Want a dirty weekend next weekend?

Then get down and get dirty at the Australian Singles Marbles Championships next weekend in Brunswick Heads.

The Championships are part of the Brunswick Heads 9th Old and Gold Festival.

Players are advised that "Brunwick Heads" Rules will apply, with the Championships being played “FOR FAIR”, so all marbles will be returned to their owners.

Other significant rules include:

* Glass Marbles are to be no bigger than 3/4” (three-quarters of an inch). Agates & Steelies are banned.

* The order of shooting will be determined by “lagging”. Closest shoot or toss to designated line.

* Players can either shoot with their “TAW”(their shooting marble) off the ground or knuckled down outside or on the edge of the ring.

* Fudging is a foul shoot & next player takes turn.

* Shooters are not permitted to step/walk inside the ring.

REFEREE & TOURNAMENT ORGANISER’S DECISIONS ARE FINAL.

Click here for more information about the Old and Gold Festival.

And the Speaker of the House went like... Ck Ck Boom

With the Federal Opposition benches doing their level best to disrupt House of Representatives sitting days last week, one sometimes feels sorry for The Speaker Harry Jenkins and the obvious wear and tear his tonsils endure as those on his left act like hyperactive jacks-in-the-box.

However, The Speaker does eventually hold the upper hand when faced with the usual suspects and is not averse to showing them the door.

What a pity that MPs Abbott, Baldwin, Bishop, Dutton, Haase, Hockey, Pyne, Randall, Robert, Turnbull and Tuckey feel that wasting time on childish tantrums is a legitimate part of their job descriptions.

Their combined behaviour is now so tiresome that I feel like breaking out the popcorn whenever I hear the echo of a ck ck boom from the Chair.

Excerpts from Open Australia Hansard records:

(28 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: Order! The member for Cook will resume his seat.

(28 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: I understand. The member for Paterson will resume his seat.

(28 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: Order! The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. The Treasurer will relate his response to the question and he will refer to members by their titles.

(28 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The member for North Sydney will resume his seat. The member for Blair has the call.

(28 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: Order! The member for Canning will resume his seat.

(28 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat.

(28 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. I think I created some confusion—I am not sure how. Before greeting our distinguished visitor, I was going to ask the Prime Minister whether he had concluded his answer. The Prime Minister, I think, had anticipated your point of order and had sat down. I call the Prime Minister.

(28 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The member for Sturt will resume his seat. Now hop up and do your stunt. I am ruling it out of order—

(28 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The member for Sturt will resume his seat. I thank him for supporting my case.

(28 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The member for Dickson is warned!

(28 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The Leader of the Opposition is warned.

(28 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The member for Fadden is warned!

(28 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The member for Fadden will leave the chamber for one hour under standing order 94(a).

(28 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: Order! The honourable member for Fadden is suspended from the service of the House for 24 hours.

(27 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The member for Canning will resume his seat. While I do not adjudicate on personal explanations, I am not sure whether it was the member for Canning or the member for La Trobe who was at greater distress over that article.

(27 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The member for Warringah will resume his seat. I say to the member for Warringah that I am not dissuaded by his argument from my actions, but I indicate to the member for Sturt that it is a really surprising set of behaviours, to come into the chamber and within five minutes think that he can prattle on without having the call. Like with the display of posters and other things, it is in the...

(27 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: Order! The member for North Sydney will resume his seat. The Treasurer is responding to the question.

(27 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The member for Canning is warned!

(27 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The member for O'Connor will leave the chamber under 94(a) for one hour. The member for O'Connor then left the chamber.

(26 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: Order! The member for O'Connor will resume his seat. Having been given an A for his first effort, that was nearly a fail, but he has made his point.

(26 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: Order! The member for Dickson will resume his seat.

(26 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The member for North Sydney will resume his seat. The Treasurer will respond to the question.

(26 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: Order! The Prime Minister will resume his seat. The member for Mackellar will resume her seat.

(26 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: So you are not interested in a response to your point of order. There is no point of order and the honourable member for Sturt knows it quite well.

(26 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: Order! The member for Sturt is warned. Member for Oxley, there is no need for any encouragement.

(26 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: Order! The honourable member for Sturt is suspended from the service of the House for 24 hours under standing order 94(b). The member for Sturt then left the chamber.

(26 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: I call the member for North Sydney to order. The member for Dickson will leave the chamber for one hour under standing order 94(a). The Treasurer will respond to the question. The member for Dickson then left the chamber.

(26 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: Order! The member for Paterson may leave the chamber for one hour under standing order 94(a). The member for Paterson then left the chamber.
(25 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The member for Cowper will resume his seat. I have indicated that the Deputy Prime Minister is responding to the question.
(25 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The member for Sturt will resume his seat—and he is warned, not because he raised a point of order but for the way in which he handled himself at the dispatch box. That was not my recollection of the question. The member has indicated that he was trying to change the question to make it in order.

(25 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The member for Dickson will resume his seat. The Prime Minister has the call.

(25 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. The question is related to gross debt. The Prime Minister, as I have said, knows of the requirement to make his response relevant to the question.

(25 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: I name the member for Kalgoorlie!

