this one may take you elsewhere, but be persistent)

Okay, most of the traffic here is going to occur from my own shameless self-promotion. If you do happen to come across this site from a search engine, please email me and tell me what you were doing typing 'twat' into Google's interface, you sick freak.

That sums it up for post one - please do read on (if at all).