Pink shirts and pig ignorance on the NSW North Coast

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Sometimes it is hard to decide whether this The Daily Examiner journalist is simply obeying an editorial direction to create controversy at any price or if he actually is as developmentally delayed as his language suggests.

Like other ugly paper chauvinists in the media Graham Orams is careful to give himself what he obviously believes is a get-out-of-gaol-free ticket by telling the world that women deserve better, as he flaunts what he likes to refer to as my raw and unshakable masculinity (pause for readers to lift right hand and signal with little finger).

The opinion piece above appeared on page 11 in last Thursday's issue of this regional paper. Needless to say its editor is still Peter Chapman.

I had never heard of The Michael Duffy Files until.........

I'd never heard of The Michael Duffy Files (est. June 2008) until............
Tele journo Timmeh Blair decided to bag this little blog.
I probably wouldn't have metioned it either until I realised that Dorothy Parker had posted this succinct banner.


Game, set and match to Dorothy.

To be sure, to be sure - it's Paddy's Day

St. Patrick's Day and the only pot of gold any of us are likely to see.

Pic from Photobucket

Zussino strikes again!

More than a few readers of the free local newspaper, the Clarence Valley Review, were laughing on March 4 when they opened the paper and saw that Zussino had struck again with yet another letter to the editor under a false name.
This particular letter is now also out on the world wide web.

A week later one of Zussino's previous victims, The Daily Examiner, had the satisfaction of hearing that this pesky phantom's own complaint to the Press Council concerning that newspaper had been shot down in flames as not worthy of investigation.

Don Page speaks up for the Northern Rivers

It's a bit hard to have any respect for the Coalition these days, so it's easy to miss those times when a Nat does his best for the Northern Rivers.
Last week Don Page MP for Ballina rose to his feet and gave a serve over the dismal situation our health services are in.

"Mr DONALD PAGE (Ballina) [5.56 p.m.]: I outline my concerns about health services in the electorate of Ballina. I want to discuss the apparent doctor shortage at the Ballina, Byron Bay and Mullumbimby hospitals, and the loss of the mobile breast screening vans, which were visiting Ballina and Byron Bay. The media revealed this week that Ballina District Hospital is facing a doctor shortage, leading to the hospital reducing the number of patients it can accept. While I understand that the rosters have been filled for all shifts over the past 12 months, and are covered for March, it would seem that there simply are not enough doctors being rostered on.

Doctors are now very publicly complaining about their excessive workloads and the potential risks to patients. Byron Bay and Mullumbimby hospitals have also stated that they are in danger of not having enough doctors to provide emergency treatment to patients. Should this be the case patients are likely to be diverted to Tweed Heads, as all surrounding hospitals are facing similar doctor shortages. I am extremely concerned about this situation and implore the Minister for Health to urgently allocate the resources required to fix this potentially life-threatening situation. If the situation continues, and emergency patients are diverted from Ballina, Byron Bay or Mullumbimby to Tweed Heads, there will be very real risks to the wellbeing of patients."

Good one, Don! Though I notice you're not so proud of your time in government because there is nary a media release or speech from that time posted on your website.

Won't tell, na, na, na,na, na! says Garrett

Photograph from Google Images

The Age revealed this little tit bit last week as Japan pressures Australia to act against anti-whaling protestors:

Attempts by the Greens to obtain information on Japanese whaling gathered by the Australian patrol ship Oceanic Viking last year have been rejected.

The Environment Department has ruled that releasing images or data would "adversely affect the confidence Japan would have in our diplomatic efforts to achieve an end to 'scientific whaling' ".

Rather an interesting reason.

It would appear that Environment Minister Peter Garrett and his department are withholding information not because of something as important as national security or for operational reasons, but because the information and surveillance images would too graphically show just how 'unscientific' Japanese whaling in the Antarctic really is.

Bending over backwards would be a mild description of the Rudd Government's current attitude to Japanese demands.

Senator Conroy's Internet filtering gets another bad review

According to IT News last Thursday:

Cross "fighting terrorism" off the list of reasons Senator Stephen Conroy wants to introduce mandatory ISP-level Internet Filtering.

A new report penned by Tim Stevens and Dr Peter Neumann for the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) assesses the pros and cons of various types of Internet Filtering and finds them ineffective in the fight against terror.

"Most governments have focused on technical solutions, believing that removing or blocking radicalising material on the internet will solve the problem," the report states.

"Yet, this report shows that any strategy that relies on reducing the availability of content alone is bound to be crude, expensive and counterproductive."

The report went into some detail around the ineffective nature of most types of Internet Filtering.