(25 May 2009) Harry Jenkins: The member for Kalgoorlie is suspended from the service of the House for 24 hours. The member for Kalgoorlie then left the chamber.

The question of West Yamba

Image from Clarence Valley Council

From The Daily Examiner letters column 27 & 28 May 2009:

West Yamba Flooded

GIVEN the recent discussion regarding the development of West Yamba, it is timely that we have been inundated by widespread flooding.
Anyone who has ventured along Carrs Drive within recent days, the site for the proposed
suburb of 1000 dwellings, would wonder at the wisdom of such planning.
Much of the area has been submerged under water, including sections of the road.
It could be argued that these are extreme conditions and unlikely to impinge on future development. However, it is only eight years since we had cyclonic conditions in Yamba in early March 2001, with localised flooding.
Added to this are the problems of global warming, which will exacerbate severe weather condi tions such as flooding.
The costs and the inconvenience of relocating victims of flooding, as well as attendant expenses of infrastructure, landfill requirements and compromising a wetlands area, among other issues, all indicate the foolishness of development of West Yamba underscored by flooding of recent days.

S HUXTABLE,
Yamba

Thoughts on the 2009 floods

ONCE again in the North Coast we faced the danger of flood inundation and especially in Yamba the danger of being cut off from the mainland.
If anybody ventured down Carrs Drive in West Yamba last Friday they would have noticed the land flooded, this is just the area that the proposed West Yamba development be placed.
I along with thousands of others in West Yamba live in filled flood plains but those were decisions made 20 years ago.
With modern knowledge the filling in of these flood plain releases is reckless.

P STEPHEN,
Yamba

Obama and Korea: is Kim winning the latest battle of wills?

PBS Online news in-depth cover Tracking Nuclear Proliferation 27th May 2009

According to an opinion piece in the U.K. Telegraph last Friday President Obama is losing the PR battle on this one:

"Kim Jong-il, the charismatic and popular (if you are a Pyongyang resident and covet a life expectancy of more than 24 hours) Dear Leader of North Korea, is on his sixth or seventh missile this week. See the pretty vapour trails streak across Asian skies, in an impressive firework display to celebrate the arrival of President Pantywaist in the Oval Office.
School's out! Suddenly it is playtime for all the naughtier elements in the more "reclusive" parts of the world who enjoy kicking Uncle Sam's butt but didn't much relish tangling with Dick Cheney and (what was that other guy's name?). This time Comrade Kim is really throwing his toys out of the playpen. He has even unilaterally revoked the 1953 armistice between the Korean War belligerents, which means, in case anybody is interested, that North and South Korea are once more at war.
So, what is the response of the Messiah in the Oval Office? Really severe rhetoric, is the answer. The soundbite manufacturers have been burning the midnight oil and the auto-cue is going into meltdown. So is the confidence of Asian leaders. The word is out: the most powerful nation on earth has got itself a pussycat for a president and all the bad guys are queuing up to give him the finger."

Conroy's 'voluntary mandatory' national Internet filtering scheme

The Australian Minister for Broadband, Communication and the Digital Economy appears to be finally losing it, if this exchange posted at Somebody Think of the Children is any indication.

"Mandatory ISP filtering would conceivably involve legislation … voluntary is available currently to ISPs," Senator Conroy said. "One option is potentially legislation. One other option is that it could be (on a) voluntary basis that they (ISPs) could voluntarily agree to introduce it."

In response Senator Minchin said he had never heard of a voluntary mandatory system. Senator Conroy responded with "well they could agree to all introduce it".

Disability Discrimination Legal Centre is coming to Lismore & Ballina - 1 June 2009

On 2.00pm – 4.30pm, Monday 1 June 2009 The Disability Discrimination Legal Centre (DDLC) are coming to Lismore to provide an information workshop on disability discrimination & the law. On 10.00am – 12.30pm, Tuesday 2 June 2009 The Disability Discrimination Legal Centre (DDLC) are coming to Ballina. The NSW DDLC was set up in 1994 to help people with disability to use disability discrimination laws. Our role is to provide accurate and easy to comprehend advice to people with disability in NSW who want to make a complaint of disability discrimination. The Lismore venue is the Goonellabah Community Centre,27 Oliver Avenue, Goonellabah. Light refreshments & tea/coffee will be provided. The Ballina venue is the Bullinah Aboriginal Health Service, 120 Tamar Street, Ballina. Light refreshments & tea/coffee will be provided.

[NRSDC June 2009 news letter]

A jaw-dropping quote of the week

"Pretending to be impartial, the self-segregating personalities drawn to media careers overwhelmingly take a side, and that side is rarely ours. Although it seems unthinkable now, future wars may require censorship, news blackouts and, ultimately, military attacks on the partisan media. Perceiving themselves as superior beings, journalists have positioned themselves as protected-species combatants. But freedom of the press stops when its abuse kills our soldiers and strengthens our enemies. Such a view arouses disdain today, but a media establishment that has forgotten any sense of sober patriotism may find that it has become tomorrow's conventional wisdom."

{Ralph Peters in The Journal of International Security Affairs on 25th May 2009}