Psst! Do you swap family pics with Al Qaeda?

Who needs stand-up comics and old knock-knock jokes when we all have the US legislature within mouse click reach. I kid you not this is US Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence Chairman Pat Meehan seeing Twitter, Facebook and Blogger villains everywhere last week:

“However, use of social media isn’t confined to terrorists. It is also a criminal issue and represents an entirely new operating space, both for individuals sharing pictures with friends and family and terrorists, criminals, and other bad actors.”

* Mad bomber lighting up on Google Images

The Abbott-Hockey Economic Theory of Small Government

With so many conflicting explanations of how a Tony Abbott-led federal government (with Joe Hockey as Treasurer) would manage Australia's economy, I went in search of the theoretical basis of various Coalition claims about small government, lower taxes, budget costings and wandering surpluses.

This is where I think it all starts for these maestros of mathematics.................

(a + b) (a - b) = a² - b²  + 1

Graphic from io9.com

'Steve' Gulaptis MP - Wannabe Koala Killer

When I first heard on the grapevine that Nats MP for Clarence Chris Gulaptis was going to honour one particular so-called promise of that notorious speedster and disgraced former Clarence MP Steve Cansdell I was gobsmacked.

Last Saturday The Daily Examiner confirmed the gossip – Gulaptis is asking NSW Roads and Maritime Services “to review the speed limit on Iluka Road within the next two months, with a view to returning the limit to 100kmh from its present 80kmh”.

For the sake of cutting 2-3 minutes off a journey into or out of the sleepy little coastal village of Iluka, former land developer Gulaptis wants to risk local wildlife – including the increasing rare coastal emu and koala populations.

I’m betting fellow Nat and Roads and Ports Minister Duncan Gay is probably endorsing this move. He doesn’t have a clue about this local road or how the Lower Clarence feels about its wildlife and I'm sure Gulaptis will be careful to keep it that way.

Grandpa Koala's response to this irresponsible political vandal:

ABC Radio NSW Sound & Reference Library - Koala - grunting and growling Powered by abmp3 search engine

70th Anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin 1942 - revisionism run wild

Let’s get real folks – all these glowing media reports on the 70^th anniversary of the first Japanese bombing of Darwin are so distorted that they bear little relation to the 1942 reality.

Yes, there was an attempt to defend this northern city and some of it could be described as ranging from brave to heroic. Yes, the entire subject was censored at the time and not all eyewitness records are in the same place.

BUT. The was also widespread NT Government, civilian, Australian and American defence forces panic, with a good many fleeing without authorisation to the Adelaide River (some servicemen getting as far as southern cities) in a rout wryly described at the time as The Adelaide River Stakes.

There was looting by civilians and servicemen and in at least one case a cruelly racist response to Aboriginal casualties.

So let’s be adult about this and truly Aussie on the first national day of observance – reject the historical revisionism currently doing the rounds in the meeja.
You can start with Charlie Lowe's March 1942 first report in the official investigation and go on from there.

Pic from ABC News

Misogynists of the World Unite! Then move to Oklahoma USA

This is the Oklahoma Senate in 2012. You will notice that it is predominately Republican and male.

So it should come as no surprise that this Senate has decided to pass bill SB1433. Thereby bringing closer the creation of the Personhood Act which establishes that The laws of this state shall be interpreted and construed to acknowledge on behalf of the unborn child at every stage of development all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of this state.

This strange bill apparently makes medical abortion or even some forms of contraception a criminal offence. While at the same time, somewhat perversely, it leaves the door open for a woman to quietly neglect her health to such a degree that she spontaneously miscarries.

On the 15 February 2012 it was passed by 34 to 8 votes.

An even stranger amendment seems to have languished without support:

In the spirit of shared responsibility in issues of reproduction, if a woman declares that she is pregnant non-consensually, the sperm donor shall be required to undergo a statutorily mandated vasectomy, shall be fined Twenty-five Thousand Dollars ($25,000.00), and shall also be financially responsible for the offspring of such pregnancy until the age of twenty-one (21).

Nats MP ignores local crime stats and tries on a bit of Goorie bashing while pretending that he isn't

The Daily Examiner on 17^th February: “EIGHT to 10 juvenile offenders, mostly residing in Ngaru Village, are holding the town of Yamba to ransom on the issue of crime, Member for Clarence Chris Gulaptis said yesterday. Mr Gulaptis said police had informed him that the removal of these career criminals from the system would not only scuttle the need for a 24-hour police station in Yamba, but would help stop younger residents being led astray.”

Perhaps this political nong might like to read Uses and abuses of crime statistics which was published by Don Weatherburn in November 2011 and BOCSAR's Clarence Valley LGA excel tables (2.9Mb) which cover crime records from 2006 to 2010 before talking through his rear end.
It was left up to the police to hose down the more outrageous of the crime rate claims and Yaegl elder Veronica Pearce to label the media response for what it is - "highly offensive to the indigenous community", "sensational reporting", "racist" in places and "irresponsible and damaging".

*Thanks to Clarencegirl for the stats links

Community agreement to fight mining in the Dorrigo Plateau and Clarence River catchments

A Clarence Valley Protest 16 February 2012:

Farmers, fishermen and conservation groups agree to fight mining in the Dorrigo Plateau and Clarence River catchments

The Daily Examiner 16 February 2012:

AN UNLIKELY coalition has formed to fight proposals to mine areas on the Dorrigo plateau.

At a meeting in Dundurrabin at the weekend, farmers, fishermen and conservation groups agreed to fight attempts to mine in the high-rainfall Dorrigo catchment.

Coffs Harbour councillor Mark Graham said there was a concerted push for the Dorrigo plateau to be declared off limits to mining.

He said there was a series of proposals for open-cut mining in the Orara, Little Nymboida, Wild Cattle Creek and Bobo areas, which was the most advanced.

"That all feeds into the Clarence, which is the regional water supply, and is the lifeblood of the Clarence Valley," he said.

"The reasons for campaigning for the Dorrigo plateau to be off-limits is for the health of the whole river and all the communities below it.

"The mining industry has said nowhere in the state is off-limits, but if anywhere should be it is the Dorrigo plateau because of its incredibly high rainfall."

Clarence Valley councillor Karen Toms said there should be no-go areas for mining and the Dorrigo plateau was one of those.

"We need to protect our water," she said.