IP filtering, in which the IP address of a questionable site is blocked, suffers from misfiring, the report said.

"Problems with this method of filtering arise because some web hosts - each with a single IP address - provide a variety of services or host many websites with different domain names, which means that all these acceptable services and sites will be blocked as well. While cheap and easy to implement, its propensity for 'over-blocking' makes IP filtering a very crude method of interdicting banned material."

In describing the role of the Internet, this report identifies what the Rudd Government (and government generally) probably fears most about cyberspace:

It has dramatically reduced the cost of communication, making the exchange and dissemination of information virtually free.

• It has enabled unlimited access to much of the world's knowledge and begun to organise it in systematic fashion.

• It has made it easier to find people and create networks among like-minded individuals, across great distances and beyond national borders.

Reporters Without Borders is also less than impressed with the Rudd-Conroy censorship plan and in its 12 March 2009 document Internet Enemies has placed Australia on the group's watch list.

Bilambil Public School - online since 1998

I have discovered yet another Northern Rivers primary school proudly online, as part of the Aussie School House - Schools on the Web ACCE project.

Bilambil Public School, established in 1898, has a great website and an impressive list of awards.

List of other participating schools can be found here.
Picture of Bilambil area, Northern NSW

Stephen Mayne out of the barrier and racing

More freedom for The Mayne Report from 9 March 2009.

"The 4-year non-compete agreement with Crikey expired on Monday so we're now able to write about politics and media, plus send emails to more than 500 people at a time and freelance material anywhere we like. However, the focus will still very much remain on delivering a strong weekly corporate governance newsletter and this latest edition has plenty of juicy material."

Go, Stevo!

Sandy Gandhi provides a good laugh

Australia’s most ‘Easterly Indian’, Sandy Gandhi of Byron Bay, was a highlight on Australia’s Got Talent recently.

Click here to watch Sandy.

Also read Far North Coaster's interview with Sandy here.

pic: Far North Coaster

Senator Michael Ronaldson - who?

Michael Ronaldson is a Liberal Party senator from Victoria and Shadow Minister of State.

I would call him the Hon. Michael Ronaldson except that he, along with his Coalition cronies, has acted most dishonourably of late in the Senate.

On Wednesday 11 March 2009 "Ronno" (as he supposedly likes to be called) helped the Coalition and Senator Fielding vote down the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Political Donations and Other Measures) Bill 2008 [2009].

This is a bill which would fulfil the Rudd Labor Government's election promise to bring back a lower limit for the reporting of political donations and, end the farce which saw the former Howard Government allow donors to make donation of up to $9,999 without those donations being publicly disclosed.
Consequently the number of disclosed donations to political parties started to fall away and confusion reigned.

Ronaldson in a remarkable piece of verbal contortion chortles that Labor has only itself to blame for the Coalition blocking this bill.
It won't be long before he adds the bill failure to the list of alleged broken Labor promises he constantly mentions on his own website.

I think that Senator Bob Brown's reply to the nonsense put forward by Ronaldson bears quoting here:

I listened carefully to Senator Ronaldson's plea that the legislation not be supported until we get comprehensive legislation into the parliament, but that is not the example that was set by the Howard government over the previous 12 years. In fact, piecemeal legislation which increased the ability of donors to the political system to be hidden and not identifiable was the order of the day. It is a good thing that we now have legislation that is reversing that order.

We look forward to consequent legislation in this parliament, and I hope that will be this year, to clean up the electoral processes in Australia, and that means quite massive and comprehensive changes to electoral laws.

For arts sake!

Deidre and Naoise by Julie Hutchings

Element by Kerrie Spiers

A LOL on the Liberal leadership.....

How Malcolm Turnbull's Friday 13 began?

Liberal Party leadership speculation

Just how many Friday 13ths can a koala bear?

Maud up the Street pointed out to me that today is the second of three Friday 13ths this year.

She tells me that there was only one in 2008 and two in both 2007 and 2006.

Poor Maud thinks it's a conspiracy to upset her delicate superstition balance that three have turned up in the one year.

Next year sees the return to only one Friday 13th, but little does she realise that 2015 and 2026 will also have three of these (un)lucky days.

A few more common superstitions here.

Picture: Google Images

Is this bus travelling to the left or the right?

Can't make up your mind?

Look carefully at the picture again.

Still don't know?

Pre-schoolers all over Australia were shown this picture and asked the same question.

90% of the pre-schooler's gave this answer...


"The bus is travelling to the right."

The pre-schoolers were then asked, "Why do you think the bus is travelling to the right?"

They answered, "Because you can't see the door to get on the bus."


How do you feel now?

Source: Unknown