John Howard's political love child lives!

Just when I think that we've finally seen the back of that ultra right-wing warrior, John W Howard, something crops up to remind me that his political love children are still sitting on the Opposition benches of Federal Parliament.

 

Showing a hint that Australia may yet be bludgeoned by the dying gasps of Howard's cultural vendetta against everything except a blinkered, timeline view of history and rampant ethnocentric 

nationalism, little Brennie Nelson put this out in the media: "The concept of "defence of the realm" should be expanded beyond border control and fighter planes to embrace "defence of values". Dr Nelson wants to initiate what could be a politically volatile public discussion about what Australians stand for beyond universal values."

 

Oi, Brenn old china, didn't you notice the disruptive racist and xenophobic drivel which welled to the surface when Howard tried his hand at "defence of values"? 

Have you ever stopped for a minute to consider that ordinary Aussies might have been defending their personal and universal values when they kicked your mob out of government last November?

Or were you knee-deep in the jungle juice when you thought up the little bewdy above. 

 

 

Wearin' the green on 17 March 2008

Shamrock photograph from www.thegardenhelper.com

North Coast Voices wishes everyone a great St. Patrick's Day.
Go n-éirí an bóthar leat Go raibh an ghaoth go brách ag do chúl Go lonraí an ghrian go te ar d'aghaidh Go dtite an bháisteach go mín ar do pháirceanna Agus go mbuailimid le chéile arís, Go gcoinní Dia i mbos A láimhe thú.

Is Mister Splashy Pants now safe from Japan's whaling fleet?

With Japan admitting that this year's annual Antarctic whale hunt will probably yield poorer results due to hunt disruption and domestic sushi franchises and supermarkets indicating a reluctance to sell whale meat due to dwindling demand; will whales like Mister Splashy Pants be safe from future hunts or will he remain vulnerable because the Institute of Cetacean Research again inserts Humpback whales in next year's planned kill quota.

The Institute is obviously not backing down on its 'right' to conduct so-called scientific whaling and has quite a little PR war underway with no less than 25 media releases posted on its webpage so far this year.

Photograph of Splashy from http://www.greenpeace.org/

Ice on skids - a glacier meltdown graph

Glaciers are making the news again in the Australian media.

"Since 1980, glaciers have thinned by about 11.5 metres in a retreat blamed by the UN Climate Panel mainly on human use of fossil fuels. The thaw could disrupt everything from farming -- millions of people in Asia depend on seasonal melt water from the Himalayas -- and power generation to winter sports. The thaw could also raise world sea levels. UNEP said glaciers were among the clearest indicators of global warming. "There are many canaries emerging in the climate change coal mine. The glaciers are perhaps among those making the most noise," said Achim Steiner, head of UNEP."

The World Glacier Monitoring Service has this visual representation of glacier ice net balance which brings home just how fast this melt is occurring.

Have Rusty, Jojo and Mellie finally deserted Malcolm Turnbull?

Malcolm Turnbull's personal blog is no longer posting entries from his family pets.
In fact Rusty the Red Cattle Dog, along with Jojo and Mellie the Maltese Silkies, has been totally silent since the 24 November 2007 federal election.
Have the pets left home for greener pastures?
Or does this present failure to place the pooch in front of a keyboard mean that Mal was under less pressure and better organised when he was a Minister of the Crown, Federal Cabinet member and local MP?
Is being the Coalition Shadow Treasurer turning out to be a task akin to mountain climbing right now?
Perhaps his very public spits at the Speaker during Question Time actually take hours in the planning and he has no time left over from making political mischief.
As the dogs often wrote about events in Mal's electorate, I have to wonder if he is attending many functions there these days.
Indeed the master of self-promotion has very few Wentworth events listed on his blog's electorate news page.